Posts Not Updating New Entry Correctly

[simplextech]

Knowledge issue and human resource issue. No one has come to us with VB experience and offered to assist. Randy mentions that he has, but he has offered to assist users, not assist with board maintenance. I had no idea that he knew anything about board maintenance.

If anyone knows how to manage a VB board and is willing to assist I am totally open to that and encourage you to email me. Maybe we can compensate with some product.

We are all super busy here and just have not had enough time to learn everything that is needed to fix open issues. We are looking to VB to see if they can offer someone to have a look at the board. The search is one of the biggest issues we would like to fix.

Now we're getting somewhere. Perhaps you need a forum category of open issues/help wanted? (only slightly joking). But this type of thing is not uncommon. It's impractical to think you have staff/experts on hand for everything. However you do have a community full of people with various skills and expertise that could help if they know there's a need for the help, how to communicate with you about helping and sending an e-mail to support is generally not useful in this regard.

This goes back to the issue mentioned about the now gone Bugzilla. A bug tracker for any company/project is a necessary thing. To keep track of bugs, issues and that includes with the forums as well. Or use the forum to track those things and get more community feedback about the issues. However it is done, it provides community involvement and opportunity for volunteers or help to fix something. Take a hybrid approach of Commercial + Open Source and be more involved with the community and the community will be more involved.

[randy]

Knowledge issue and human resource issue. No one has come to us with VB experience and offered to assist. Randy mentions that he has, but he has offered to assist users, not assist with board maintenance. I had no idea that he knew anything about board maintenance.

That simply is not true. I exchanged quite a few emails with Rick Tinker in March of 2014. I have exchanged emails regarding this board with Mark Colegrove on many occasions, beginning in 2014 and ongoing since then. I have offered to Administrate and moderate on a number of occasions, without much response.

I will bow out of this conversation now because, once again, communication seems to be a lost art.

[rjh]

Our forum issues can be logged to this forum:

https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...ard-bugs-suggs

Its one thing to log the issues, its another to have the resources to address them! Right now we don't have anyone to look into any issues.

Now we're getting somewhere. Perhaps you need a forum category of open issues/help wanted? (only slightly joking). But this type of thing is not uncommon. It's impractical to think you have staff/experts on hand for everything. However you do have a community full of people with various skills and expertise that could help if they know there's a need for the help, how to communicate with you about helping and sending an e-mail to support is generally not useful in this regard.

This goes back to the issue mentioned about the now gone Bugzilla. A bug tracker for any company/project is a necessary thing. To keep track of bugs, issues and that includes with the forums as well. Or use the forum to track those things and get more community feedback about the issues. However it is done, it provides community involvement and opportunity for volunteers or help to fix something. Take a hybrid approach of Commercial + Open Source and be more involved with the community and the community will be more involved.

[simplextech]

Our forum issues can be logged to this forum:

https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...ard-bugs-suggs

Its one thing to log the issues, its another to have the resources to address them! Right now we don't have anyone to look into any issues.

That kinds goes back to my "help wanted" suggestion....

Here's the thing. There's a forum for posting the problems which gives "us" the impression there's someone to look at/fix the problems. Yet it now seems like it's just a sounding board for issues much like the black hole of bugs that bugzilla was?

[logman]

.... this community sees this and this forum is the PRIMARY support mechanism for HST. Without this community HST support would be completely overwhelmed with phone calls and e-mail. So I think it's in the best interest to put whatever is needed into the forum and community. This community keeps HST alive and people sticking with HS and sticking together as a community to help each other. HST should as a small company realize this and also utilize the community when "resources" are needed.

Bingo, bingo, bingo!

My one experience with HST phone support was on a Friday afternoon. After a LONG 40 minute hold waiting on a tech to become available, the line went dead. Disconnected after waiting 40 minutes, which is my typical luck. So I dial back in only to get a recording that tech support was closed and their hours are Monday - Thursday 9-5, and Friday 9-4. I looked at my watch and it was precisely 4:00pm. So after leaving me on hold for 40 minutes they cut me off at 4:00pm and happily headed home for the weekend. As Trump would say, NOT GOOD! That pretty much told me I was on my own when it came to support. Thank God for the forums here.

My wife and I own a fair-sized internet-based wholesale and retail business. We sell on several platforms, including our own website, Amazon, eBay, Wal-Mart, etc. We are not a huge company by any stretch of the imagination, but we do usually ship around 1000 orders per day and up to 2500 per day this time of year. We have a customer service department that is staffed 7 days per week across 2 shifts utilizing support ticketing software developed in-house. We also have an 800 number and have several support staff working the phones.

Is it expensive? You darn right! But only in the moment. Good customer service is actually cheap over the long term because the customers you are helping (read: investing in) today are tomorrow's repeat customers. It's key to growing a customer base beyond a one time sale and it's how you lower your customer acquisition cost year-over-year. You know, the basic stuff to be successful in the long term.

I can't even remember what my issue was that day... I think another Zee had died maybe. What I do remember was posting my issue to the board and Randy being the first one to jump in and help. I'm sure he had better things to do that evening too, but he still took the time. And for no financial incentive.

I'll repeat what John said.. Without these forums, HST would be in deep trouble.

--Barry

[simplextech]

Our forum issues can be logged to this forum:

https://forums.homeseer.com/forum/ho...ard-bugs-suggs

Its one thing to log the issues, its another to have the resources to address them! Right now we don't have anyone to look into any issues.

Coming back to the "resource" issue. I know a professional .NET developer looking to change jobs and could also be the forum admin. People are out there if the position and pay is right. Not me, I'm not a professional.

[rjh]

No plans to hire right now. We will see what happens next year.

As I mentioned, if anyone knows how to manage VB I am willing to compensate with some product. Finding this type of person will probably be next to impossible.

In the meantime we will try to address the issues the best we can. As I said there is a VB update pending to be installed, will apply that as soon as we get a chance.

Coming back to the "resource" issue. I know a professional .NET developer looking to change jobs and could also be the forum admin. People are out there if the position and pay is right. Not me, I'm not a professional.

[simplextech]

Cannot afford to hire right now unfortunately, and with the Tariffs, things are really tight. We will see what happens next year.

As I mentioned, if anyone knows how to manage VB I am willing to compensate with some product. Finding this type of person will probably be next to impossible.

In the meantime we will try to address the issues the best we can. As I said there is a VB update pending to be installed, will apply that as soon as we get a chance.

I wouldn't say impossible. Maybe challenging....

[Timon]

Just though I toss my 2 cents in. I don't know how you're hosting your vbulletin site but there are hosting centers that would not only host it but fully maintain it. The cost is a lot less that hiring someone inside to maintain your own site. These sites have full staff that are experts and maintaining hundreds of vbulletin sites. They would also be responsible for all of the upgrades and will make sure the upgrades are running before it's released.

Just something to think about.