Poll - Next Steps for Community Site

Hmmm, well since you had nearly a thousand pleas for a return to the old forum in the first poll and all you've done so far is tweak this one, what exactly are you doing except continuing to ask the same question hoping for a different answer?

Let's try this, I just looked at the home page and there are right now 836 guests online and only 11 members.

Now, comparing those numbers to the numbers you used to see on the old forum, what do you think you should be doing to fix this one?

Well said

"Continuing our efforts to improve the Dell Community site" indeed. I see very few people getting any real help here.

Customer service should be improved. And if the customer is located in the United States they should have Techs solving problems in the USA without the added fee.  As far as I am concerned Dell computers are JUNK  I'm going APPLE on my next computer

I'm so frustrated with Dell.  I've had problems with my Dimension 4550, and wanted to install the Dell Support Center to get its supposedly more advanced PC Check program.  The online PC Check didn't find the problem.  The first download had an error, so I had to delete everything and try again.  After installing the new download, it went better, but now won't function because it apparently didn't identify the Service Tag and other system info it needs. 

So I try the Dell Support site, to see if someone could help, but it didn't recognize the My Account log-in I used.  Somehow or another I got to a different Dell site where it did recognize me and then I tied it to the Dell Community;  what a run around!  Just too many different user ID's and passwords for all the different Dell sites.  Then I try to find a button to click where I could enter my new question to the forum.  No can find.  So I go to the so-called "Tutorial" page, where I'm directed to something called a "Wiki".  Do I find a tutorial there for posting and using the forum?  No.  Just a list of other people's threads.  And what the heck is a Wiki?

I'm no techno geek, but I'll sure look like one after pulling all my hair out.  I wasted so many hours trying to fix the computer's problem over the last 2 weeks, and did finally get the System Restore to work right, which helped a lot.  But it's still slow, so bouncing from one Dell webpage to another all day, waiting for each to load, just serves to fuel the fire.  It should be easier than this.  I should be able to just sign in and immediately post a question to the group via an obvious "New Post" button.

Addendum:  Okay, I went back and found the New Thread button staring me in the face.  I could swear it wasn't on the first pages I went to.  Reckon I had too much steam on my glasses after an hour of navigating Dell's site trying to find answers.

(I am assuming this is the "comment section" you are referring to, although it is actually a "reply" - if so, this is another "user interface/site navigation" glitch in the new forum setup)

The designer of the new forum system is brain-dead -- too much trying to be a social-networking clone, and that's not what this community's main purpose should be.  IT'S A TECH SUPPORT ALTERNATIVE, GUYS! So things like an ADVANCED search button (able to limit to particular forums and to show posts as well as threads and to search within results) and a "new topic" button should be up at the top, front and center, on every single page.  Please revert to Forum 1.0 - your site developers may be enjoying playing with all this 2.0 junk, but it is not serving your customers one whit.

I am new to the Forum Community and fairly new to computers.

I find it very difficult to navigate the site or even find out if my question

was asked before. It's a bit disheartening. I don't know what the old forum

looked like, but it seems that a lot of people are unhappy with the new one.

I had hoped that posting in a forum would be less intimidating than dealing

with tech support.

My last post was deleted, i think my language may have been a little too strong and misunderstood, not that it matters, this topic itself has died. At least Folding at Home and The unofficial Guide to using these forums are popular (The geeks are doing a good deed, everyone else is just confused)

*** Edited version ***

I have no idea what the thought process is, Web 2.0 interfaces are pretty and very nice for meeting with your 100 friends of which 3 would even bother to take the time to answer a simple question. It is not helpful to make tech support weed through page after page of nonsense. The entire problem stems from integration and layout.

The Forum is for generous, knowledgable people to help YOUR customers. I cannot imagine what this debacle has cost Dell in additional tech support, and lost customers that were unable to get their answers from the phone system and tech support agents that are using scripts.

The community website must have been designed by the same people that have designed the phone system. The only results I can see is that people get so lost and confused that they just will not return.

There are many successful tech support forums, that surprisingly look very similar to the old forums. The answer is simple, the old layouts work, revert back to the old forums or just lay off your web designers and hire back some tech support agents.

As far as I am concerned Dell computers are JUNK  I'm going APPLE on my next computer

In all of my numerous Dell computer purchases, I've always found their products to be a pretty darn good quality product. The couple times I did have an issue with something, they replaced the product right away... even when the warranty had expired.:emotion-21:

I don't know anything about Apples, but rest assured that eating one daily can help keep the doctor away ....:emotion-8:

Yeah, you're not going to do better with Apple.  Statistically their notebooks are no more reliable (although I like that they have U.S. tech support).

Also most of Apple's hardware (with the exception of the Mac Pro) seems to be designed for looks rather than use.  Every Dell I've used can be pushed, hard.  Apple's notebooks (and most desktops) meanwhile have much worse cooling systems, and seem to be designed for people who just run Firefox and Word, and that's it, never really push the hardware.

I agree with beau511 completely.  Put it back like it was so we/I can find needed information.  Admittedly this is the first time I've been on since about August of last year but this is a whole new learning curve for me.  Change is not always progress.

In the new forums, I am finding it harder to find information than it was in the old forums.  A search dredges up bogus results.  If I'm searching for "Optiplex GX620", I don't need half of the first 10 results to be about other Optiplex systems.

The new forums/community has what I consider a fatal flaw: I have been poking around here for a couple days, and I've lost track of the number of times that I've come across a thread that references what I'm looking for, where an earlier poster wrote something to the effect of "This has been answered before.  See post http://www.dellcommunity.com/supportforums/board/message ... etc." , but  attempting to follow that link takes one to the home page of the new forums.  The old links are BROKEN, which destroys the usefulness of this vast treasure trove of information that has been compiled for years. 

I haven't used this site very much, but there are 3 comments that immediately come to mind:

1. The site is extremely slow

2. The search function doesn't work very well..  I did a search for D620 + broadcom and I ended up with tons of results that had nothing to do with the D620 or broadcom.

3. Should have the option to display more results per page, especially since the site is so slow.

Why are you guys so arrogantly sticking to this notion that the "standard" way forums look (more akin to phpBB) somehow needs re-inventing.  You *STILL* have not yet reached the usability of your original forum!

If you insist on this then at the very least:

1. More posts per page (selectable)

2. The posts really *have* to show the date & time of the latest reply.  Without that there is no way at all to find out the frequency of replies.  This is important to see at a glance a fairly good estimate of how long it'll take for a response (rougly).

3. The options for posts (newest / uncommented / solved / unsolved) is missing "ALL".

Oh my goodness! I have not logged into Dell's Forum for several months and what a complete shock! This new interface is ABOLUTELY HORRIBLE!!! Don't let my name fool you. I used to be an upgrade_newbie when I first started using this forum, but after several years of using and adding some of my own post, I know my way around computer troubleshooting. Thank goodness I know enough to use other resources and wont have to rely on this forum any more. I logged on here to research a problem a friend is having with her XPS All In One and I feel like I just entered some horrid foreign country. I truely feel very sorry for a new user trying to navigate this unhelpful MESS!

1. Not user friendly AT ALL!
2. BIG time waster to navigate! 
3. Wasted SO much time trying to do a simple troubleshooting search I don't have more time to post what I dislike!

Why on earth was the former very useful forum's format changed so greatly????? Why? I'm sure most people would agree that when we are troubleshooting a problem the last thing we need is a STRESSFUL interface while looking for help. This forum used to be so simple to use.....why did you all flock it up?

There is ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that can fix this mess.  Look for yourself: its after 9:30 am (EST) on a Thursday (usually biggest or next-to biggest use day) and there are 172 guests and 9 members online!  NO one is coming here anymore.  We've all had enough of the promises but never even a hint of reverting to the old system.  So, guess what, we've left.  Statistics cannot deny that plain and simple fact.  We've left.