Feedback Needed for the Forums

[Smartplug]

What might be useful is for the forum members to get to know (or at least know about) some of the people behind WiiM, from the corporate staff to their lead hardware and software developers in order to put a name and/or face to those who are responsible for WiiM and their devices. For example, while I had many conversations with WiiM behind the scenes, I still have no idea who the person was to whom I was speaking, or indeed whether it was the same person as last time. We don’t want or need their email addresses to unnecessarily pester them but it would help humanise contact between WiiM and their users.

Also, I think it’s imperative that any news or information that comes out from WiiM is authoritative and consistent. We’ve had several instances where messaging has been mixed, along with news about imminent developments like YouTube Music and Disney Music (?) that don’t appear to have left the drawing board.

It will be nice if we see let say moderator it will say hardware engineer or software engineer instead a generic administrator which is vague. Title below their user name make much more sense.

 

[Burnside]

It might be more helpful to new members for a more streamlined "get help" category where they can ask their questions and we can all help them find answers. Ideally, with more solutions people will find the answers by searching instead of just asking the same questions over and over again. I'd love to get your take on this too!

On that note, one mechanic we haven't done much with is Resources, which are articles that are hosted on the forums, another way to put common answers in front of people prior to searching.

I guess both of these fall into the FAQ type realm. When I was admin and major contributor on a large Alexa group on Facebook, I was constantly cutting and pasting answers to the same or related type of questions so decided to assemble a range of FAQs. Rather than solving the issue, I just ended repeatedly linking to the FAQs instead of cutting and pasting the answers

In this forum, I often end up doing similar and post links in response to questions.

As a result, I’m ambivalent now to the FAQ type approach as many people simply post their question without having searched first. You also have the issue of keeping those FAQs up to date which I think might be the case for some of the existing forum resources.

 

[cc_rider]

Lots of companies are turning to AI chatbots for these oft-repeated questions.

 

[adias]

His idea with no downvotes would not bode well. If someone want to request 20 band geq that would not bode well so that allow us to downvote.

In an ‘open democracy’ (which BTW never worked) that would be the way. LinkPlay/WiiM and its forum customer base is not a democracy. An up vote means there is someone interested in a feature. It’s up to WiiM to decide if that makes sense not others.

I, for one, only use the streaming component of Ultra and that via an external DAC, but others use its internal DAC, processing, phono preamp etc. I rather advocate for a separate, streamer-only, USB out unit, instead of reducing features on one unit.

 

[Burnside]

Lots of companies are turning to AI chatbots for these oft-repeated questions.

I have little confidence in these I’m afraid, as they can often quote back out of date information. Only last week I asked CoPilot AI about sending audio from a WiiM Pro to Sonos speakers and got a response that might have been valid before the removal of the feature that shall not be named. When challenged, it then changed its answer. It referenced both this and the Sonos forum in its responses and had I not known better, I would have accepted its first wrong answer.

 

[Wiimer]

I guess both of these fall into the FAQ type realm. When I was admin and major contributor on a large Alexa group on Facebook, I was constantly cutting and pasting answers to the same or related type of questions so decided to assemble a range of FAQs. Rather than solving the issue, I just ended repeatedly linking to the FAQs instead of cutting and pasting the answers

Is it possible to automatically link this forum to the FAQ?

Currently, when I enter keywords in the Post thread form, related posts are suggested like this. Just including search results from the FAQ here would help a bit.





The same goes for the forum search form and individual threads.

If we can properly tie the forum, FAQ, and app together, I think we can create a synergistic effect.

 

[RyanWithWiim]

Is it possible to automatically link this forum to the FAQ?

Currently, when I enter keywords in the Post thread form, related posts are suggested like this. Just including search results from the FAQ here would help a bit.

View attachment 13175



The same goes for the forum search form and individual threads.

If we can properly tie the forum, FAQ, and app together, I think we can create a synergistic effect.

This is definitely a big topic for me. I'd love to get federated search going between the forum and the FAQ, or possibly just syndicate content from the FAQ into a Resource format on the forums.

Another thing I'll be looking into is using the platform Tags to help here. Maybe we'd have a tag for "WiiM Amp" so you can just search for everything WiiM Amp related. We could use issue type tags as well, so maybe "no sound" or "audio cutting out" pull up threads that have been marked with those as tags.

The trick there of course is a set listing of tags that makes sense to enough people to be helpful. We wouldn't want to just have tags open for anyone to make, or we'd find ourselves swimming in a dozen different spelling/misspellings and phrasing for the same issue.

 

[adias]

And another comment… product customer suggestions are fine but there should be a limit to that. Experience shows that companies falling for the trap of constantly implementing customer suggestions get in trouble very quickly… they lose focus and direction.

 

[Wiimer]

This is definitely a big topic for me. I'd love to get federated search going between the forum and the FAQ, or possibly just syndicate content from the FAQ into a Resource format on the forums.

Another thing I'll be looking into is using the platform Tags to help here. Maybe we'd have a tag for "WiiM Amp" so you can just search for everything WiiM Amp related. We could use issue type tags as well, so maybe "no sound" or "audio cutting out" pull up threads that have been marked with those as tags.

The trick there of course is a set listing of tags that makes sense to enough people to be helpful. We wouldn't want to just have tags open for anyone to make, or we'd find ourselves swimming in a dozen different spelling/misspellings and phrasing for the same issue.

Yes, please do.
Another suggestion is a link from the Wiim app.

I think this is already a common way to supplement a section by adding a question mark. You could also add information from the FAQ or forum here. Also could prioritize support team posts to be picked up here.

 

[harkpabst]

Another thing I'll be looking into is using the platform Tags to help here. Maybe we'd have a tag for "WiiM Amp" so you can just search for everything WiiM Amp related. We could use issue type tags as well, so maybe "no sound" or "audio cutting out" pull up threads that have been marked with those as tags.

Tags are one of the most powerful tools in collaboration tools! Tags are simply great!

It's just a matter of who will be allowed to assign tags. Don't expect thread starters to apply them at all, even less in a way that makes sense. Just like we can never expect thread starters to use meaningful titles (for all kinds of reasons, starting with the language barrier for non-native speakers), we cannot expect them to add useful tags. Some might do that, others will not. This could be delegated to a community tier, very much like marking solutions.

The beauty of tags lies in their flexibility. Add as many or as few as appropriate. Apply filters manually or create dynamic views based on tags. Endless possibilities ...

+1