New CEO Vince Steckler (and forum/support improvements)

[wpn]

http://www.avast.com/eng/vince-steckler-to-lead-global-expansion-of-alwil-software.html

i saw there is a new CEO.  Congratulations to Alwil Software for attracting this big guy.
Congratulations to Vince Steckler to find a new challenge and a new working enviroment....


maybe i can suggest a point of improvement.... (no offense meant to Alwil here):
try to improve the support in here in the forums...(which basicly means in general)....
and maybe try to improve OS version support to go a little bit faster, for example Vista hasnt been in
ADNM until last may... next month the RTM of Win7 the succesor of Vista will be released.... cant wait
3 years for full support for that one really....


for the rest keep this team working hard so they keep delivering a good product

goodluck Vince and Alwil

[hlecter]

maybe i can suggest a point of improvement.... (no offense meant to Alwil here):
try to improve the support in here in the forums...(which basicly means in general)....

IMO the forumsupport is excellent, I must have misunderstood you. 

Sometimes members can even get answers before they are asked in the forums.
(By using the search function which IMO are much too little used for repetitive questions.)   

Regards
HL

[.: L' arc :.]

maybe i can suggest a point of improvement....

If I am not mistaken, the system of sending samples is what you feel to be quite low in support.

 So far, nothing else. Everything else is at its best.

[wpn]

Oooh let the discussion begin

the support in the forum (for me primairly it is adnm/server part) is user based, every now and then one of the avast tech members pops up with a possible sollution that works yes, but judged on the questions and comments from others there is still a lot of room for improvement.....
just look in the adnm/server forum for the exchange store issues and the sbs2008 issues, the involvement of official techs is neglectable and no sollution so far
a big community is very nice ofcourse but when there are repetive issues then one of them should step up, make a new thread where he addresses the issue and either give the sollution or starts analysing it with the people that have the problem.

i also dont see too much official announcements about new versions or something, but that might be related to the level of membership im still in, i heard some parts of the forum are only visible of u have a certain ammount of messages posted, so that can be improved too

im not saying there is no support at all or that there is no help at all, no but if you have a forum in here and there is a proffesional part in it and there is a thread without sollution and several thread about the same issue without sollution then its time to step up


im just saying there is room for improvement with support (at least here in the forum)

[Lisandro]

wpn, any solution for that? Or better, suggestion?
How can forum be better? In practical terms.

[wpn]

added all between ( ) to the title....


Well as said, u find a lot of questions about the same subject, some solved some not....
for the effectively solved problems, the sollutions can be moved to the support pages, they are there right now but not too much filled yet....
the topics that get started with the problem where the sollution already is known from can be closed by a moderator with a link directly to the support page where the sollution is.... the topic starter could object to the closure of his thread if the sollution is not the correct one (with a time limit of 1 week else the topic stays closed or deleted (this would clean up the forum too))

when there are multiple threads about the same problem but still people create new ones, those can be closed with a link to a new thread that the moderator/tech guy creates with the problem and the possible sollution that he knows and from there all the people that have the same problem are discussing the same problem in 1 location....
(i have been searching for some sollutions and found them to be in threads where i would never had looked if i wasnt curious enough to look in that thread to see why that title had to do something with my searchwords)

in my own case there is an issue with the exchange 2003/2007 plugin, which prevents the information store from starting, if the registry key for virusscan is changed, the store starts but its not protected by avast anymore....
i have been posted my own thread about it, i posted in 1 or more other threads about it, but in any of those i have seen an avast tech member giving a possible sollution..... and i have read several other threads concerning the same problem for 2003 and 2007

about the announcements.... there is a nice part in the forum for this, unfortuanately the last message in there is from 2005....
then there is the lack of announcing anything about Bart cd 3, i have ran the beta, it works nice but announce something about it, its been a long time already... it would be enough already if there is an announcement that avast is waiting for Win7 and Win2k8 R2 to come out so they can make the basis for the cd from those 2 systems....
another announcement would be nice to be about avast 5, i have seen anouncements about it from users here on the forum... but not from avast itself, just that it will be completely redesigned?

information and support is the key to a happy license extending customer

[YoKenny]

@wpn

Whatever is in your signature is not showing up for me just a box with X in it

If I try to display the referenced pic it just goes to:
www2.utopiakingdoms.com

[Lisandro]

The sollutions can be moved to the support pages, they are there right now but not too much filled yet.

Well, I agree but it's a manual labor to move... Users will "lost" their posts because they were moved and they don't know the "new" url of it.

the topics that get started with the problem where the sollution already is known from can be closed by a moderator with a link directly to the support page where the sollution is.... the topic starter could object to the closure of his thread if the sollution is not the correct one (with a time limit of 1 week else the topic stays closed or deleted (this would clean up the forum too))

Not all the problems are equal... it's difficult to have a general solution that could be applied to any situation.

when there are multiple threads about the same problem but still people create new ones, those can be closed with a link to a new thread that the moderator/tech guy creates with the problem and the possible sollution that he knows and from there all the people that have the same problem are discussing the same problem in 1 location....
(i have been searching for some sollutions and found them to be in threads where i would never had looked if i wasnt curious enough to look in that thread to see why that title had to do something with my searchwords)

Well... seems complicated rules, requires admin actions all the time.
I would like that they use their time to help and not to maintain the forum in that extent. Well, it's my opinion.

another announcement would be nice to be about avast 5, i have seen anouncements about it from users here on the forum... but not from avast itself, just that it will be completely redesigned?

I'm quite sure they will ANNOUNCE avast 5 in very loud voices

[wpn]

Well, I agree but it's a manual labor to move... Users will "lost" their posts because they were moved and they don't know the "new" url of it.

In the thread where the problem was/is there will be a final message from the admin with the link to the solution of course, this could also be edited in the opening post for quick access if the topic covers several pages

Not all the problems are equal... it's difficult to have a general solution that could be applied to any situation.

I understand, but thats what the support/faq page is for, if there are multiple problems for the same (information store not starting) this could be a different alinea with a bold header making the several solutions that are scattered over the forum (and thus hard to find) located in a central place, if the solution is not in there for the new topic then the starter can object and have the problem solved and the solution added to the support/faq page

Well... seems complicated rules, requires admin actions all the time.
I would like that they use their time to help and not to maintain the forum in that extent. Well, it's my opinion.

this can be done once a week, its called service (which will be a major selling point then)... of course its more intensive but it will clean up the forum a lot, centralizing problems that should be together instead of scattered and hard to find....
I would like the admin to help yes, but so far i have seen not THAT much from it, admitted that 90% of the replies that i saw from an admin where indeed helpful
Maybe its a good start to do this with only the ADNM/Professional forums to see how it goes and later expand it to the home forum

I'm quite sure they will ANNOUNCE avast 5 in very loud voices

this was actually meant to get more information about it   anything would be nice really.... since i am in the process right now of filing a budget request for 2010 and if i get all that i want (its more that i need it tho) i will be rolling out a c3000 blade server and installing all my clients with win7 somewhere in the begin of 2010.... i want to be sure that the client is fully functional then, not like it is now that i can only control the client from the ADNM console since the gui is not starting on the client in vista/win7 (its not too important to have the gui work on clients, but i pay for a fully working product so i want to see a fully working product u know)