What happened to the forums?

RCR, I understand that software is updated. And I also understand that Apple has brilliant engineers and brilliant design specialists to control what is presented to the public, and if they wanted to preserve the presentation of the previous discussions, they could have, while adding features (which really are not necessary for this type of thing). This is not off-the-shelf software, but software designed by Apple. So, your wrong. There is a choice, and its FUBAR!

Now, in terms of finding an answer, before if I was working on, lets say, an Xserve, I could drill down to Xserves and post or search for my answer. What do you do now? I really tried to use it, and its not obvious to me (a 25 year Mac IT professional and MCSE), now imagine how freaking unusable it is for the layman !

Like I said, I only found this thread by searching GOOGLE. For kicks, I tried in this service, and it was nowhere to be found.

Ron Yochum wrote:

...This is not off-the-shelf software, but software designed by Apple...

Totally wrong - the software is from Jive.

I believe your exact words were:

I WILL NOT be participating in this messed-up puke inducing unnecessary redesign from this point forward.

Yet you are still here posting...

And Apple is listening. There have been many maintenance windows where they have fixed issues. Obviously they are reading.

Ron Yochum wrote:

This is not off-the-shelf software, but software designed by Apple. So, your wrong.

Like I said, I only found this thread by searching GOOGLE. For kicks, I tried in this service, and it was nowhere to be found.

Echoing what was stated by R C-R and Colin Robinson, Apple Support Communities (ASC) is being run on off-the-shelf commercial software. It is called Jive SBS. It is not Apple-written nor even Apple-designed.

As such, Apple's ASC management team is limited to a great extent by what Jive has written.

Unfortunately that includes the search function (FWIW, the built-in dictionary/spellchecker isn't very good, either). Got no idea why Jive didn't do what many sites have done, which is to contract with Google to provide a restricted and directable search service. That was Jibve's call, not Apple's.

Until Jive does it better in an update, do what many here have learned to do - go outside of the built-in search function and use Google.

Ranting on about how things aren't the way they should be gets you nowhere, especially when you could go somewhere or do something productive, even here, with less effort.

Its obvious to me that this isn't just loaded without apples customization. Regardless, the system *****, plain and simple.

I don't mind admitting I'm not the sharpest tool in the box when it comes to systems but I have to say that I find the new approach rather better than the original. So far I have had no difficulty finding my way around the various forums, am delighted to see that comments are much more readable for the natural font size used and with a little thought, the breakdown of sub sections is easily understandable.

As has been mentioned many times, Apple feedback is the place to file objections and I couldn't agree more that shouting and ranting is unnecessary, indeed in my view it is self demeaning.

Ranting and raving aside - the guy has a valid point... It ***** in terms of useabilty. Which used to be a test that any developers undertook prior to releasing software.

Just for fun try following this thread on your new fangled iPad.... Endless scrolling and entry into the thread at the wrong point.

Regardless of whoever developed the software - it ain't perfect and falls a long way behind the "old" forum style and USEABILTY.

When I can find what I'm looking for then the place is useful. It's just that it takes so much longer now than it did previously, if I'm successful at all... Which probably explains why I have received almost zilch responses to posts since the " new" look was introduced.

Fact is - it ain't as useable, friendly (appreciate this is subjective).

There are other places out here which I'll be making more use of in future.

it ain't usable for a person looking for help

it is also not usable for anybody trying to answer, since in very simple terms, you can't see anymore right away who is asking what, how many responses are there,

and who is the last person to answer the intial question.

i.e., in order to provide an answer in some category, one needs to cleek to every single line on the screen in order to figure out what's what.

moreover, as i type, there's no longer spellcheck as i type available, and i'd need to use a mongolian spellcheck provided by the developer.

not one single positive thing can be thought of regarding the new fromat.

not one thing, and whoever is responsible for that catastrophy hopefully will get fired and never work anywhere near this field.

any goof defending this garbage format - you have no idea what you are dealing with.

# it is also not usable for anybody trying to answer, since in very simple terms, you can't see anymore right away who is asking what, how many responses are there,and who is the last person to answer the intial question.

Not true, Arnie. Simply go to the original post … it's one simple click. Nor have I had a single problem with spell checking so far, though fortunately I don't have to use it too often.

I have to say, though, I must object to being called a 'goof' for offering a personal opinion in a civilised and courteous manner. But I suppose it takes all sorts.

arnie wrote:

moreover, as i type, there's no longer spellcheck as i type available, and i'd need to use a mongolian spellcheck provided by the developer.

If you are using OS X & a browser that supports its text services (like Safari or Chrome, but not Firefox), you should see in the Edit menu > Spelling & Grammar > Check Spelling While Typing. Make sure that is enabled & misspellings will be underlined in red, just as in TextEdit or other text apps that support OS X text services.

To use the OS X contextual menu with spelling substitutions, dictionary access, learn or ignore the word. etc. options, you must control click on the underlined word. This is because the page uses Javascript to implement the editing tools built into the Jive software & right clicks are interpreted by the page's editing scripts as requests for its insert/alignment editing tool menu. (By control click, I mean literally holding down the control key when you click.)

Before you protest that this is crazy, un-Mac-like (which clearly it is), etc., consider that the site offers user support for an ever increasing number of Apple products besides Macs. One reason for the site's redesign is to make it more accessible to users of any of these products. It still has a long way to go before that is completely true, but we can no longer look at the site as something only or even primarily for Mac users.

let me apologize for the "goof", but what you are saying by "..Simply go to the original post … it's one simple click.." exactly confirms the point - all the mentioned things previuously where visible without clicking on anything.

btw, the only reason I got involved in this thing again is that I've disabled any updates on the new posts to be sent to me, but in the last 2 days about 20 updates showed up in my webmail.

you know how it works?

some people in some department (project managers etc) felt they needed to appear useful, so they pushed for the improvement and did a great job of it.

there is no way I'm participating in this garbage again.

Cheers!