What can make this forum as good as it was in the late 90s?
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This post is borne of a post in the 'tips and trick' thread by @melissa.lax , posted to a new thread so as not to be too OT.
The original thread is here: http://forums.autodesk.com/t5/3ds-max-forum/share-your-favorite-tips-tricks-workflows-and-secrets-in...
>So I've heard a lot about the Max forums in the 90's. Please enlighten me, what can we bring back?
It's a hard thing to say how to bring back that old flavor. AD's past policies did nothing to help; after AD took over from Kinetix, they totally dumped the forums, three or four times. All the content and history was lost, and we had to start over again from nothing. At every reboot, they gave less and less resources to the forum, insofar as moderators or having staff dedicated to participating in it. Both as a bug channel, and as a learning channel. When it was Kinetix, the forum was an integral channel to reach the development team. For many of the AD years, it felt like a total afterthought, a place where AD though it would save a few bucks by letting users deal with some of its support issues. Speaking for myself, I eventually lost interest, and moved off to other boards, and eventually, stopped altogether as my own business became consuming.
The internet was also a very different place then. The desire to help was greater, and the community was smaller. Many of us had met several times in person at Siggraph. A lot of the folks I used to 'hang' with around here are now senior at big studios, and don't have the time/need/interest to come back. There were fewer outlets where one could participate ... youtube, as one example, didn't exist yet. The software itself was young, and each new release was a significant improvement. (That also died with AD's takover, too.)
What it comes down to, though, is that the owner of the forum needs to be supportive of it. That means doing, as they have been recently, providing dedicated staff to keep on top of the goings on here, with the customer concerns. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. @Alfred.DeFlaminis is doing stunning work here, and is part of the reason I'm being more contributory. He clearly has the resources (both in time and back end software) to be able to see what he needs to see to help; he has the ability to interface with the dev team, and organize issues. He can create new bug reports out of posts. It honestly feels too good to be true.
AD could provide direct incentives to its users. Swag, perhaps, or any other types of "we appreciate your service to the community" actions that would show, just a little bit, that they do appreciate the fact that some users are helping others. A kudos is only worth something if an individual is missing that in their lives. If the users taking the time to be here think it's worth while, they will stay, and a new strong community will form. There are definitely a few folks here doing that already, out of the goodness of their hearts, which is great. Doesn't hurt to have more, though. This could also be done with contests, or other end-user oriented promotional activities.
But it also means having a sensible architecture to the forum; right now, it's a bit of a free for all (feels like it, anyway), where navigation ins't as easy as it should be. Most of the time, I have no idea where I am in the structure of the forum. AD also really likes making the "user experience" continuous across all its programs. While that's understandable, some thought should also be paid to making genuine software specific communities. Granted, there will never be the 'rivalry' between Max and Maya as in the days past, people who use max all of the time seem to have a different mindset than Maya folk, probably due to the different workflows and (typically) industries, which should be celebrated. I should feel valued, not as a source of income, where the only interaction is to see how to get more money out of me. But dumping data is never going to be ok. Just as was done recently from the user voice > ideas. AD is in the job of software; no reason why data can't be carried, in one way or another.
I may sound pretty upset with AD, and I am. My post history probably has a few examples of me being very harsh. I am, however, hopeful and open minded. Actions speak more than policy statements and press releases. The less a company does things because it thinks it knows what its users should want/need, and does what its users actually want/need, the better. (Could be worse. Just look at Microsoft!) AD has often done things which were very thoughtful of its shareholders, and while that cannot be ignored, happy users will also make happy shareholders.
Kris.
