The New HP Support Center

[Michael Leu]

Seriously, you guys are complaining about some obscure video features?! The Lithium forums will bring much needed features, like the ability to format a post with fixed width sections. Please don't tell me that isn't useful! (Or editing your post, or formatting your hyperlinks properly)


Just a reminder, these are the three forums as linked form hp.com:

Consumer Support Forum
http://h30434.www3.hp.com/psg

Software Solutions Forum
http://h30501.www3.hp.com/hpsws

Enterprise Business Community
http://h30499.www3.hp.com/hpeb


I expect they will merge the non-SW parts of the ITRC forums into the EB forum. Please also have a quick look at the Consumer forum to see what is possible design-wise. (Much better, eh? ;)

Maybe someone from HP should open a feedback thread for the EB/SW forums to collect all our suggestions for improvement...

[Michael Mike Reaser]

Michael, in addition to the "smart" comments there are the threads where groups of well-known forum contributors will get into a back-and-forth spat over "the" way to accomplish a task. I especially see this in many scripting threads where one side is trying to propose a solution using awk or sed, while the other side tries to solve each and every issue using perl.

I first came to the forums 9 years ago via the login credentials of one of my former employers. I came here for the solutions as well as the opportunity to brainstorm with peers, but stayed because there was a sense of "community" here. Additionally, this gave me a place to professionally keep in touch with many of my former co-workers from when I was with HP in the 80's and 90's.

I created my own ITRC user after leaving that job, and over the past 4 or 5 years have seen these forums change from peers helping peers to newbies demanding that forum members either teach them their jobs or just *do* their jobs, old-timers sniping at old-timers, etc.

When HP shoves this current service over-the-cliff and replaces it with a techie version of Facebook, I'll probably stay for a while but I have a suspicion that my own participation will wither and die.

[Kevin_Paul]

OK, now that the "cat is out of the bag" regarding the upcoming HP Support Center transition, I'd like to jump in here and add my two cents...

Obviously I've been communicating here within the community recently about the fact that the ITRC forums would be transitioning to a new home - but I wasn't able to mention the (big) fact that it wasn't simply the forums that were going to be impacted, but that the entire ITRC support portal, and all of it's related feature services, would be migrating into a new site as well.

As I can only speak for the forums, I won't go into details about the HP Support Center portal itself - but I will certainly make sure my partners that are involved with the overall transition are aware of this thread, and the feedback and comments that have been posted.

I can't address every particular issue that's been raised here regarding the new forums environment, and how today's forums might differ from the ITRC forums of yesteryear. I do appreciate everyone's passion and input, though. And let me assure you that we are trying to listen to YOU - our well-established community - when it comes to making decisions that will impact YOUR community. And one of the big benefits we'll have, moving forward with our partnership with Lithium, is that we can make changes/updates to our community site, in a very timely manner - in response to input from our users, trends in social media, etc. That's not something I've been able to say in the past - the wheels have ground very slowly (if they've ground at all!) when its come to acting on your feedback, or our own ideas/concepts with the legacy ITRC forums.

Yes - some of the "post to post" links are going to be impacted by this migration - there's no simple way around it. BUT - we will be attempting to make sure any post from January 2011 and onward that links to other forum postings will be updated, post-migration, to have it's link directed to the "new" home for the thread being referenced. It involves a lot of manual effort, so we can't do it for every thread that's ever been authored. If there are older threads that you know get used a lot (due to Google searches, popular topics, etc.) feel free to let me know - and I'll try to make sure we address those manually as well.

One thing I can assure you of - the forums WILL NOT become a "marketing" tool. HP will continue to moderate and administer the forums in our new environment just as have in the past in the legacy environment - hands off, for the most part, unless there has been something posted/shared that requires our intervention. We fully expect that the way the forums are used (for our users to help their fellow users resolve problems with their HP products/services/solutions) will remain the same pre- and post- migration. You'll have a new "front end" that provide the means to that end, but the spirit of the community shouldn't be impacted by how you author a post, or what color a particular element on the screen is.

Regarding the interface - and some of the comments here that you've shared. What you see today @ http://h30499.www3.hp.com/hpeb isn't completely representative of what the site may look like after the transition mid-June. As Duncan mentioned, I had already alluded to the fact that we have a re-design coming for our Enterprise Community site. And we're not just moving elements from one location on the page to another - the redesign represents a pretty significant change for the site, and it will bring with it new features and capabilities that you won't find there today. I don't have a specific date on when that work will be complete, but I believe it will be after our migration in mid-June - so stay tuned.

I appreciate that many of our long-time users will continue to ask "why are you even changing things" when it comes to the ITRC forums. All I can ask is that you hang on a bit longer, trust that the new forums will be an improvement in many areas, and know that we have a long-term vision for making them even better.

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi (again):

@ Kevin:

> And one of the big benefits we'll have, moving forward with our partnership with Lithium, is that we can make changes/updates to our community site, in a very timely manner...

In my opinion, had HP cared we would have already seen on-going improvements to the ITRC we now have. There is nothing personal directed to you, or Dan, when I say that many of us tried. Remember the "wish-lists" that Pete Randall used to track? I realize that the decision not to invest was made "above".

> Yes - some of the "post to post" links are going to be impacted by this migration - there's no simple way around it.

I emphatically disagree with that. Wodisch and I (and maybe others) had a conversation about this not long ago. This could be accommodated if the parties doing the conversion were willing to invest a little more effort.

Respectfully,

...JRF...

[Torsten.]

The notification email says


"...
The HP Support Center will be available at no additional cost as part of your warranty, HP Care Pack Service or contractual support agreement with HP..."


Does this mean if I have no support contract or care pack I won't have access?


So then good bye folks ... :-(

[likid0]

Torsten, I hope/imagine that's not going to be the case, that just with your passport account is going to be enough to use the forums, if it's the other way round it just doesn't make sense because you are going to loose loads of great people.

On the negativity thing ,it all comes from the changes we have seen in the past, anyhow as you say we have to give the new stuff a chance, and hope the new features are worth it.

I also think that links in posts, pointing to other posts in the forum, should be and absolute must to leave working, because loads and loads of posts point to other ones, without them there is going to be loads of junk left over.

[Ismail Azad]

Hi Torsten,

> Torsten....

See Kevin Paul's comments

" an - yes, the forums and community capabilities will continue to be free, and available for everyone, regardless of warranties, support contracts, etc."

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/questionanswer.do?threadId=1471796

:)!....

Regards
Ismail Azad

[Michael Steele_2]

Thanks Kevin:

a) Re: "...It involves a lot of manual effort, so we can't do it for every thread that's ever been authored. If there are older threads that you know get used a lot (due to Google searches, popular topics, etc.) feel free to let me know - ..."

All the Olympian for sure, then try to get the Pharaohs, and so on down the line, using this section in each Forum member's profile...: 'Notify Me About These messages" section, for example, at the bottom of this link:

http://forums11.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/editNotifications.do?forumId=1&userId=CA828944

b) I guess were are a community - (* kind of ghostly though. No touch. No eyeball. Ear and nose deaf. Kinda spooky. *)

Thank you for the response.

[Michael Steele_2]

Kevin:

Re: "..moving forward with our partnership with Lithium,.."

Question: Have you outsourced the forum?

[Kevin_Paul]

Michael - no, it's not an "outsourcing". We are partnering with Lithium, who hosts our community site, and provides expertise in the community industry. Here's a brief description of what Lithium offers, from their website:

"Lithium is the leading provider of Social CRM solutions to power the customer network. Our solutions combine the power of online customer communities with the broader social web and traditional CRM business processes to inspire customers to innovate, promote, and support on the companyâ s behalf. Lithiumâ s platform is proven in high-volume, growth environments and provides the security, analytics, APIs, and multi-language support that enterprises demand."

Lithium provides community platforms for many companies, such as Barnes & Noble, AT&T, Best Buy, Sony, Verizon, Linksys, and many others.

BUT - the HP resources that are responsible for the forums/community, such as myself, the moderators, and other community managers, are not changing.