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.Ian

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  1. Downvote
    .Ian reacted to Mat Barrie in Problem using IPB in an organization bigger than 1   
    I think the OP forgot that organisations like Nvidia and Yahoo use the product. After all, they're organisations of one, right? Right?
  2. Like
    .Ian reacted to Tom Whiting in Documentation?   
    Yeah, there's only 3 people that would look at the thing, right.
    Again, nobody is talking about a 300 page manual here, and nobody is talking about having to print the thing out. A properly indexed, categorized and written manual can be done as a webpage, or countless other ways. Articles are NOT manuals, they are articles, wordy, opinionated, and don't provide a bit of guidance.

    As far as your "examples", yes, F1 help IS as close to a manual as you're going to get, but guess what? Even that is properly categorized, appendicized and developed. The user can quite simply search for the right thing, and it's there, which is more than can be said for this product right now.

    The point is that the product needs this. It's big enough that there is a problem if you don't tell a user how to do something, not in an "article", but an actual manual. By not having something like this available, it wastes current, and new customer's time, and certainly doesn't promote customer satisfaction in the least.

    Sure, if you want to keep the same customers that don't care about proper documentation, don't put out a manual. Doesn't matter to me any more, as I'm already done wasting my time on a poorly documented program.
  3. Downvote
    .Ian reacted to Mat Barrie in Documentation?   
    You know Tom, I don't know where this mythical documentation for every product in existence you refer to is. You refer to every product you have including a manual, yet... well, lots of software doesn't. I'll do a quick inventory of a sampling of my start menu now (I'll include the OS itself even). I'm excluding "F1 Help" since that's essentially inline help.

    Microsoft Windows - No Manual.
    Google Chrome - No Manual.
    Microsoft Office - No Manual.
    Microsoft Visual Studio - No Manual.
    MYOB Accounting - Quick Start Guide.
    Beyond Compare - No Manual.
    Apple iTunes - No Manual.
    Kayako SupportSuite - Manual Available!
    Microsoft SQL Server - No Manual.
    Seapine Surround SCM/Testtrack Pro - Manual Installed!
    Stardock Multiplicity - No Manual.

    As you can see, lots of stuff with no manual. And you're also completely ignoring what they've said many times - that the majority of their customers prefer articles, guides, inline help, etc over the three hundred page book they printed last time. It doesn't make commercial sense to write an entire manual for three people.


  4. Like
    .Ian reacted to jewelersalert in I am sorry to say that IPS has made RSS Imports unusable for me.   
    I too turned off all the rss feeds because the way the sidebar works
  5. Like
    .Ian reacted to BuddyKidd in I am sorry to say that IPS has made RSS Imports unusable for me.   
    I have put in a request in the Mods forum but so far no one has indicated that they are willing to make such a mod. Brandon says it is a easy mod to make so if more people ask for it perhaps someone who knows how to do it would make one.
  6. Like
    .Ian reacted to BuddyKidd in I am sorry to say that IPS has made RSS Imports unusable for me.   
    That would be nice if someone would do that. I am sure others would also use it.
  7. Like
    .Ian reacted to BuddyKidd in I am sorry to say that IPS has made RSS Imports unusable for me.   
    Well then I guess you guys are not going to fix it or tell me how to do it so I will cut my RSS news feeds down to one. That severely limits a board which is about current events and wants to use RSS news feeds for that purpose but it is your decision to enforce limitations on boards similar to mine. So be it.

    For the first time in the several years I have used IPB you now have a unhappy customer in me.
  8. Like
  9. Like
    .Ian reacted to BuddyKidd in I am sorry to say that IPS has made RSS Imports unusable for me.   
    Why did the developers change it? For what purpose? It did not do that in version 2.


    I should add that I was told to change the code myself or make a hook to change it. I have the ablility to insert and delete code when told where to do it but I have no idea what to change or how to make a hook to change it. If it is so easy to change then why make it function that way?
  10. Like
    .Ian reacted to BuddyKidd in I am sorry to say that IPS has made RSS Imports unusable for me.   
    Even when the RSS Import is set to not increment the posters number of posts it does so on the daily stats. This makes the member ID the RSS feed is set to look like the largest poster of the day if you are using several news feeds. In Version 2 this did not happen. I even set the forum where they feeds show up to not increase the number of posts. Same results.

    I thought it was a bug and reported it and was told that the code is working as designed. So apparently the code is designed to ignore the do not increase the posters numbers settings. It would be nice if IPS either did away with the settings which do not work or changed the code so that they do work.
  11. Like
    .Ian reacted to Tom Whiting in Documentation?   
    Nobody want's a "large pdf" here, nobody's ASKING for it. You're right, that's just way too much.
    If you think a "large pdf" is the ONLY way to do a manual, you're grossly mistaken. Again, look at how your competition does things, properly. Easy to update, not hard to deal with, and it's all right there.
    Your "inline help" is severely lacking, and you can not deny that your proposed "solution" to these problems is not even a solution. Guides aren't going to cover much of anything. Inline help really doesn't cover anything, and articles are a joke.

    So, what you have here is an astoundingly large piece of software with no proper documentation at all. You leave users hanging, instead of properly documenting your system, and providing information to your customers. Nice way to keep your customers.

    Oh, and this is not accurate at all:

    Can't means that it is physically impossible to do. This is 100% inaccurate. What IS accurate is


    Which means, of course that you will not do it.

    There is a huge difference between the two, and choosing that road shows a great disrespect for your customers, new, and old.
  12. Like
    .Ian reacted to Tom Whiting in Documentation?   
    While I sympathize with your position, this line really doesn't work.
    Sure, documentation doesn't "write itself", but then again, neither does code. As this stuff is written, it should be documented, not as an afterthought.



    so, which is it? Will there be a manual, or will there not be a manual? Please, do clarify.

    The types of documentation described previously work somewhat well (though articles are not documentation by any means) for new users, yet these do not relieve the need for a manual of some kind.

    Getting started guides, great idea, and could easily be a 'chapter' in the manual, but definitely don't take the place of it.
    Inline help, as well, great idea, but this doesn't cover everything at all, and it shouldn't.
    Articles, too wordy and opinion based, definitely not documentation.

    There needs to be some sort of manual here, which, as already said before (not by me, mind you) would cut down on needs for support , and promote some sort of customer satisfaction. Somewhere a customer can go and say "ahah, THIS is how I do this", whether it's an advanced customer wanting to learn how to change a theme, or a new customer just wanting a step by step guide to creating a new forum. Both of those are just examples, but you still have a major need for documentation here , because the product obviously does not document itself.
  13. Like
    .Ian reacted to Tom Whiting in Documentation?   
    Well, let's hope this one goes a bit better than my last topic, which (seriously) wasn't meant to turn out as a flame war, or start one, but express my concern over what I felt to be a poor support timeframe.

    Anyways, it's always good to have full product documentation, somewhere, yet, the links (in the admincp itself) go to support/docs/getting_started/board_gsg.php (on the IPB site) which doesn't exist. Oversight? Maybe the manual's not done yet?

    Checking the 'support' dropdown, I see FAQS (which don't cover everything), in the client area, I see a link to a 'knowledge base' which, again, like the FAQS don't cover everything @ all (and it shouldn't).

    Maybe I'm missing something here, or maybe the manual for 3.x isn't ready yet?
  14. Like
    .Ian reacted to Tom Whiting in Documentation?   
    So, what you're saying is that there will be no documentation here, except for a few things?

    I understand the complexity of updating a PDF, but there are other ways to build the same manual, and , honestly, from the advanced user's side of things, a "guide" won't cover much, if anything.

    For example, variables, what can and can't be used where? In a "guide", not really practical, but in a full blown, documentation type manual, practical.
  15. Like
    .Ian reacted to Tom Whiting in Documentation?   
    So, basically, developers are left to help themselves. Nice one. Ignore the people that extend your product and functionality.

    And no, that's not the only documentation I was looking for. A "getting started guide" doesn't cover everything though, and barely covers the "getting started", from one person (or group of person's) perspective, which doesn't help much. Sure, it helps a person get 'started' using your product, but what after that? What about when a user wants to change a theme? Of course, there's no 'documentation' for that.

    You need real documentation, not just a guide to how to get started from a few people's perspectives. I get that the product is 'new', but you need at least the basic product documentation and howtos up before you release this stuff. Otherwise, you end up dealing with customers that have no idea what's gong on, all because you couldn't write documentation beforehand.
  16. Like
    .Ian reacted to Tom Whiting in Documentation?   
    Exactly!
  17. Like
    .Ian reacted to Tom Whiting in Documentation?   
    Absolutely! For small stuff, you're right, it's an ingenious idea. However, that doesn't remove the need for an all out manual.
  18. Like
    .Ian reacted to Tom Whiting in Documentation?   
    That 'right there in front of you' doesn't actually tell you how to change a setting, such as, say, how to disable certain login requirements (capcha, etc), or how to change the site's default theme, and it shouldn't. While it's good to have what's there there, it's not that helpful. THAT is why you need a manual. NOT a 'getting started guide', NOT a help screen @ the top of the page



    And is only part of why this thread was created. In fact, that is only a minor part of what I've spent the last week looking for.

    Full documentation is the solution to everything here. Sure, developer documentation should be a 'minor' part of this (and, again, not code examples, but actual documentation of what is there), but it's still important to have at least the basics covered.
  19. Like
    .Ian reacted to Tom Whiting in Documentation?   
    That is not documentation by any means.
    Documentation helps the user understand what they're doing (and yes, even developers need that at times), not simply throwing them into code.
    Documentation belongs in a manual, well written, well thought out, well presented, not spread out over 50 different articles.
    In addition, it's on the company to provide documentation, not the end user.
    Articles are opinion based and wordy, documentation is not.

    You want to see proper, broken down documentation? Look at your competition. THEY did it right, and they've managed to keep it updated well enough. Examples, and explanation of what should be done, not just random code left for the user to figure out for themselves. Not to mention they've managed to keep it up to date. Easy to read, very well outlined, easy to follow manual.
  20. Like
    .Ian got a reaction from Alex K. in Version 3 forum   
    With version 3, I would have thought it would have made sense to split the forums so that those wanting help on 2.x do not get responded to by people who think they are asking for v3.

    Also helps with finding information relevant to v3 and not having to search through v2 posts.
  21. Like
    .Ian reacted to Tom Whiting in Absolutely HORRIBLE support response times!   
    lol @ -rep for posting honest feedback, nothing new there I guess.
    The point of this thread is to provide feedback. Just because someone doesn't agree with it doesn't mean it's not appropriate, or deserves -rep.

    Is the software decent? I can't say, its only been a few hours , but it does look decent.

    Is the support acceptable? From what I've experienced (so far), not in the slightest. If putting something in the 'wrong department' (which it wasn't) means it's going to get delayed 12+ hours, then perhaps those understaffed departments need more staff, or people need to think outside of the box, and stop listening to ticket systems as to when to help someone.

    Anyways, the feedback's been left. No, it's not an unreasonable expectation to want tickets answered same business day at all, especially when one is a new customer.
  22. Like
    .Ian reacted to Tom Whiting in Absolutely HORRIBLE support response times!   
  23. Like
    .Ian reacted to Tom Whiting in Absolutely HORRIBLE support response times!   
    Maybe, just maybe I didn't buy that specific license?
    I purchased a hosting package, which did not come with that specific license. ALL that is said about thiat is as follows:



    Nothing about time limitations, or anything else.

    I purchased the hosted package deliberately, as I need off network support forums, and, wanted to test a few things out with IPB, as a customer of another forum software originally.


    Yeah, encourage abuse of critical issues. That's the ticket


    Yet, they still work business hours no?


    And again with the hints of spending more money. Not going to happen. Why should I spend more money when you've already proven you're going to ignore my requests anyways?
  24. Like
    .Ian reacted to Tom Whiting in Absolutely HORRIBLE support response times!   
    Nonsense. Both are 'web services companies', both serve 1000s of clients, yeah, that's not apples to oranges at all. Just because one handles servers and one handles code doesn't make one any different from the other.


    Until they ignore your request for hours on end. The point is that if they CAN'T provide same day responses to clients, they need to expand their support services.
    Sure, I found out my own answers after waiting a few hours, but I shouldn't have to find out my own answers here.
    Sure, I could have called in for support, but I shouldn't have to call in for support on a webhosting package (and yes, it wasn't only a license that was purchased, but a webhosting package with that).



    Automated replies are not human and do not count, which is why I specified non automated

    When emails are sent, and support tickets are opened, it's only proper and polite, from a company perspective to respond to that (a human response) within the same business day. Even something as simple as I'm working on this now will do wonders when dealing with clients. Ignoring your client's ticket (for whatever reason) for 14 hours is unacceptable, and it only shows that you don't care about your client's business. It's a brush off, it's rude, and it's horrible business practice.

    If any of my clients opened up a ticket, it would be responded to within the same business day. Now, sure, I'm just a one man show, and have only a few clients, but still, that response would be there within the same day. NOT doing so is just wrong.
  25. Like
    .Ian reacted to Tom Whiting in Absolutely HORRIBLE support response times!   
    When I call my bank, do I get put on hold for 14 hours? Of course not.
    When I open up a ticket with any major company (except IPB), do I get put on hold for 14 hours? No. In fact, this is the most horrific support time I've seen.
    Just a few examples of what I'm talking about here:

    Softlayer - major corporation, major clients, 1000s of clients - 2 hours max for initial response
    Hivelocity - same thing, maybe 3 hours

    I could go on and on and on, but the point is that 14 hours is pushing it for response times. If it takes you that long to get a response, you need help.
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