Thanks to kanguyen for taking the time. THAT'S the type of progress report we're asking for. (At least, I'm pretty sure I expressed a desire of many of us by framing the start of this thread the way I did).
kanguyen wrote:
"...he has the support of various internal people like me, who can provide some assistance to him."
Just curious...what do you do as an employee, kanguyen? If you'd mentioned it before, I'm sorry to say I missed it. "Program Manager" is a little nebulous. It might be beneficial to know what your duties and skills-sets are a little more specifically; there could be questions we might want to direct to you, that you're especially equipped to answer.
Anyway...
Yes, of course, there are specific things we want fixed, changed or improved, and yes, we have harped, repeated, reiterated, demanded, and kvetched about them over and over again.
But actually stating and addressing those issues is not what this thread is about. This thread is about the importance of keeping us in the loop.
So Phillip, Harbs, Jozi, Kath and everyone else who might want to use this thread to bring up, discuss and get answers to specific issues...PLEASE DON'T. To use the lack of response about specific issues as an example is one thing (as I did in my first post), but to use this thread to rehash problems of functionality is off-topic, and dilutes the more important point I’m trying to make here.
I started this thread PRECISELY because I was tired of seeing the same issues brought up time and time again, in a dozen different ways and in every other thread in this forum. I also understand that keeping track of bugs is made all the more difficult for you guys if the reporting of them is all balled up with an intense and negative emotional context. I was suggesting that regular reports from John C. and/or anyone else working on the forum problems would provide a bit of a salve for the anxiety being felt and vehemently expressed by everyone who visits this forum to complain or point out a problem.
I started this thread because it seemed to me that the concepts spelled out in the "Something Adobe Corporate needs to pay attention to..." thread (and the similar thread I missed that Dave Milbut started -"hey adobe" ), as well as the longer articles they linked to should be of enormous importance if Adobe cares even one little bit about keeping and building upon the richly important resource that these forums have become. That some of us might be worthy of the title "super-user", and some might not—those are designations better left to others to pin upon us. But the point is, we're complaining because we care about the health and functionality of these forums. The wealth of these forums' resource is undeniably embodied in the people who participate; the script and code and functionality and hardware and bandwidth is merely the vehicle...and a relatively inexpensive one at that. Further, it kind of worried me that those concepts were either unread, or ignored, or dismissed by John C. and company, and therefore tacitly deemed unworthy of even a quick reply, except by a few of our user peers. And even though they go hand-in-hand, I believe that the overarching idea of catering attention to customers' wants and desires is even more important than the actual nuts and bolts of functional operation, especially in light of the ever-more-malleable playing field that technologically-focused business has become in the past 5 years.
I can only deduce that Adobe (The corporate entity) has some sort of interest in maintaining, building upon, and improving the forums. Otherwise, why would enormous changeover job be tackled at all? There are likely broader considerations about the direction and scope of the forums that we can only guess about. And if past is prologue, we will never be told of them, because the high muckety mucks rarely see a benefit in sharing that corporate vision with us. And pardon me if I'm a little out of bounds by saying so, but I don't think it's a good idea for that sense of propriety and insularity to trickle all the way down to affect the way the men and women in the trenches deal with the users.
It doesn't need to be pointed out that the most active and vocal participants in these threads is comprised of a relatively small group of people. That condition is exactly the same as it is on any forum you care to name. Many of us—certainly a lot more than are making most of the noise lately—have made these forums a part of our daily lives. Many of us (and certainly not solely the main actors in these threads) have been at it for upwards of 7, 8, 10 years, or more. I dare say that those of us who have been around for so long have every right in the world to speak out on behalf of the majority of users who don't have the time, or the desire, or who don't have the long-view tenure to understand pretty intimately how changes that are made can have a heavy and long-lasting impact on the value of this place to them, to every new user discovering it for the first time. By integral extension, that value acts as a mirror held up to Adobe itself.
The changes being made can either be largely positive, or they can be largely negative. We can all have a hand in how that plays out.
I'm still idealistic enough to believe that Adobe would prefer that the forums be a positive reflection, a feather in the corporatre hat, the current hassles being attended to notwithstanding. And I'm idealistic enough to believe that most of the noisiest among us don't want to come off as nasty, redundant haranguers. But without an active and open two-way feedback loop between us, it feels to me like we are being treated as an annoyance. I feel this whole process we're all involved in—employees and users alike—would be a lot more productive if it exhibited the sense of being a united effort instead of what I feel is a currently building adversarial storm.
If we users continually feel like Adobe doesn't care to deign to keeping us informed, to let us know that our opinions, our desires, our concerns matter, it could be that we start reflecting that attitude right back. If Adobe doesn't give a clown's butt about us, why should we continue caring and contributing?
We regular users bring an almost incalculable value to this forum; indeed we (those of us here now, and those who will participate in the future) ARE the value. Period. So, let's say some of us current regulars get more up our noses than we can handle, and quit participating. Individually, it might not mean a whole lot. There are plenty of folks around who are just as knowledgeable and thoughtful and dedicated as any one of us. Collectively, though, just as our value is virtually incalculable, so the loss would be as well. And who among us is naive enough to believe that the steadfast, reliable resource which has been built up over the past 10–15 years can be easily replaced?
Our asking for a regular dialogue about the progress of improving and fine-tuning should be considered part and parcel of a mutually beneficial relationship here, part of the basic infrastructure of interacting with valued customers. It shouldn't be merely tolerated as an afterthought, or as something that might be gotten around to if the thought occurs, and there are a few minutes to spare while the afternoon pot of coffee is being made.
That whole "5 minutes a day is all it takes!" business? Simply a metaphorical in-joke of sorts. Maybe it'll take longer, maybe not. But once regular reporting is established, and we're all able to follow along with the progress in context, it shouldn't be too unreasonable a burden on time and energy.
—Respectfully submitted,
Phos....