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WHERE is all of the old forum information?
Question asked by Curtis Kropar www.HawaiianHope.org - 7/8/2015 at 3:52 AM
Answered
Exactly that.
WHERE is all of the old forum information ?
 
I am here trying to finger out how the hell to configure this Smartermail 14 and our new server and i am searching for information that i know i have read before years ago, and the sh** it no where to be found.  This is really pi$$ing me off. 
 
I am camped out now 2 weeks reading and reading and reading stuff all over the internet (instead of at the experts home) - half of the answers are based on assumptions and not actual knowledge.  Yes, i am getting it to work piece by piece, BUT IT HAS BEEN 2 FREAKING WEEKS now that i am screwing with this. WAY too long. This is BLOWING my time when there are so many other projects we have to work on.  I cant find any of the old forums where i know answers have been given before.  I am REALLY starting to feel like we thrown our money away on smartermail.. And some questions i ask now are never even answered.
 
For instance, i am trying to get CDOSYS to work now with our web forms, and when I do a search for CDOSYS, there is a SINGLE thread. So in the last 10 years of Smarter Mail i am to believe that myself and one other guy are the ONLY ones to ever ask about it? 
 
Maybe i ask for help ? Then to start a ticket i am supposed to pay first ?  Did you guys wipe out the forums so you could make more money on support tickets ?

www.HawaiianHope.org - Providing technology services to non profit organizations, low income families, homeless shelters, clean and sober houses and prisoner reentry programs. Since 2015, We have refurbished over 11,000 Computers !

7 Replies

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2
Derek Curtis Replied
Employee Post Marked As Answer
We transitioned to using our Community, and away from the forums, about a year ago. At SmarterTools, we've always used our own products whenever possible, and we've even built ones to use that were better than what was available in the wild. 
 
As for the forums, there was a lot of information built up over the years. A percentage of it was good, but the vast majority was outdated or just plain wrong. Factor in the SPAM we'd get and the forums, though decent, weren't the ideal solution for us. So, we added the Community to SmarterTrack and have since moved to using it for interaction with our customers and for crowd-based support. 
 
As for your issue, you could have easily posted a new topic explaining your issue and receiving input from other users. JUST as if you were in the forums. Bruce replied to a reply you posted, but it would have been better had you posted an entirely new question. That would make your question visible to the ENTIRE Community so you would have received more input from other members. 
Derek Curtis COO SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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It was a resource for knowledge. If you had a problem with spam, you should have dealt with fixing the problem.  If you migrate over to a new tool here, That's fine.... migrate the knowledge too. My "issue" as you put it in the last paragraph is not a single question. That was just ONE of many.  It is multiple questions that i have spent 2 weeks researching and configuring... Many answers I did not find here on your community as i found the answers other places, Easier to look for it someplace else than to post a new question here that may or may not get a response. I come here to ask questions after other research has failed.
 
"A percentage of it was good, but the vast majority was outdated"
 
But its OK though to have installation instructions still up on your site for Version 2 of smarter mail ?
 
Where the requirements are
  • RAM: 128mb
  • CPU: PII 500
Is that not outdated too ? That's a problem I have with many companies.... their stories are not too consistent with evidence.
www.HawaiianHope.org - Providing technology services to non profit organizations, low income families, homeless shelters, clean and sober houses and prisoner reentry programs. Since 2015, We have refurbished over 11,000 Computers !
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Tim Uzzanti Replied
Employee Post
Well, I guess no response would have satisfied you. There are still some products out in the wild that have direct links to the help. On the flip side, conversations from seven years ago are far outdated and no longer apply.... And as Derek said, we introduced this new community using our own product which has better interaction and management for reporting issues that now can be tracked. We also kept our previous forums around for a year during the transition. And with every purchase, you get a free ticket(s).
Tim Uzzanti CEO SmarterTools Inc. (877) 357-6278 www.smartertools.com
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Brian Ellwood Replied
Tim,
 
Unfortunately, no response from ST regarding the old forums will satisfy the members here who contributed to it.
 
"There are still some products out in the wild that have direct links to the help"
 
If this is the case, then the discussions in the old forums would have still been accurate and relevent to those users running those versions.
 
"With every purchase, you get a free ticket(s)"
 
These expire, every year and unfortunately the ST gives the air of "every ticket costs a ticket"... Yes, a ticket can be refunded, but from the customer mentality, there is a perceived loss going into the interaction; this is poor psychologically.
 
This is exactly why the community WAS worth it's weight in gold.
 
The answers were there and easy to find. Now we are left with a hollow shell of what we had and the customer base simply doesn't trust ST anymore.
 
By unilaterally deleting the old forums, you've openly stated:
 
"The past community input and effort is worth less than using a lesser (internal) product which "has better interaction and management for reporting issues that now can be tracked""
 
When in reality, SmarterTrack is not a communal product. It's a helpdesk / bug tracker. We can't even private message people. 
 
It should not be the burden of the community to make your lives easier at the cost of alienating and severely upsetting your user base.
 
Without us, ST is nothing. Without us, you guys pack up your desks and find other jobs.
 
I'm not sure what the answer is, but something needs to give but by all accounts, repeatedly telling us you've made the change to "better things for everyone" when it's only made things better for you isn't going to help sway the community.
 
My .02, bring the forums back, in read-only mode and disable registrations (as you've had to do here as well).
 
If someone has an issue with a dated article there, they can open a new community thread here or (as you want people doing) open a ticket.
 
 
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Emmet McGovern Replied
This is another beating a dead horse thread.  No one at ST is going to resurrect the old forums no matter how much the community needs or wants them.  They said they "permanently deleted" them so this discussion is pointless.
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Brian Ellwood Replied
No company knowingly "permanently" deletes anything they deem of value adding further insult to injury.

I'm sure they have a backup... Dreamhost disk space isn't that expensive.

Dead horse beating, indeed, but hey, even Ellen Pao apologized; as thinly veiled at that was.
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Emmet McGovern Replied
LOL on the Ellen Pao

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