Thread

The quality of responses has dropped lately to lots of apologies and not enough solutions from EE.  Just my two cents.

Good morning, Blair,

I am sorry that you have not been happy with our support lately. I would like to invite you to email me (lisa DOT wess AT ellislab.com) with more detailed feedback and examples of where you feel we could improve.

Thank you!

Hi, Without butting in (too much) - i think he might be flagging things like the longer response wait compared to when we were playing with the EE1.6 product. Clearly as there are more bugs, changes, differences, increased interest (for any new product) and so the number of support requests has increased.
I will admit i have seen a slow down in response times - looking at the forums now i see un-answered posts from over 7 hours (which is fair because it is nighttime!) - but i guess that is a bit of a pain for the international users of this product such as myself.

However, the biggest stumbling block i have seen (especially for new users) is the limited advice and support they get for “how to’s” with EE - for example how would i approach this problem with EE. I see a lot of replies saying EE makes no assumptions, and you can do anything with it - but no real push in a suitable direction, etc. I know this is outside your remit, but i felt this did used to be something that happened before and has seen a reduction now.

I think i expressed this opinion when the post about the new forum layout came out and i have to say i have been pleasantly surprised in some ways, but disappointed in others. And as a result i find myself throwing in more and more advice (especially pointing people towards solutions with third party add-ons) in the technical support forums, as opposed to the “general” section that used to be at the top of the old forums. But my interest will certainly wander - as i am not paid technical support!

I have moved this thread to “General”. Thanks.

http://expressionengine.com/overview/

Support isn’t a feature?  Says so on your website.  Thus why I posted in “feature request.” Just a thought.

Might MojoMotor has something to do with this slow down? I’ve been around years and have to admit that support isnt going as smooth as it was back in 1.6.9 good ol’ times.

Hopefully all goes well and support gets back on track after these changes made into EL sites, products etc.
Meanwhile or permanent, should EL think to hire more people to support, and providing us that good support that i at least have had past years.

I think it’s time issue for little team atm.

Peace
-Pete

The “Feature Request” forum is for suggesting new and unimplemented features. As you say, we already do provide support so I thought “General” a better fit.

I’d like to continue to invite anyone to email me with feedback toward improving our support system.  Blair - I still owe you a response, my apologies for that. 

This is certainly a feature of our software, however I think that for an ongoing conversation General may be the best place.  I may move it back to the FR forum depending on how it goes.

No matter what, you have my attention and I’m watching this thread closely.

Thank you!

Lisa, thanks for reading. I have a feeling that you over there, just have your hands so full or work with all new things, that maybe that has affected and slowed things a bit? I’m used alright to forum policy and such, so usually im happy if i get first replies within a day i started a thread (as per support policy says). Sometimes when its more important (usually in installation or some major feature not working at all) then im happy if i get respond in few hours cos my work is not going anywhere before those issues are clear.

Anyhoo, my feelings are at EL team cos all new things popped up, beta ended, new site, new products, license guidelines etc. A huge change and i think it takes a little time to get back on “usual” track again 😊

This is an edited version of something I posted on Devot-ee about third party support.

I have noticed in the last few weeks that I am not visiting the EE forums as much as I used to. Troubleshooting new add-ons that I’ve started using has been conducted by email with the developers. This means that no one else sees the problems or solutions.

When I had a bit of spare time I browsed the EE forums, ‘General discussion’ and ‘How to’ in particular. If I spotted something I could help with I would, and often I saw something that made me think about how I could improve the way I did things.
Those threads often contained sample code, feature requests, links to alternative methods, brainstorming etc. but were often started as a plea for support.

Where will I post some code to share related to an add-on, the developers thread on devot-ee or CodeShare Corner on the EE forums?

So removing third party support questions from the EE forums has now made them less useful. I also wonder if the add-on developers will be busy answering questions on their own support forums that they won’t find the time to visit these ones.
But if they did, and they posted a bit of code to share that utilised their add-on can they then answer questions about it?

+1 for Paul’s comments
I very much agree - i used to find a lot of valuable tips and hints on these forums especially relating to third party bits and bobs - now i rarely come/comment here for worrying about the frosty “go to the vendor” comments (which i know i am taking harder than they are meant! But…).

Thank you guys, again, for all of your feedback.

You are still welcome to share tips and tricks that you have for working with EE and add-ons.  Those are welcome here.  Users helping users is the success that built these forums and something we still encourage and will always encourage.  Clever ways to do things, tricks and customizations are absolutely welcome.

What has changed in regards to third-party support is that developers offering technical support for their add-ons now must have a their own location for that support.  What did not work was using these forums for addon technical support.  Developers didn’t browse these forums constantly and much of the time, those users asking for support here would not receive developer assistance for days, weeks… or ever..  Having a dedicated area, run by the developer, to support their own add-ons helps promote faith in that developer and their work, and makes sure that users get targeted and hopefully timely assistance from the expert in that add-on: the author.

nevsie - we have always encouraged users to go straight to the developer for support with their respective third-party add-ons.  That has been true since I started helping out on these forums in 2004.  We try to do this gently, but ultimately if someone needs support with a third-party add-on, then they really need to talk to the person that developed, uses, and supports that addon.

I very much enjoy hearing everyone’s experiences and feedback, so I hope that you will all continue to partake in this dialogue. Thank you!

to be honest with you - it was not the developers that used to help me on many of the add-ons - it was other users. I myself also used to make suggested changes to add-ons when i hit a difficulty and would post on these forums the result of my changes or experience.

I am now less inclined to do this as one i have not really settled into these forums, two i like many people tend to work from the top down for the quickest way to get what i want - code corner being at the bottom tends to result in it being ignored by me.

Pushing 3rd parties to be more responsible is great. Especially as there is such a (painful in my eyes) influx of paid extensions (although i admit many are worth it!). However, this push has also resulted in reduced development of free and open add-ons as people have to go a lot further to support them, build forums, etc. Yes there are solutions like git hub, get satisfaction, but it is all more effort for what might be a simple plugin, etc. I myself will eventually be releasing my bits, but not till later when i find time to build a site for them… It just makes the whole EE experience more expensive and less of a community. (different rant, but i often spend more on extensions than i do the core CMS - to me that makes me think the balance is off // but off subject so i’ll stop.)

EDIT - perhaps allowing areas for open source addons would work, but push paid extensions to support themselves? Often the open source ones are the ones that support fades away on, and as such need the community to keep them going / give support???

I don’t want to shut you down, nevsie - but I’d like to keep this thread focused on the support experience as opposed to how addon support is handled.  Could you start a new thread with that, and we can carry that dialogue separately? It’s certainly a valuable dialogue, but both are important and I don’t want to lose track of either.

I hope that makes sense.  Just easier to follow the feedback if it’s on topic. =)

do you know what… i am happy to step down… but this is kind of my point regarding support!!! Yes certain comments (money) are way off topic and should be shut down. But topics even fractionally off topic also get shut down and this really is part of my frustration with support. It seems like your not even allowed to venture out of the EE world to suggest add-ons that might help users solve a problem - you have washed your hands of everything not EE 1st party whether in concept or even practise.

I cannot think of a project that was not better for the use of at least 1 external add-on. And if i did not have members of the community suggesting i tried things i would be worse off. The community does feel a little dead here at the moment and support are not filling the void - perhaps that is more on tune for what i am trying to say.

But i am going to leave now, stop banging my head as it seems i cannot express clearly enough the issues without venturing off topic!