The New HP Support Center

[Jim Viera]

Why not, HP support has been on a nosedive for years now. I've worked with HP hardware and software for over 27 years and I can say you don't get what you pay for anymore........

[Hein van den Heuvel]

From what I've seen the change will be disastrous.

Gotta love the Chinese (I get) on the new front page... not!

ismail>> I did read that there would be some enhanced capabilities to the forumers which would include links to images/videos,

Yuck.
Depending on where/when I connect I may pay by the MB.
And certainly I wait by the MB.
I'm not going to bother... when 1KB of text in 1 TCP packet can do the job.

>> private messaging,

Yuck Yuck Yuck... I get that in Email, Facebook, Twitter, AIM, Messenger, Gotomeeting, ....
I don't need an other channel.

Plus, on many customer site 'they' try to shutdown all none-internal chat-channels. Only internal-only tools like say 'Communicator' allowed.

So by adding CHAT capability, the ITRC site may have to become blacklisted by some corporate IT's.

>> spell check etc.

My browser has that, and one probably should write in a 'safe' place with spell checker first and then copy&paste in these nasty tiny windows.

>> Well that does sound promising.

That's your opinion and I repect that, but I think it sounds horrible. KISS!

Do one thing, and do it well.
Change for change sake :-(.

>> Well I do know that the vast majority would miss the "ITRC". And so will I.

Now you are making sense again! :-)

Cheers,
Hein

[Hakki Aydin Ucar]

at least people need time to accustom this new structure, also time is important in new forum page; it sounds like a bit services going slow down with new video ,audio attachments instead of just text answers, and itrc services will be embedded inside a bigger size forum..I wonder about search issues there ?

[likid0]

Yes, you can only fear the worse, for me what they did with docs.hp.com was incredible, it was all in the right order now its just plain ...

If you go to your passport profiles, and go to modify forums profile, you get and idea of whats coming

[Duncan Edmonstone]

What makes the ITRC forums great?

It's not the layout or the points system (definitely not the search engine!)

It's the community. The people who contribute.

If you've already decided the new forums will be awful - well they will be, because the community spirit of the ITRC forums will be broken. I think a little positivity here would go a long way - if the new forums contain things we don't like then we'll persuade HP to change... as part of the new forums I believe HP are setting up a "forums council" made up of both HP and community members (at least they said that on a recent survey they conducted), so we should have the chance to make this work.

And remember this is not the same team that did the docs.hp.com move - the same team that were involved in creating and maintaining the original ITRC forums (Kevin-Paul and Dan G) are involved in this transition - they did get it right first time round. Kevin-Paul has already indicated in this thread:

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

That there are some UI changes coming to the new forums (although they may not be in place by transition time).

HTH

Duncan

[James R. Ferguson]

Hi Folks:

I have to agree with everything Hein said for the reasons he stated while paying tribute (no, I won't use that hated word "kudos") to Duncan's view.

The beauty of the ITRC for the last eleven years has been its simplicity and lack of "cute" adornments. As I've said before, I don't need pretty pictures nor do I ever want to see advertising of any kind -- including HP's!

I dislike the look of the "new" forum with its inane avatars and small font. To me, the whole thing resembles a big game room, not a professional site (it is that, isn't it?).

To Duncan's comments: I agree that we should try to keep an open mind. I have shared my thoughts openly and frequently with Dan G (and his predecessors) and Kevin over many years and more recently granted several hours of telephone and email time to one of HP's consultants who had reached out to me for my views about the pending rework.

I will be very interested to see what finally appears as our new community.

Another concern that has been raised by some of us, publicly here and privately though other channels, is the "Swiss cheese" of dead links that could result from a conversion of the old threads into the new database. We have already seen this with the HP documents and if that also occurs with ITRC threads that say "...see this thread for a possible solution...[ insert old ITRC URL here ]..." then so much more content is rendered trash.

I fear that this train was set in motion over a year ago and that it's far to late to change its course. It makes me recall Newton's first law, except that we are too weak a force to alter the vector.

Regards!

...JRF...

[Michael Steele_2]

Duncan: "...It's the community. The people who contribute..."

I have to disagree in some respect to this comment for I don't come here 'FOR THE COMMUNITIY" In fact, I dread hearing from one or two members because of the smart mouth which is a universal problem amongst all chat rooms. Anonymity allows for the loss of all courtesy and polite etiquette and instead creates monsters. And if some of things being said here were said face to face the speaker would loose teeth.

That, is not community.

I came hear in the beginning for the answers and continue to come here for the answers and its the loss of answers that is being addressed. All have experienced this loss and all are taking the opportunity to voice that loss in this thread.

I also come here for the points. The answering of questions is a method of learning and a way of staying sharp. It's also good preparation for an interview and achievement. I put my affiliation to the ITRC on my resume and its helped me get work. Clients see my rank and it helps.

It really, really helps and someday I hope to one day become an Olympian, which would be a big achievement in my career.

But here for the community? My community is about people I can touch and put a face too and I don't consider any chat room a part of that.

[Steve Post]

I must apologize if I am the guy with the smart mouth. What is in my brain as nice stuff, comes out to the keyboard as grumpy.

If it looks like a chat room, I will probably lose permission to use it. Maybe I can hoax higher ups to let me use it. uh... if it is worth it.

Maybe I can ignore the enhancements and just use the system. I would rather have it work than be pretty. I'll just avert my eyes when it gets pretty and concentrate on the text. I wonder how many useful videos would be uploaded anyway.

[Torsten.]

>> I wonder how many useful videos would be uploaded anyway.


IMHO there are enough other sites like youtube, myvideo, etc ... ;-)


Even HP has any of them already like this

h20464.www2.hp.com/

and others - should be enough.


Honestly, I don't need so much pictures, flash and whatever on the new forum pages, because I need to wait several minutes until a single page has loaded ... the fun will be gone (at least for me).

[Michael Steele_2]

Steve, my comment about some members having a smart mouth wasn't directed at you or any responder to this thread.

But if you're familiar with the forum then you'll have seen some of threads get into a spitting match where a responder / forum member is taking a dig at the author or insulting the intelligence of the author.

This is what I was referring to.

There's no need to call someone a '...dumb ...' in a clever reword just to advertise your cleverness on a professional forum.