@PaigeMiller wrote:
Speaking out of frustration here: I am dismayed at how many features we got used to in the old forum software are gone now, the same features are present in many software manufacturer's forums, the same features (like threading or sorting by recent replies) that are not brand new state of the art features nor are they relatively un-used features.
What exactly is the benefit of the new software, from a user's point of view?
We keep hearing that the team is looking into these improvements, is there a time-frame when we might expect some new features to make an appearance?
Hi @PaigeMiller, I completely understand. No problem. I'm wanting to change things quickly, too. It's frustrating because I know what is possible but we're currently constrained just a bit by time and our own learning curve on the new platform.
Time Frame:
@ChrisHemedinger, correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm thinking that we are going to try to make community improvements as much as we can over the next three months - Oct/Nov/Dec of this year.
Paige, if you have time, what would be really helpful is if you could tell me your top 3-5 things that you want to see changed/considered first. (If you don't have time, I can look through the posts you made as suggestions).
Also, I've already gone through all the feedback submitted since the launch and have them in a categorized list. One of the categories is named "User Experience." That's really important to me personally .... and also to the whole team. You have my word that making the community meet member expectations is a top priority.
Progress Update:
The community team has met twice so far (with more meetings soon) to go through the list to prioritize, plan, research and/or make changes immediately. Our biggest priority was getting that signin issue fixed - now that that is done - we are more open.
In fact, we're going to start meeting with our platform account technical rep bi-weekly over the next months, so we can also get advice from him on important changes.
Appreciation
I sure appreciate you sticking with us through this change. You are a loyal SAS customer and long-time valued community member, so your input and feedback is welcomed and needed.
I'm going to PM you my email address and phone number, Paige, in case you want me to schedule a WebEx or just talk via phone. It might help if we look at the community together so that I fully understand requirements. You should get a notification from me with that shortly.
Benefits of new Platform:
I promise you that this new platform is really top notch. It may take a few months to get things where we all really want them, but we're dedicated to making this happen.
@ChrisHemedinger can tell you more, but a few user benefits of the new platform include:
- it is cloud based; new enhancements that will benefit SAS users are rolled out seamlessly every two months
- we have dedicated technical support from the vendor (Lithium Technologies)
- premium spam control prevents the community from major spam attacks
- customizations like SAS Syntax Highlighter are possible, allowing SAS highlighting in posts (We can refine it over time as needed)
- better notification features and email notification options are available
- ability to customize page content and views based on user rank, role or other variables (not implemented yet)
- so much more... please do check out other features at the platform's website.
There is also a new concept of what Lithium calls a "tribal knowledge base" that we're now calling "the library" that allows for user-generated knowledgebase content.*
* This new knowledgebase feature will allow other users to nominate discussion posts to a knowledgbase (Libary) that will represent an edited, more official and more readable/consumable version of the original thread (such as long threads about about Date/Time, etc). The Library will attribute authorship to the original authors, too. Caveat: this has not been officially announced yet.. but you can already nominate a post to be an official user-knowledgebase "Library Article" on a given question by clicking Options > Nominate to Library. More coming on this soon.
Thank you for your honesty as that will make us better. I'll try to communicate more to you, @Rick_SAS and the rest of the community about upcoming changes.
You'll see some posts starting next week on Monday Oct 19th of community tips on the Community Memo blog, too, if you want to subscribe. These blog posts will eventually include new feature and/or enhancement updates as well.
Have a good weekend!
Lainie
