Topic Title

Joined another community that was using the software. It’s fantastic. And very cheap. Everyone who uses this forum should take less than five minutes and go check it out and visit one of their communities.
https://xenforo.com/purchase/

And it imports from phpBB!!!

There you go Support.

Digitisation projects fail due to a lack of clear strategy and adequately implemented process.

As long as people dump wish lists and bug reports and everything else into the general forum board then switching platform will just recreate the problem just with new gizmos and shiny buttons.

My 10 cents worth...

A forum is by definition...

"a meeting or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged."

The forum software used here is "ok" for that purpose. It's active, people do respond, we have a nice community. It could probably be improved with better searching etc, but currently it works ok.

However, what the forum is NOT includes:

1. A place to report bugs, validate bugs, comment on bugs, and track bugs through to resolution and AwareIM release/build numbers

2. A place to store a structured list of feature requests and improvements to AwareIM

3. A place to vote up and down and comment on the above feature requests

4. A place to discuss and document how to implement workarounds for Aware "shortcomings". That is, things that don't work quite as you would expect (or hope) but there is a workaround that others have implemented that may solve your problem.

5. A place to record Aware release, notes, and discussion around how to implement and use some of the great features that are documented (in very short format) here:
https://awareim.com/changelog/?C=M;O=D;F=2

I would LOVE Support to introduce a site/software solution that does point 1 to 5 above. For our business it would:

- reduce the cost of reporting bugs, building workarounds, and understanding when fixes are live
- ensure the Aware product roadmap is full of features that the community values (above the squeaky wheel approach)
- improve people's use of the new features that are released into Aware
- improve community and focussed discussion around Aware features

I think "forum software" is never going to do the above, it's a solution that is like bug tracking, Stack Exchange, online documentation etc. I will leave it others more knowledgeable than me to recommend actual software solutions, but generally speaking I would prefer a new type of software rather than a new forum software.

My 10 cents worth...

A forum is by definition...

"a meeting or medium where ideas and views on a particular issue can be exchanged."

The forum software used here is "ok" for that purpose. It's active, people do respond, we have a nice community. It could probably be improved with better searching etc, but currently it works ok.

However, what the forum is NOT includes:

1. A place to report bugs, validate bugs, comment on bugs, and track bugs through to resolution and AwareIM release/build numbers

2. A place to store a structured list of feature requests and improvements to AwareIM

3. A place to vote up and down and comment on the above feature requests

4. A place to discuss and document how to implement workarounds for Aware "shortcomings". That is, things that don't work quite as you would expect (or hope) but there is a workaround that others have implemented that may solve your problem.

5. A place to record Aware release, notes, and discussion around how to implement and use some of the great features that are documented (in very short format) here:
https://awareim.com/changelog/?C=M;O=D;F=2

I would LOVE Support to introduce a site/software solution that does point 1 to 5 above. For our business it would:

- reduce the cost of reporting bugs, building workarounds, and understanding when fixes are live
- ensure the Aware product roadmap is full of features that the community values (above the squeaky wheel approach)
- improve people's use of the new features that are released into Aware
- improve community and focussed discussion around Aware features

I think "forum software" is never going to do the above, it's a solution that is like bug tracking, Stack Exchange, online documentation etc. I will leave it others more knowledgeable than me to recommend actual software solutions, but generally speaking I would prefer a new type of software rather than a new forum software.

What he said.

Rod, so its not a place to post stuff like this?

However, what the forum is NOT includes:
...2. A place to store a structured list of feature requests and improvements to AwareIM

Hey Jaymer, I think it perfectly highlights the point...

if you read that post there are some great ideas are that have been lost in a forum post from 2016 and forgotten about. If we had a "structured place" to store these, a list of ideas that could be voted up and down, and commented on, then some of these gems may be voted up and implemented by Support.

Actually, I read that post twice. And most of those points have been addressed by being implemented into aware and are closed.
Final post though shows how even items listed 3 1/2 years ago have not fully been resolved today.

But your post, in reply to me, was taken by me and others, to point out that the forum shouldn’t be used the way that I’m using the forum.That posts like mine shouldn’t even be in the forum.

So instead of saying, yes, that’s an awesome piece of forum software and would help immensely here, you make some point, I’m not sure fully what it is, and then the thread killer came along and did what he usually does.

But none of that’s going to deter me. I’ll keep on helping and answering, and trying to get help from the remaining 15 to 20 regular users that we have.
Our forum is pitiful, and not just the technical software.
I bet you we have lost more people this year than we have gained in the forum. More people have stopped using aware than have signed up new on the forum this year.
And not because of the quality of the forum software, or the fact that I don’t post problem threads in the problem section - They're just moving on to other tools.
But the archaic software does not help.
And every regular use of the system should’ve checked out that software and made a post here, in my opinion, so that we could do a collection or whatever or try and prompt support to purchase the new software so we can convert this data and move on to something that’s more modern and will allow us to properly tag Threads and members in posts.
But that’s just my opinion.

Jaymer, I wasn't suggesting you shouldn't post in the forum. Post whatever you wish, doesn't bother me in the slightest.

I was suggesting that if Support wishes to address the issue of forum software, then there are broader issues that should be considered at the same time, as "forum software" is only ever going to get you so far.

and then the thread killer came along and did what he usually does.

Perhaps not resorting to name calling would be a good move to encouraging use of the forum.

As to Rod's point this post is a fairly strong example of the basic tenets not even being followed in the forum.

Rod's point stands, the forum has descended into bucket of stuff that is not ideally suited to being stored in a free form structure. And if people don't want to put their Feature Requests into the Wish List and Defects into the defects list then it is impossible to migrate to a more appropriate tool.

And if my comment kills the conversation then maybe there wasn't much else to say.