Forum at http://help.archivista.ch/forum/
Pfaffhausen, 3 April 2010: the time is finally here. The new support forum can start operations. After a long period of preparation (it took approx. 20 hours of work), we are happy to be able to release the new support forum today.
The new support forum offers many great functions and we hope that it will be a great help for all users working with our products.
Community support for everyone
In contrast to commercial support, where you, the customer, can call any time, send an e-mail or order training and support from us or our contract partners, there is no direct support from us and/or our contract partners for those wishing to use the ArchivistaBox under the GPL license.
For many years, however, support forums have been available at sourceforge.net. But their user-friendliness left much to be desired. The new support forums offer a tool that is up-to-date and has a wealth of useful functions.
But the term ‘community support’ also means that the support should be provided by users for other users. Quite frankly, we have neither the time nor the resources to provide community support for several hours every day. However, we will probably check in once or twice each week and attempt to provide brief answers to the best posts.
Sources now available at http://svn.archivista.ch/websvn
We are frequently asked which new features the new versions contain. The simplest way to determine this is from the sources. Here, too, the old solution wasn’t particularly convenient. With the new solutions, direct queries can be submitted about the changes, allowing you to see at any time what was changed, when and why.
We hope you have great fun and success using the two new support options. And there’s one more thing: if anyone would like to act as a moderator for the support forums, please contact us. There is no money to be made, but you will get merits.
No room for show-offs and naysayers
Unfortunately, support forums are sometimes a stomping ground for show-offs and naysayers. We expect people to use a matter-of-fact and friendly tone in the support forums. The point of the exercise is to describe problems with the Archivista products and/or receive help with them. This does not mean that no criticism is permitted, but it must be constructive and appropriate. If someone doesn’t like the Archivista products, they do not need to advertise this in the forums.
And if someone can’t find specific support material in the manual, it doesn’t really help to write that the handbook is useless (sorry, but we invest quite a bit of time in the manual and it is free of charge!). An exact description of the actual problem is much more useful – it’s usually best to keep things clear and concise. And if someone wants to put forward a solution to a particular problem, their comments are always very welcome.
We would also like to state clearly that if someone does not wish to stick to the rules, we will be forced to intervene without delay. As we’ve already said, there’s no place in our forums for show-offs and naysayers. With this in mind, we hope you enjoy using the new support forums.
