Forum Discussion
This is the worst forum I have ever used (in 40 years!)
Community ManagerThank you for your feedback, the community structure is complicated. We cover over one hundred Microsoft products and product areas and, while we have tried to keep the community simple to find the product you want to share your experience and knowledge on, the nature of such a large structure is it is a fight to keep it organized in a logical fashion.
Could we do better? Yes definitely and if you have specific thoughts around this, I would be happy to take them away.
Your feedback on getting access to an FAQ is a good one but real estate at the top of the community fold is at a bit of a premium. What we can, and should do, is put a link to the 'Getting Started' documentation in the welcome email users receive when they first sign up.
I will add that to our backlog.
Anyway, I hope you're not feeling as frustrated now and if there is anything we can do to help you please do not hesitate to comment here.
Allen Smith
Technical Lead
Microsoft Tech Community
- Mr Smith.....as an addendum, I just looked at that "premium real estate" on the Home page, and it's your opinion, Upcoming Events is more important than indoctrinating a new member with a FAQ page?? Seriously?.....again, smh.....
" @JoeUser is correct.....this community is horribly confusing. There is no FAQ page anywhere on the Home page, and because that important piece of information is missing it's a real problem figuring out how to go about the basics, like making a post."
Hello , This is a necessary discussion - thank you for your feedback.
I agree that it is difficult for new Members and I think Microsoft will fix it quickly!
Deleted
I agree that it is difficult for new Members and I think Microsoft will fix it quickly!I like your optimism!
Microsoft is a monolithic giant with ponderous movement when it comes to listening to the community, except when it's 'vogue' or makes them money.
As for this community Joe, Andre and Sue are all correct. I am a new user, attempting to report bugs or communicate issues with Microsoft products and have hit roadblock after roadblock while attempting to do so. Microsoft seem to have closed off their old gateways to do this, which is fair enough, but surely they should have a replacement?
Firstly, there does not appear to be any definitive, easily recognisable method for doing so. I have found two issues with SSMS that I am attempting to highlight to Microsoft, but there is no obvious wording anywhere that says: "REPORT BUGS HERE"
Secondly, on joining this site, I was presented with a confusing CMS with, as SatelliteSue says, no help for the novice user. Why not? This site is less than intuitive and does not lend itself to finding your way around easily.
Thirdly, perhaps most importantly, I do not have the privilege to ask a question in the most obvious feed! WHY?? Get a grip - the idea behind a community is that people help each other, not hinder them!
So, I think what people may like to see (especially new users, like myself, JoeUser2004, SatelliteSue and Deleted), is either some kind of walk-through or introduction to the community, and further support on how the site structure works. Site management could learn a lot by nipping off and having a look at StackOverflow.
Wow! Sorry to be so grumpy on my first day!
- Mr Smith, with all due respect, those of us outside the business world don't rely on email like in years past. Used to be, the first thing I'd do when getting up in the am was check my email. Now days, the first thing I do is check my texts and voice mail. Also, that mention about "real estate being a premium" at the top of the page.....I'd settle for seeing a FAQ list ANYWHERE on the first page. Surely that's a possibility? Or is this an example of "being settled in one's ways?"
- @JoeUser is correct.....this community is horribly confusing. There is no FAQ page anywhere on the Home page, and because that important piece of information is missing it's a real problem figuring out how to go about the basics, like making a post. As a new comer I'd like to know how to ask a question, and in the most appropriate thread for my topic. No where is that to be found. It's hard for me to fathom why the FAQ page wasn't made an integral part of the Home page on this website from DAY ONE. I simply shake my head in wonder.
I've been online for 23 years and have used community forums for technical questions an untold number of times during all these years and, believe me, this forum is definitely at the bottom of any I've ever been on. Someone has to take a good, hard look at what a new person sees when they come here, and, then, make some changes that will clarify, solely for new people, how to navigate this website. Folks who have been coming here for long periods know where everything is so they don't need instructions on how this community works, but new people, like myself, do.- Allen
Thank you for taking time to join the discussion, I appreciate everyone's perspectives and always love to learn about problems anyone has encountered with the community. I would like to comment on some of the things you have mentioned.
- The Microsoft Tech Community focuses on the IT Pros, Devs and system administrators. As such we are working to deliver a community that works for people who work in these areas. As you rightly say outside businesspeople don't rely on emails that much but given the target audience for the Microsoft Tech Community it seems reasonable that we should add the getting started to our welcome emails. I appreciate you tend to user texts and voicemail, I have to say in my experience I have never found a community forum that uses these mediums for delivering welcome messages, in any market area, happy to be wrong.
- Could we put something on the homepage? Yes of course we could but it probably wouldn't make sense to keep it there forever so it would probably make sense to make it something that disappears after you achieve a certain rank.
- The primary navigation of the site takes you through the most common things you can engage with in the community, that is: Communities, Blogs, Events, Microsoft Learn, the community lounge and is already very busy across the screen sizes we support. Events are a very popular aspect of engagement on the Microsoft Tech Community.
In summary, we hear you on the onboard experience and we are working on a new experience which we will roll out during 2022, along with some other significant updates to the community.
I will however take away the feedback we have received here and see what we can do to make it easier between now and the new UI / UX being ready to ship.
You have provided some very serious and honest feedback, however I would also encourage you to avoid making comments about any community member being "stuck in their ways", as its not constructive or respectful.
I will of course update this thread as we make any changes that come about as a result of this feedback.Allen Smith
Technical Lead
Microsoft Tech Community
- The Microsoft Tech Community focuses on the IT Pros, Devs and system administrators. As such we are working to deliver a community that works for people who work in these areas. As you rightly say outside businesspeople don't rely on emails that much but given the target audience for the Microsoft Tech Community it seems reasonable that we should add the getting started to our welcome emails. I appreciate you tend to user texts and voicemail, I have to say in my experience I have never found a community forum that uses these mediums for delivering welcome messages, in any market area, happy to be wrong.
