All,
I have noticed a few posts that have made some suggestions about forum enhancements.
As we're migrating and enhancing the site, there may be an opportunity to enhance the forum, as well. Some of the suggestions I have seen are:
If you have any opinions on these or other enhancements/modifications, please post here or email me directly at david.lively@arm.com.
I'm not sure how it is normally done but on the TI site, I believe that a TI employee has to verify that a question has been answered (I could be wrong). If the OP is a newie, how can he say for certain that he is being given good or bad advise.
Sorry, but when/if technical discussions gets enough complicated, it isn't always possible for a forum owner to even have the knowledge to decide when a question has been answered.
If the question relates to the Keil tools, the Keil technical team should be able tell if the question has been accurately answered. If the question is off topic when maybe not.
the Keil technical team should be able tell if the question has been accurately answered.
that would require Keil to monitor the forum
asking for a lot (not just the above) in a forum that is provided for free is not reasonable.
Erik
Erik,
If you read my post you would have would have read the following sentence.
I'm not sure that Keil monitors the forum enough to implement the answered/unanswered feature though.
Again, this feature is offered on TI's discussion forum which is free. Many members of TI's technical team monitor the board and answer questions directly. The "answer verified flag" may be more for their benefit then ours since it tells them they do not have to spend time reading or answering a question that has already been verified. It does mean something to me as a customer when TI takes the time to verify an answer.
It would take a significant commitment from Keil to offer this and I would not be surprised if they choose not to but I don't see any harm is suggesting it and I do not think David needs you to screen the suggestions.
-Walt
I think TI is (almost) unique in the way that its staff actively participate and support customers via the forum.
It is sad that so few others follow their lead...
:-(
(it must be said that Keil are among the better ones, as Keil staff do participate from time-to-time - even if that is not guaranteed).
I agree Andy.
The forum should also make https links clickable; eg, see: http://www.keil.com/forum/docs/thread17340.asp#msg88982
Just to poke my head in for a second:
I'm continuing to monitor this thread and build a request list, and we appreciate everyone's input. Aside from a new issues that we've noticed recently, the other features on the enhancement to-do list are coming from this thread.
I hope to be able to implement some of these changes by the end of the year.
The Support staff make every attempt to participate in the forum where appropriate, but ultimately we'd like to see this to continue to be monitored by the community. One of the new features that I'm looking forward to is the ability of users with sufficient rights to perform some of the admin functions as they see fit. This will have to a a closed-loop experiment, however, as it's difficult to implement this in a way that prevents abuse.
If the (qualified) support staff involved with ANY forum diligently monitored the forum, would anyone else bother to answer?
"If the (qualified) support staff involved with ANY forum diligently monitored the forum"
I guess that depends on what, exactly, you mean by "diligent"...?
I guess it would include responding only on points specifically & directly related to the product.
"would anyone else bother to answer?"
I hope so - "The Community" can contribute a much wider experience in applying the product in the real world...
In the beginning of the Keil forum, Reinhard and I personally answered many of the questions posted to the forum. The "Keil Support" use was typically one of us. Once the forum achieved enough momentum on its own, we backed away from answering so many posts and let the community take charge. You'll still see some of the Keil staff pop in from time-to-time to clarify or link to definitive resources.
Jon Ward