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The new Support Communities allows you to type a question that is way, way, way too long right into the "Subject" line, and pretty much violates email/discussion group etiquette by allowing you to ask your whole question in the subject line.

This is feedback for Apple.


Isn't it irritating when people ask you an entire question in the "Subject" line and then don't write anything in the body? That's what the new Support Communities allows you to do. Not only is it a breach of email etiquette, but it makes it very hard to skim the topic list. The subject line should be limited, like it was before. It will be better for the power-users who actually like reading and answering questions.


nathan

Posted on May 2, 2011 5:16 AM

Reply
13 replies

May 2, 2011 5:53 AM in response to Mr Endo

Hi, Nathan -


This has been brought to the Hosts attention. Suggestions made to them as a fix include: limiting the available length to something like 80 to 100 characters; making it clear on the forum (discussion) page that the "Ask your question" box is intended for the title of their question, not for the question itself; and others.


Although the new design was beta tested for several months with the help of 2 or 3 dozen regular members of Apple Discussions, not all deficiencies became apparent during that testing, particularly those involving possible behavior by folk new to these forums.


Other things are becoming apparent now that the new design has been put into real-world use. It is still a work in progress, and things are gradually getting fixed. Apparenty the software being used, Jive SBS, is not as flexible as one might want, and the Hosts/Managers are working to find ways around some limitations in it.

May 2, 2011 7:08 AM in response to Don Archibald

Although the new design was beta tested for several months with the help of 2 or 3 dozen regular members of Apple Discussions, not all deficiencies became apparent during that testing, particularly those involving possible behavior by folk new to these forums.

Don,


Thanks for the reply. I can see how this sort of "deficiency" would not have come up while testing with 2 or 3 dozen regular contributors. Regular contributors are most likely to be good users in the first place!


nathan

May 2, 2011 7:09 AM in response to Tuttle

Tuttle,


I can see your point, but I don't think that people whose subject is "Heeeeeelp!" will become any better at posting questions if they are limited to write 200 characters instead of 80. I think those people, given the current huge limit, are still posting useless subjects. Those peopel are also, IMO, violating email/discussion group etiquette, but in a different way.


nathan

May 2, 2011 7:20 AM in response to Tuttle

Yeah, but now people are using subject lines like:


Help!!!!! I'm stuck and don't know what to do!!!! I pushed something and now my MacBook is showing weird stuff on the screen and I can't click on my Dock!!!!! And iTunes keeps playing "Love Shack" by the B-52s!!!!!


Not a whole lot better than the old subjects... except, of course, that such a subject would scream to me to stay away and let those with more patience try to help. 😉

May 3, 2011 12:42 PM in response to WZZZ

I do not find the longer subject lines bad in themselves. I use the subject lines to decide what post to read. More information gives me data to make my decision on. I tend to skim the longer subjects for the keywords anyway.

WZZZ wrote:


Don Archibald wrote: ...Although the new design was beta tested for several months with the help of 2 or 3 dozen regular members of Apple Discussions...

It was? I'd like to get my hands on them!

Maybe Apple ignored their comments. Likely! Maybe Apple selected only Apple fan boys and girls.


This seems better than they were an incompetent bunch to say the least.


Robert

May 5, 2011 11:03 AM in response to Mr Endo

I've got to completely agree with the OP here. This is a disastrous mistake.


For those that think this is somehow an advantage (people basically posting the whole question in the subject line), why not just put a Reply button in the topic list and do away with the actual thread view? Aha! maybe now you get it? This breaks the logical structure of such a forum. In the old Discussions I saw topics where people would start just typing the whole question in the topic, but it got quickly truncated and the poster would move on to the correct field and start typing the whole thing. Even that awkward result was preferable to a topic that wastes space and disrupts the ability to quickly discern if its one you can readily answer.


As for why this got missed in testing - indeed, many (if not most) experienced users would not think to do the most absurdly awkward things that new folks do. Next time around, they ought to ask a few really new users to try it, maybe even some that have already done poorly with the old system. The latter would really be your target market for improvements after all, wouldn't it?

May 5, 2011 11:49 AM in response to Euchre

It's painful to have to read those huge topics, but it doesn't appear to happen that often.


Much better, anyway, than having to read a full page post packed with run-on sentences, no punctuation, all lower case in stream of consciousness text message-Twitter speak. I'd rather scrub my toilet out with a toothbrush than try to read one of those.

The new Support Communities allows you to type a question that is way, way, way too long right into the "Subject" line, and pretty much violates email/discussion group etiquette by allowing you to ask your whole question in the subject line.

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