Users currently have very little control over the forum options.
- We are auto-subscribed to threads we create or reply to, and have to constantly hit the "unsubscribe" button after every reply or suffer updates about every reply on the thread.
- Although we can edit the topmost post, there is currently no way to edit a comment.
- There is no way to privately message a member on the forum. (thanks for the reminder Brian, this would also be hugely useful)
- There is no central place to see and manage all subscribed threads.
- There is no way to specify a separate email for our Ting account and the forums short of making two accounts (I want to separate Ting account email from forum email into different mail folders to cut down on the spam, and this is proving difficult).
- There is no way to specify a separate name than that of our Ting account.
- There is no way to specify/remove an avatar without mucking with gravatar (honestly I could care less about this, but it might matter to some people).
As cool as zendesk is, especially in making admin life much easier, it would be nice to have a bit more control over things on our end...
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I generally agree with this. It would be nice to see a fully featured forum system in place. Private messaging is another feature I would like to see. It's especially useful for buying/selling/trading.
I like the integration with Gravatar though.
Sorry guys, no plans of adding another forum at this time.
Luckily Zendesk is looking at beefing up their forum functionality so hopefully we'll get some new features without us having to add another communication channel.
I'm going to bump this.
I just waited an hour of my time trying to find forum setting that apparently don't exist. I don't think anyone wants a two forums, just one that at least partially lives up to how great ting otherwise is. As someone who has run forums in the past I don't think any of us are asking for anything unreasonable.
Unlike Brian, however, I do NOT like Gravatar. At all. Maybe as an option, but I for one don't want the same avatar on a recreational MMO forum as I do with my real name taking with my cellphone provider (even less when it happens without my knowledge). It took me a full hour of looking for non existent setting figure out how that cartoon avatar appeared on my ting account and I'm not particularly pleased about it.
Also, edits would be nice.....
*"Wasted" not "waited"
Autocorrect.
That avatar is awesome Bryan. I'm glad you could keep some sense of humor after that frustrating hour.
I'm not happy about the use of Gravatar for avatars either and we've expressed that to Zendesk (the people who how our entire help system. Everything at help.ting.com runs on Zendesk. I believe they know their forums need an overhaul and that they have that on their road map. Since it's THEIR road map I have no idea of when we might see changes.
Hopefully local avatar management, editing and UI improvements are coming.
I wandered through Zendesk's change request threads once while looking for information on something else entirely, and came away with... let's say a lack of confidence in their ability to make significant improvements in a timely fashion. Actually, I could drop the last few words with little loss of meaning.
If it were me, I would be considering alternate platforms for forum-type environments down the road, leaving Zendesk to the support ticket niche.
I understand your position. Although I would prefer Ting switching to another forum given apparent the lack of features or support given by Zendesk, I also understand if it's not something Ting really wants to focuse on at the moment (porting forums can be a pain particuilly if Zendesk dosen't want to help).
That being said, as a stop gap could you atleast add a forum info page with instructions and information on things like using Gravatar to change your avatar and other such things? That way atleast no one else has to waste their time figuering it out.
I've recently been using the forums more and agree with Bryan's comments about having a page with more info about how to use the forums, especially with the lack of features available in almost every other modern forum I participate in, which number quite a few. Off to Gravatar to create my avatar. :grumble: ;) Guess there's no hope of Tapatalk support anytime soon either, huh?
Not at the moment I am afraid!
Right now Zendesk is our one stop shop for everything from Help Topics, to Forums, to our Customer Support, so the support of anything else right now is not fairly likely. That being said we are always looking for better ways to improve how we interact with our customers and how they interact with each other (through the forums).
As Ken said above " I believe they know their forums need an overhaul and that they have that on their road map. Since it's THEIR road map I have no idea of when we might see changes."
Hopefully soon.
As I said: some one at Ting could easily put togeather a short forum info page (or pined thread) with instructions and information on things such as using Gravatar to change your avatar. It won't improve the forums themselves (that's all Zendesk), but it will help Ting customers better utilize the features that do exist without everyone wasting their time figuring it out.
That's a fair point. I'll see if we can get that worked on for you guys.
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