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Could This (new discussion format) Be Any Worse?

I've been participating in the Apple support forums for a good many years. They have been very useful and I've supplied a number of useful support answers. But now it's pretty much all gone. It's very difficult to find specific things and it's now impossible to see, at a glance, how many people have both viewed and replied to individual threads. That's critical for identifying big issues--especially those that accompany a signficiant operating system upgrade. Further, the text is so large that much less information can be displayed on a computer display. Finally, when you go to Apple Support your display is completely taken up by big square blocks--can you say "Windows R/T?" I guess all good things come to an end.


The best that Apple Discussions ever was was two changes ago. The previous iteration was tolerable even though it was confusing for newbies.

Posted on Jun 21, 2014 10:42 AM

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198 replies

Jun 26, 2014 7:56 AM in response to seventy one

It seems that this technical support site, which has always had - as part of the ToU - the rule that your posts should be technical support questions/answers, has changed (or is changing) somewhat. What does "following people to get answers" do? Nothing. I don't do social networking sites or chats; I do not want to follow or be followed, liked, or friended. I simply want to be able to navigate to a question I can help with as efficiently and quickly as possible. I am not here to engage in chats or off topic remarks which make it too frustrating to weed through to try to answer someone's real question.


And, this is Apple's site - I will not make changes or workarounds or install add-ons. If this is how the owner of the site wants it, and it is no longer easily navigable by the senior helpers - let someone else meet new people and answer questions.


And I'm out of here as it is already getting off topic.

Jun 26, 2014 8:29 AM in response to babowa

babowa wrote:

. I have cut my participation (browsing/answering questions) by 99% and am currently in a waiting pattern to see if changes will be made



SAME HERE, DITTO.



ASC is currently a GIANT GAPING WOUND, a Titanic epic-level train wreck. Just a NIGHTMARE of counter-intuitive FUNCTION-LOSS.



If they dont want people helping people, they could NOT have done a better job in doing that .

Like yourself, I have been slamming this board helping people....... for FREE and writing user tips

NOW, its hard to even find the USER TIPS

thanks for the giant SLAP to the face and double slap.

Jun 26, 2014 8:32 AM in response to PlotinusVeritas

PlotinusVeritas wrote:


babowa wrote:

I have cut my participation (browsing/answering questions) by 99% and am currently in a waiting pattern to see if changes will be made



SAME HERE, DITTO.



ASC is currently a GIANT GAPING WOUND, a Titanic epic-level train wreck. Just a NIGHTMARE of counter-intuitive FUNCTION-LOSS.




If they dont want people helping people, they could NOT have done a better job in doing that .


I agree 100% !

Jun 26, 2014 8:51 AM in response to PlotinusVeritas

Hi PV,


NOW, its hard to even find the USER TIPS


Try this. Go to the home page of a forum using the recommended URL (not the current default URL)


https://discussions.apple.com/community/using_apple_support_communities/content? filterID=contentstatus%5Bpublished%5D~objecttype~objecttype%5Bthread%5D


User uploaded file


User uploaded file


Top hit of the day is my User Tip 🙂.


Getting the best out of the 'New-Look' forums (2014)


Regards,

Ian.

Jun 26, 2014 8:51 AM in response to babowa

babowa wrote:


It seems that this technical support site, which has always had - as part of the ToU - the rule that your posts should be technical support questions/answers, has changed (or is changing) somewhat. What does "following people to get answers" do? Nothing.


Well, since you're "out of here," you may not see this, but following someone's posts can teach you a lot. When I first came here, I latched onto a guy who really knew a lot about what I was trying to learn about, and, gradually, I absorbed much of it and began to be able to answer questions on my own. So "following people to get answers" (and one person, in particular) taught me much of what I know. It didn't do "Nothing" for me.

Jun 26, 2014 9:03 AM in response to Corgigirl12

Corgigirl12 wrote:


Please remove us from your mailing list. Thanks.



On Wed, Jun 25, 2014 at 10:15 PM, Apple Support Communities Updates <


If you are referring to an email notification from Apple, no user here has the capability - you will need to unsubscribe or "unfollow". There used to be an excellent user tip for the last iteration; however, I cannot find it and it would probably be outdated at the moment anyway. Try to go to your page (Content) and click on all content and then following > open each listing and click on 'following' which should (hopefully) take you off the list of email notifications.


User uploaded file


@ Ronda:


Glad that worked for you; for me, I've always looked at subject lines/topics and started reading from there (and also not only learned a lot, but learned who appeared to be experienced/knew what they were talking about and who wasn't).

Jun 26, 2014 6:40 PM in response to Ronda Wilson

Actually have been in here before - just not posted anything. As most of the Apple has been easy to use - or the answers actually showed up in Apple support.


It is frustrating with any software when screens are changed away from a very useful format to something that makes it harder to use.

Apple should be reading complaints on this screen - and its app store - and respond to them.

Jun 28, 2014 10:34 AM in response to Ziatron

Hi Ziatron,


This is how I do it.

Quote from the Original Poster, when copied and pasted into a reply, has a blue background:

I've been participating in the Apple support forums for a good many years.

Quote from a reply (not the Original Poster) appears as white background:

I no longer have the ability to quote someone text. I now resort to using the arrows as shown above.

After pasting into a new reply, select again and press command i (italic)

I no longer have the ability to quote someone text. I now resort to using the arrows as shown above.

Italic will distinguish the quote from your reply.

Regards,

Ian.

Jun 28, 2014 11:07 AM in response to Yellowbox

Ian


I think the reference is to the "Tool" for inserting the OP's post - like this in the Simple Editor

Yellowbox wrote:


Hi Ziatron,


This is how I do it.

Quote from the Original Poster, when copied and pasted into a reply, has a blue background:

I've been participating in the Apple support forums for a good many years.

Quote from a reply (not the Original Poster) appears as white background:

I no longer have the ability to quote someone text. I now resort to using the arrows as shown above.

After pasting into a new reply, select again and press command i (italic)

I no longer have the ability to quote someone text. I now resort to using the arrows as shown above.

Italic will distinguish the quote from your reply.

Regards,

Ian.

User uploaded file


Unfortunately, when one switches to "Use advanced editor" - tool is mysteriously absent

User uploaded file


I already looked under the ">>" pullDown... "Insert" there just puts a Blank quoteBox inline.


(Ian, I am walkabout-ing the Editor issue - I like the additional tools - but miss the quoteTool)


Ask Ziatron if he is an AdavncedEditor fan like me 😉


CCC

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