Forum Now Requires Partner/Customer Account

[NickD_3CX]

We’ve made an important change to the way partners and customers can contribute to our forums. In order to post, you must login using your partner / customer account. It is no longer possible to use a separate forum account with a different email address and to post “anonymously”. The reasons are threefold:

• To give priority to paying...

• Continue reading the Original Blog Post.

 

[Evolute IT]

Sweet now I am no longer specified as Affiliate but marked as a customer.

Thanks for that. Now people will stop taking me seriously when I try to help.

Those changes were not needed at all.

 

[NickD_3CX]

Thanks for that. Now people will stop taking me seriously when I try to help.

I completely disagree. Good advice is good advice regardless who it is coming from. Also the "Advanced Certified" tag, as far as "good advice" goes, is more important that the Partner Level in my opinion.

 

[Evolute IT]

I completely disagree. Good advice is good advice regardless who it is coming from. Also the "Advanced Certified" tag, as far as "good advice" goes, is more important that the Partner Level in my opinion.

Still, a customer is not an affiliate and an affiliate isn't a customer. Those shouldn't have been merged.

 

[FridayIT]

Still, a customer is not an affiliate and an affiliate isn't a customer. Those shouldn't have been merged.

I can see both sides to this, however I will agree with @Frederick Marcoux on this one. I feel that affiliate's should be recognised as such on the forum. I can see the benefit of highlighting this, in an example, lets say I started a trial and a particular affiliate provided me with support, I would likely consider them when selecting my "partner".

This makes affiliates more likely to offer support for some basic questions on the forum, and also might give them a few sales.

This is coming from a customer perspective as our team is not certified or affiliated at this time.

 

[N_G]

To be recognized on the forum as a partner you must have a minimum certification and sales which is $2500 of RRP sales PER YEAR (i.e. buy price is less than that). Its a very reasonable amount and an amount that most of our competitors require per quarter. That doesnt mean to say you cant technically support a customer if you dont reach that level but its a reasonable yardstick. For Frederick and FridayIT somewhat unfortunate as they are valuable members of our community - but we have to take an average over 10k+affiliates.

Thats said as Nick D pointed out - certification and the quality of the answer will most definitely override a level assigned by our system automatically.

 

[AWS2P]

Hi,
Good point you created a partner forum, it seems to me that it should have been like this forever
Having a dedicated partner space is good not to be mixed with all customers to talk about certain subjects more closely at 3CX

As you are changing the way forums work, are there any new projects for IDEAS? restore the privileges of ALL partners for example?

Like Frederick and other Affiliates, I'm not sure that not differentiating between Affiliates and Customers is that good, but it's your choice.
Of course, reputation is better from one to the other with good forum responses, but that doesn't help in helping the Affiliate progress to a higher level.

 

[N_G]

Yes I am sure it seems like that to you. But we could only do this after we focus on the partners that reach a certain minimum level of sales and knowledge. We have done that now. Also we beefed up our community team from 1 to 5 so we have more manpower to help.

Re ideas, definitely not. We have way too many ideas in there, most of them are lame unfortunately, and the moderation thereof is a massive amount of work. So it has to be a bit exclusive I am afraid. That said you can still vote for ideas and even comment on existing ideas.

The ideas forum is not a feature roadmap for 3CX btw. I think there is some miscommunication about that. The roadmap is made by 3CX management based on our view of the market and our company strategy. The ideas helps and we look at this feedback and implement quite a few (another 10 in v18) but thats it.

 

[AWS2P]

That said you can still vote for ideas and even comment on existing ideas.

Yes, Vote is the only thing we can do for now, comment are no more available too

 

[MidiTélécom]

Yes, Vote is the only thing we can do for now, comment are no more available too

Totally agree.
The "new" system for the ideas forum looks more messy now, to be honest.

The fact we can't reply to topic seems to be a good choice but isn't. We can't tell the users that this idea was already posted and have 50 up vote and being "In consideration" (for example)...

If this part of the forum have a strong moderation for checking same idea, etc, why not, but here is a great example :

"In progress" : https://www.3cx.com/community/threads/3cx-night-mode-visual-indication.45633/
Same idea being up voted for no reason : https://www.3cx.com/community/threads/can-we-please-have-a-day-night-normal-mode-flag.78662/

No action for about one mouth to this same idea.

Does the report button could help to report this kind of things or will be totally ignored ?

Thank you.

 

[NickD_3CX]

The fact we can't reply to topic seems to be a good choice but isn't. We can't tell the users that this idea was already posted and have 50 up vote and being "In consideration" (for example)...

While I see your point, the truth is that most users unfortunately won't read many comments below, so the odds are they will still not see the comment with the link to the other "Idea".
We are considering also to improve the search on the forums so it is easier for users to search for existing Ideas and other posts in general.

 

[MidiTélécom]

While I see your point, the truth is that most users unfortunately won't read many comments below, so the odds are they will still not see the comment with the link to the other "Idea".
We are considering also to improve the search on the forums so it is easier for users to search for existing Ideas and other posts in general.

If we are thinking like that, the users that "won't read many comments below" are the users that "won't use the research".
Moderations and a great report system (same topic report) seems to be the way to go, even if this is time spending.

Or add more rules that pull off before create the idea.

 

[NickD_3CX]

If we are thinking like that, the users that "won't read many comments below" are the users that "won't use the research".
Moderations and a great report system (same topic report) seems to be the way to go, even if this is time spending.

Or add more rules that pull off before create the idea.

Thanks for the interest! These are all things that we are considering, we'll see what the best option is and technically feasible and act on it when the time comes.

 

[SteveITS]

It took me a couple of days of emails to get my existing partner/customer account (that I was already using on the forum) to allow me to post. Neither side is quite sure why. It wasn't working yesterday even in a private window and deleting cookies, but it works today. So if anyone is having trouble, try logging out and deleting cookies/cache, just wait a bit, or email 3CX.

 

[giwm]

As an enterprise customer, I applaud this.

Though the confirmation process could use some serious grammar love.

 

[aefinity]

I'm an enterprise customer, but all of the licensing etc is managed by our partner - so this account and associated email address will likely never be associated with a paying customer. If you're doing this to ensure that your paying customers are heard, I'm not sure how that works in this instnace?

 

[NickD_3CX]

I'm an enterprise customer, but all of the licensing etc is managed by our partner - so this account and associated email address will likely never be associated with a paying customer. If you're doing this to ensure that your paying customers are heard, I'm not sure how that works in this instnace?

If you are the registered owner of the Enterprise license key, and your email in the forum is the same as that in the registration details, even if the license key and your installation is handled by a Partner (as it should be), then your status will still show up correctly.

The only case I can see where this won't happen is:

• If the License Key is not actually owned by you
• The License Key was an Annual and it has now expired and has automatically been downgraded

I would be more than happy to check this with you, just send me the first 8 digits of your license key you have on your 3CX PBX in a PM and I will check.