@Ilkka: RE: Graduated/Archived Forums

Decided to move this one from the blog to the forum.

I think this could be an interesting one as I can't count the number of times I have responded to posts in the Graduated and Archived forums as a result of poor support/discussion provided from the rest of Nokia post Graduation/Archiving. This is not a dig in any way at anyone within Nokia, but people acknowledge that the Nokia Discussion Forums state that it is community based and those with most experience of teh BETA apps are the BETA Labs community. Also it has been muted a number of times that the dev teams still read and respond to posts in the Graduated Forums sometimes.

I think the issue is not of Betalabs making, but more an issue of poor post Graduation support routes outside of the Betalabs team. Most peoples experience is that the presnet Nokia Care route is very torturous as you need to break through the first tier of support personnel to manage to speak to the truely technical types, and even at this level you are often faced with someone that may have less specific knowledge than yourself relating to your specific issue. The number of time I have heard people complaining that multiple people have asked the same questio, but have been given different often contradictory answers dependent on who they have spoken to with the Nokia Care system (Some more rediculous than others).

I suppose I will just wait and see, but the issue will be how you can monitor it's effect. How do you generate a metric of how many people have not posted in a removed forum?

mbrett
N97 RM-505 (Product Code: 0585262 (Vodafone UK)) FW 20.0.019
N95 8Gb (Product Code: 0558787 (UK)) FW 31.0.015
http:///www.twitter.com/MartynBrett
http://www.n97geeks.com

Comments

Submitted by ilkkapeltola on 11-12-2009 14:44.

I'm not absolutely sure I understand the problem, so let me clarify:

"How do you generate a metric of how many people have not posted in a removed forum?" Are you worried that users who e.g. are using an archived beta would like to post their concerns somewhere? But cutting out the forum they will not have any place to do so? Or worried that users will start posting stuff they would otherwise have posted to an archived forum, to a current one that fit their needs closes? Or what is the effect that you refer to that we need to monitor?

What we have observed is that the discussion in archived and graduated betas has not been very frequent nor fruitful. Sometimes it is still on-going, but most often that feedback is not affecting anything anymore: either the application is not developed anymore or the team is working on a new release, to which they are not able to take any more user input. Basically, what we have to assume is that once an application is archived or graduated there is no-one listening to that channel anymore. Therefore, we see wisest to close these forums to make the message more clear to the users.

Submitted by mbrett on 11-12-2009 22:01.

I understand the situation from your point of view, but Due to lack of support in other places for graduated apps I have seen dicsussions continue or be created in the graduated forum when users are looking for help and advice on using the apps. I could give OVI Maps mobile client as an example as there are still discussions now. I accept some will not attain a positive end, but some do help people.

I suppose this could be classed as an issue for Nokia Discussions. Maybe the team over there could create a forum for Graduated Betalabs apps or something so that people knew where to go.
Where would I need to suggest something like that?

Submitted by ilkkapeltola on 14-12-2009 11:29.

I understand, and you do have a point. Personally, I'd feel Nokia Discussions would be a more natural place for these discussions. I just feel that by keeping open these forums we are saying that we still welcome the feedback and that it can still have an impact on the product. I feel bad about those users who take their time to discuss graduated / archived applications with the hopes of e.g. reviving the application. We could do a better job in just communicating it, but I just feel it wouldn't be a strong enough signal.
I'll discuss this with John and come back to you.

Submitted by suyog on 31-01-2010 22:57.

I also agree with Martyn here, It's more of formalising support mechanism when you graduate or release app/service.Also same should be clearly notified to users.Often i find users coming back and posting on Betalabs about issues with graduated apps/services because they feel they have better chance of getting solution here.I have personally found myself in exactly same situation as martyn described. It's hard to get part first layer of support quickly and find solution. I have one issue with Music service which has not been resolved even after 2 months. :(

Suyog

Submitted by mbrett on 01-02-2010 09:22.

Actually thinking about the commenting on Graduated apps issue further. Is there any chance that these apps could be identified as Graduated or Archived in the "Followed Applications" field, maybe identified either in words or colour difference.

Maybe on the application pages "THIS PROJECT HAS BEEN ARCHIVED" could have some extra text tagged on the end explaining what this means. Some thing "As such like this application is no longer supported via the Beta Labs site. The Forums relating to this application are no longer viewed by the development team."

This kind of wording could even be tagged to all pages relating to these apps.

Any thoughts?

mbrett
N97 RM-505 (Product Code: 0585262 (Vodafone UK)) FW 20.0.019
N95 8Gb (Product Code: 0558787 (UK)) FW 31.0.015
http:///www.twitter.com/MartynBrett
http://www.n97geeks.com
If you find my post helpful please let others know.

Submitted by ilkkapeltola on 02-02-2010 12:43.

I like the suggestion. We need to do a better job at showing users which apps are archived / graduated when they land on the application page. And we need to make it easy for users to see which of their favorites have been archived/graduated. I'll add something about this to the backlog.

Submitted by teskio75 on 03-11-2010 18:21.

Moderator joined from Nokia Video Cuts/Bug reports/Recall on busy do not advise after the connection (very old bug)!

This is a bug that always existo on the nokia device (something that was working on the first microtac i had!!).
If you setup the phone to automatic recall on busy tone, when he finally get the line free the device do not make any bip or whatelse to advise the user.
The result is that you are connected to someone but you'll never know and he will speak with you pocket!
Unbelievable!

This is a bug for every nokia's smarthphone .. donnow if also for the normal mobile phones.

Submitted by teskio75 on 03-11-2010 18:30.

sorry: wrong area but not able to move it.
Could some moderator do it?
regards

Submitted by suyog on 06-11-2010 16:43.

@teskio75 where you want to move it? As I can see this isnt bug report for any existing Beta labs project. Such things should be reported to Nokia Care or Nokia Support Discussions.

Please let me know if you want to move or delete this post from here so that you can post in Nokia Support Discussions?

Best Regards,
Suyog

http://mobileyog.blogspot.com
http://twitter.com/mobileyog

Submitted by EskeRahn on 01-04-2011 12:51.

Allow me to resurrect this thread.

When a program is graduated, it would be natural to move its entire forum into a special space for "Graduated apps" in the discussion forum.
Leaving a link in here

Maybe adding an automatic finishing post to all threads. This should tell that now the users are on their own, and to help each other. Left with only rudimentary attention of Nokia, and not with the intenser attention of BetaLabs.

There are a rather large forum on OviMaps 3.06 (that just graduated).

Best Regards
Eske Rahn

N97mini 0592616, 12.0.110, OviMaps 3.06(637), Swype 1.00(16481) with Danish dic. 1.00(18885)

Submitted by ilkkapeltola on 01-04-2011 13:15.

This was a good timing to resurrect this topic as I'm planning to discuss this in more detail with mr. Markow soon.

-Ilkka
--- ---
Reminders to all users:
Can Beta Labs contact you? Let us do so here: http://betalabs.nokia.com/user/edit
If you see a helpful or unhelpful post, let other users know!

Submitted by markow76 on 01-04-2011 13:36.

@ilkkapeltola - You know where to find me :) Let's try to identify some simple measures that would make the transition from an active trial to a concluded trial as smooth as possible.

John - Community Facilitator @ Beta Labs

NokiaBetaLabs

Nokia Beta Labs

@Ilkka: RE: Graduated/Archived Forums

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