The Mail Exploder is at risk, Speak up NOW!

Forum|Forum|11 years ago
June 17, 2014
119 replies
33717 views

The shocking news from day one of PTC Live is that PTC want's to "absorb" the mail exploder into their on-line communities forum.http://communities.ptc.com you'll see the announcement of this at the top of the page.

I went up to Ron and Dan durning the break and said what are you doing to my mail exploder. The answer was there was pressure to only have one source of communication instead of some stuff on the forum and some via the mail exploder. They are having discussions next week on how to transfer the data from ptcuser to the ptc site.

I asked if I was still going to get emails and the answer was no.

I'm sorry but this is killing the goose that laid the golden egg.

Make no mistake, if you don't raise your voice on this issue the mail exploder will disappear.

Dave Haigh

Show previous replies

nrollins

1-Visitor

That is the business model for SolidWorks. PTC has copied them before.

nrollins

1-Visitor

Damian asked "How do we make the PTC Community site the best place to get
answers?"

One way is to go there and reply to Ryan Kelly's email post to the PTC
Community Forum and tell him what we think - what is important to us and why
we are nervous / upset about the announcement. He said he received
acceptance, support and happy thoughts at the Show - he needs to hear the
other side of the story. He obviously is not reading these messages.

I plan to do that - reply to his post on ptc.com, not that it will stop the
action, but if our voices are heard, we may affect some of HOW it is done.
He did promise me that email as a method for communicating will not be taken
away - but as was mentioned - replying to the messages will probably require
login - unless we convince him of the need otherwise.

When one say's their company "blocks social media sites," I cannot help but
wonder if their company blocks specifically communities.ptc.com - did you
try it?

And if so, can your IT guy make an exception? Did you ask?

I want this to work as much as any of you, but I was in Boston for the Show
and talked to Ryan personally on Monday evening and the decision is made -
it will happen (according to him - it is HIS baby). There are decisions to
be made on HOW and I think they want us to be happy. We are their
advocates. So I think he will listen to us as much as he feels able.

I really want this exploder to remain - AND I want there to be a similar
resource for a SolidWorks community. The forum for SolidWorks is an online
thing much like communities.ptc.com Not nearly as convenient as the
exploder - but it is the only game in town. I think that is what PTC wants.
Why else do they "prohibit" a RUG to exist without the "presence" of a VAR?
And we don't even have a PTC RUG in the Boston area - even though this is
where PTC lives! The SWX forum does suck to use (no email, subscriptions
are hard to set up, screenshots need to be saved to HDD as jpg and uploaded,
password to login each time.etc) - but know this: There is a community of
very knowledgeable guys and gals there that are extremely patient, helpful
and welcoming - just like you all (us all.) The community is the people -
not so much the venue. WE will not be the same without the Ben Loosli's and
others who are not permitted at work to join the forum - so we need to voice
these concerns to those making the decision.

Ranting to each other will not solve anything. YOU - Make the effort to
tell Ryan your thoughts - even if it means logging on from home. I don't
think he fully understands what the resistance is all about or why it is so
persistent, but he may be able to alleviate some of the pain in the
transition if we educate him.

If it DOESN'T work like we hope,

A google group will accomplish the same functionality that the exploder has
- at least for the everyday usage stuff that we enjoy. I use it now for a
much smaller group - ~20 people - I don't know how it would handle ~2000.
And we would need an owner / administrator. (I nominate Mike Lockwood and
Wayne-O) J

And I think MailChimp would be the next resource I would investigate - but I
am not sure.

Ahhh, progress.

I am glad to hear that we are all passionate about sticking together. I am
all-in however I can help. I can't live without you all.

-Nate

bbenitez

1-Visitor

Nathan -

Many companies, as does our lab, now sit behind a web-portal based firewall.
There is no direct way in, and no direct way out. Log-in sites that
communicate directly with explorer are history for us. Gotta keep the,
well, you know who wants in.

Anthony R. Benitez
Senior Mechanical Designer - Supervisor
Applied Research Laboratories - The University of Texas at Austin

ScottPearson

1-Visitor

I agree this move is all about driving traffic to ptc.com. It is not about "enhancing the customer experience", as has become the go-to wool-over-the-eyes corporate-speak excuse for every move nowadays. That is not unique to PTC but neither is it a reason for the customer base to buy into that baloney. In Texas, we say "Don't piss on my leg and tell me it's raining."

PTC brass has, no doubt, realized that the Exploder traffic was an untapped, uncontrolled revenue stream. To believe otherwise is to believe that PTC willingly spends money on efforts that do not yield a profit. We all know that is not PTC's habit.

The instantaneous response of the Exploder is its greatest asset. A close second is that the responses are from front-line, down-and-dirty users. It puts all of us just on the other side of a virtual office cubical wall..., able to shout out a quick question to a problem which is halting our progress and to get an immediate targeted reply instead of a 24-hours-later reply all too often laced with scripted "Try this..., try that" seemingly random suggestions. We've all been there.

For a contrast to the effectiveness of the Exploder, just look at PTC's online Knowledge Base. Do a search for an Error Message. Use the exact wording. What is your percentage of success in finding a single Tech Doc specifically written for that exact Error Message? My experience has been <5%.

There is no excuse for that! PTC writes the code which presents that very Error Message to the user. The error dialog doesn't appear on-screen by accident. The programmers went out of their way to display that Error Message on the screen. Yet PTC can't manage to write a Tech Doc specific to each Error Message and post it within their own Knowledge Base. Hence we all turn to the Exploder and, voila!, there is typically an answer in our Inbox within minutes. Apparently, we've all seen that Error Message but the geniuses who manage the PTC Knowledge Base have not.

No, I don't see PTC "enhancing the customer experience" we already enjoy within the Exploder community. If PTC has idle time on their hands, they can first make their Knowledge Base a reasonable asset to visit.

Already PTC is asking, "How can we make the ptc.community everything you want it be?" Here's how: Leave the Exploder alone and don't reinvent the wheel. We're fine out here.

I don't hear any "customer-driven" demands for getting rid of the Exploder by absorbing it into the black hole of ptc.com. "Customer-driven" supposedly means something to PTC when they start pushing their newest releases, but apparently not when it comes to the Exploder.

Fortunately, the internet itself remains unharnessed (for now). I expect that the same spirit that gave birth to the soon-to-be late great Exploder will again give rise to the next generation of Exploder. It's good to see busy minds already working the problem.

I recommend somebody start a site immediately as a "place-holder" and post the URL to the Exploder while we are still in touch with one another. (proexploder.com is currently available - unless PTC buys it now <g>.) That way when we wake up and the Exploder is gone, we'll all know where to huddle-up.

We all have more pressing things to do than to flame PTC, but let's call a spade a spade. Once again, PTC is proving why they aren't exactly the Master of Customer Relations.

Scott Pearson
Senior Designer
CAD System Administrator

[cid:image004.png@01CF8B1D.148C1170]S O U T H W E S T R E S E A R C H I N S T I T U T E(r)
Space Science and Engineering Division
Space Systems Directorate
Department of Space Engineering
6220 Culebra Road, San Antonio, TX 78238

1_oledata.zip

kimndave9

1-Visitor

I think you are mistaken in believing users can have influence over the way PTC Community is run.

The PTC Community goal is to have users regularly exposed to PTC marketing material, a function PTCuser does not serve. The lure is based on telling new users that PTC Community is the only place to get help and information and to supply a small amount of free educational materials.

The immediate expected result for PTC is people paying to get the information they need on a subscription basis via PTC University. I expect that those subscriptions aren't happening. The long term may also be to get people back to maintenance support so their complicated questions are answered via paid subscription.

It's like other marketing; no matter how good the ad, if people don't want the product, it's not the ad that's the problem.

I think PTC University is not seen as a value, and PTC tech support will sometimes be helpful, but the answers are usually 'no soup for you!' in that the desired result is either not available in the user's current version or not available in any version. Lots of money for a "We're sorry, but, no." The worst answer is "Sure, it's a known problem, but we don't tell unless you ask."

rreifsnyder

15-Moonstone

Having to log in to the PTC Community site has been mentioned several times as a drawback, but in fact it is worse than that. You have to log in to see the entire conversation, to get context for a reply. Here is a reply to a reply I made on a question to the Community site.

[cid:image001.png@01CF8B53.18C2A6B0]

In order for one of you to have any clue about the original question really was and what I had suggested, you have to go to the thread. The likelihood of the next person following all of that to offer a different solution will decrease exponentially.

Rob Reifsnyder
Mechanical Design Engineer/ Producibility Engineer / Components Engineer / Pro/E SME / Pro/E Librarian
[LM_Logo_Tag_RGB_NoR_r06]

magnus.salomons

15-Moonstone

Not as active as it used to be and not the mail exploder but MCAD Central still has some activityhttp://www.mcadcentral.com/forum.php so instead of starting another group users could move to that site if in worst case this gets shutdown.

I like how it's divided into different categories as well as getting a what's new pagehttp://www.mcadcentral.com/search.php?searchid=332399

nrollins

1-Visitor

No , really - I need to get back to work!

But.

Scott's take on this reflects my feelings well. The goal at PTC is to
increase traffic and revenue (can you blame them for that?) Unfortunately
that might not align well with our goal. Ryan Kelly told me that "We're not
changing the game or the team, we're just changing the stadium." I think he
believes this, but he doesn't realize the issues we will face. Robert
Reifsnyder highlighted one of those issues in his message. These are the
things that Ryan needs to understand if he will do anything for us. And he
says he wants to keep us happy. Without us, his forum will not be as good
and THAT he does know. We could band together and leave him and THAT he
also knows. I really think he wants to hear what we want and will do what
he can to accommodate. In 2007/08 (?) PTCUser created the forum as it
exists today and the Board then was going to kill the email exploder and go
to a fourm. Why didn't they? Because we raised a ruckus. And they listened
- they made the forum, but kept the exploder. We need to raise a ruckus
again - but we need to raise it - "over there." Last night I said I would
personally do that and I (just did) Why did it take me so long? Because it
is a PITA to login and remember my password, etc. etc. And this thread is
delivered to me. So I have been spending my time here this morning. I just
went there to voice my opinion. Please do the same if you haven't already.

Whining to us about it won't change anything - guaranteed. Whining to Ryan
might affect a change. That is why petitions exist - the voice of the
people needs to be heard in order for change to happen.

-Nate

ptc-1932745

1-Visitor

My problem with PTC University specifically is it seems that this is an added cost, and they are trying to use this to make up for poor help documentation. I believe that the VAR's may be also letting PTC know that they are unhappy spending quite a lot of time/expense 'servicing' small accounts with many questions, etc... about software features that are poorly documented.

I personally have issues because some of these 'functional areas' seem never to have classes available locally to learn the nuances of the modules. (Tool Design, Import Data Doctor, Toolkit, Java, etc...) Sure, I can bring a person in (sometimes) but the cost is prohibitive, and I only need the assistance in the first place because the help file is less than helpful.

I'm not charged with paying our maintenance, but can anyone tell me if you can access to PTCU if you have a maintenance contract without paying extra?

In order for the PTC community to be of use, I would like keywords/tags available that when triggered would send me daily digest emails that pertain to those subjects of interest. Also, as others have demonstrated, I need to be able to archive the entire message thread for future reference.

Unfortunately for PTC, there are already services and sites that will tag and aggregate web content for me based on tags and keywords for free. (Google news for example).

Christopher F. Gosnell

FPD Company
124 Hidden Valley Road
McMurray, PA 15317