Q: New Team: Community Specialists

I'm confused. When reading the discussions on this site I frequently see knowledgable members replying that Apple does NOT monitor these forums and that everyone here is just an end-user who is volunteering their time. Yet I frequently see replies by 'Community Specialists'.  Searching the forums for an answer I ran across the statement: 'The Communities Specialist team is staffed with Apple representatives that will help tidy up our community." Also, when I go to Apple's job postings I see that are currently looking for a Support Communities Specialist Manager. The job description states he will manage the team of Community Specialist and is expected to hold weekly staff meetings.

Anyway, this is all a bit confusing. Could one of the Community Specialists maybe clarify this?

Thanks.

ArminH

I am NOT a CS/Host. My experience is that they rarely participate in open forum as we do, but act behind the scenes quite a bit. The posts I have seen, similar to the ones you have seen, are a result of inability of we users to resolve an issue and are the result of one of us that can 'reporting' to our gracious Hosts. Think of the CSes as "lurkers" if you like, present but unseen.

Hope this helps your understanding

ÇÇÇ

Armin, CCC is confusing the moderators here with the Community Specialists. As already described in this thread the Community Specialists answer posts that have gone more that 24 hours without anyone answering them. Some of the moderators have doubled as Community Service Specialists. As you already discovered they tidy up the community. The Hosts are different from the Community Service Specialists and have a different role.

It would seem that the Community Specialists mainly respond to posts that have gone unloved by regular posters for a period of time and then, in my experience, usually only if they can find a suitable support document to hang the reply onto. They are perhaps less likely to get involved in a thread which requires some back and forth communication to work towards a resolution. While it is possible that they gather some feedback on trending issues that does not seem to be their primary function. Product feedback should go to the relevant feedback page rather than threads here.

Perhaps the key phrase is section 1.6 from the Apple Support Communities Use Agreement (emphasis added).

Apple involvement. Apple may respond to questions but does not formally provide technical support on the Site. Any information that is provided by Apple or Apple employees is offered on an "AS IS" basis without warranties of any kind.

There is obviously some degree of monitoring, although that seems to be mainly reacting to reported breaches of the terms of use, but those who say things like "Apple isn't here" in response to "Dear Apple, my device has stopped working" aren't entirely wrong either.

tt2

Thanks! I think I get it now.

You're welcome.

tt2

Hi there,

I understand this thread is old, but I am interested in this. Are the current community specialist's going to be the only ones, or are Apple going to be promoting more at some time?

No one here can answer your question - you will need to check the job listings at the Apple site.

http://www.apple.com/jobs/us/

I've asked the hosts to remove your personal information - you should not "publish" it in an open forum online as it is not safe.

FYI, Matt K. is no longer with Apple.

Hello, I am a community manager for a large enterprise company and I'm trying to reach the community manager Mandy_S. Please contact me when you have a moment. I would like to setup a 15 to 30 minute call to talk about Jive & Community. This is not a sales pitch or promotion, I am also a community manager and would like to pick your brain for 15 minutes if I can. Please use the email address in my Jive profile.

Thanks

Corey R.

I've asked the hosts to forward your message.

tt2