The Mail Exploder is at risk, Speak up NOW!

dgschaefer

21-Topaz II

I'm seeing some talk now of starting a new site. I'd gently suggest that we wait to see what PTC is really up to. We've heard a PR announcement and lots of rumor and we know the basics, but not how it will be implemented. I too am concerned, but jumping off and creating something new risks fracturing the community even further.

This change is coming and PTC has indicated that they are listening to us. (Of course, they also said that they had no plans of merging the communities ...)

The other reality is that the user base is already fractured. PTCUser is where more of the long time users participate, while the PTC Community is full of folks who are brand new. PTC doesn't do a good job, frankly, of highlighting the strength of their product (robust reference management and parametrically capturing design intent), so these users come in not knowing how best to leverage that to make their work lives easier. Read some of the questions there and it's clear they don't understand some of the fundamentals that have been part of Proe from the beginning.

PTCUser hasn't done a great job of making this community accessible to them either. None of our posts and none of the wisdom shared here for over two decades is accessible to Google and therefore available to folks searching for answers. Once you find the PTCUser web forum, which is driven by our emails, is a mess to navigate as a direct result of being built from email. The threads aren't built properly, lots of garbage text and duplicate text and generally hard to read.

This generation is used to going to Google for answers. They are used to software companies sponsoring user driven communities as a help resource. They Google for help and PTCUser isn't even on the list. They know, however, that PTC is the parent company and PTC has a forum and it may even appear in those Google results.

These two groups need each other. Without an expanding user base, Creo, the product that all of us rely on to some degree or another to feed our families, has a limited life span. Without the knowledge we possess, they will have a hard time with the Creo learning curve and they start pressuring their companies for a more user friendly too. So it's to everyone's benefit to bring the two groups together. Will PTC do it well? Time will tell, but I'd like to give them a shot.

Someone mentioned Facebook or Wordpress. These are great for what they do, but wouldn't be great for building this community. Frankly, given the #1 concern is loss of email functionality; a Google group would be the best match.

But I for one would like to see this play out a bit first.

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S

StephenW

23-Emerald III

Doug is our optimist. I agree it is too early (I hope, since no timeline is given) to move to a completely different solution.

16-Pearl

Yeah...I agree this is an issue Ben.
I guess best option is dedicated website. I recommend something with
content management like "Wordpress".

16-Pearl

Word press can handle email. That's what it's made for. I am still a
Newbie on Wordpress.....So I can't tell if it will cover all bases...but
its pretty powerful and well respected in the blogging community.

16-Pearl

No need to jump. Planning is A ok.

DonSenchuk

12-Amethyst

While I agree that it might be good to see what they're really up to, I'll leave that optimism to Doug.

The community site has been running for a number of years.
During that time the Exploder has been humming along just as it always has, allowing the type of exchanges we've all benefited from.
PTC has made changes to their community site trying to attract more people. Multiple times.
Exploder keeps humming along.
PTC's Social Media guy is under pressure to get more people to their site.
Social Media guy hatches a plan not to improve the community site but to shut down his direct competition?

It may be all well and good to claim they'll make changes to the community site to make it work like the Exploder, I'd have to wonder why that wasn't done in the multiple revisions they've made to the community site already. That was until I realized Social Media guy's goal is not to provide a PTC version of an email exploder that lets users communicate with each other the way we do on The Exploder. His goal is to get people to go to the communities site. That means no Exploder-like exchanges. Page hits equals success for the communities site.

While I agree with some of the issues Doug mentions the exploder having, my optimism that PTC will get their community site right before closing down the Exploder is low. My optimism that they'll provide a means whereby we don't have to go to their site at all is virtually nil.

dgschaefer

21-Topaz II

I’ve worked with Wordpress lightly for a couple of years; I was more heavily into Moveable Type before that. Both are blog engines. Yes, they can be made to do an email list, but it would be a lot of work. Better to start with a system already made for an email list.

An F150 can be made to drive a mountain road as fast as a Miata, but it’s a lot easier to just get a Miata.

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J

JoseResendis

6-Contributor

Is anybody else concerned that PTC will grow their community site and then
tie access to the support agreement or allow special access to advanced
topics based on subscriptions?

Again, don't be completely blind sided as to why PTC is interested in
taking this on.

Best Regards,

Jose M. Resendis
Mechanical & Optical Engineering Center (MOEC)
Raytheon - Space & Airborne Systems (SAS)

"Great execution requires discipline"

16-Pearl

Do you use wordpress.com or wordpress.org capabilities? Big dif.