'Apple Community+' Launches to Recognize and Reward Top Contributors in the Apple Support Community

[MacRumors]

Apple has just launched a new global "Apple Community+" program that aims to recognize and reward top contributors in the Apple Support Community by "providing access to special perks, white-glove experiences, and more."

In the Apple Support Community, we recognize when a member's positive attitude, expertise, and curiosity to explore new solutions make a big impact in our community. That's why we created the global Apple Community+ program to honor and celebrate these members! Each year, we invite a small group of contributors from the highest levels of the community to join the program. It's our way to say thank you and show our appreciation.

In operating the invitation-only program, Apple says it will look for high-level community members who "embody the qualities that make our space warm and welcoming" by being engaged and active in the community, sharing quality content and helpful answers to technical questions.

Apple users can participate in Apple Support Communities to earn points, levels, and awards, and grow their reputation as a trusted peer over time. Apple also provides a breakdown of the levels and perks available on its support site.

Article Link: 'Apple Community+' Launches to Recognize and Reward Top Contributors in the Apple Support Community

 

[Apple Knowledge Navigator]

Will this include the forum contributors who had their threads mysteriously deleted? 😉

 

[6787872]

it's microsoft mvp all over again, how useless that was/is.

 

[AppleTO]

Lol, I’ve had multiple questions deleted over the years. That ‘community’ is kind of a joke.

 

[kognos]

This really looks like a way to make sure the spin always stays positive.

For example:

The SSD on your new baseline M2 Macbook Pro is the most solid, secure, and innovative that Apple has ever produced. The speeds are revolutionary and will make your Apple experience magical.

 

[LV426]

It would be rather helpful if trillion dollar company Apple employed more support staff, rather than rely on members of the public.

 

[southerndoc]

1,000 plus replies for any meaningful level. Seems incredibly high, and the perks are probably not worth it. It's Apple's way of shifting technical support from paid levels to volunteers helping out.

 

[Satjiv's one click]

Stack Overflow Apple Edition

 

[swingerofbirch]

I only go there occasionally and have noticed the highest ranked people give answers that are deferent to Apple and usually blame the user in some way.

There was a story a while back about a woman who posted on how to save photos from a broken iPhone. She runs a repair shop where she can work on the actual board. Apple had said the data was lost, and she wasn't even allowed to tell people it was possible to recover their photos.

When people go looking for help online, one obvious place that comes up in Google searches about iPhone problems is the Apple Support Communities forum, where users can submit information to learn more about their device and troubleshoot their problems. But even there, people are often told they're out of luck.

Jones said she had attempted to answer some users' questions about data recovery, contradicted an answer suggesting that it couldn't be done, and pointed out a solution.

She said she was then warned about giving "questionable advice," her message was deleted and eventually her account was banned from the forum.

This has happened several times, she added, both to her and to some of her colleagues.

"It's absolutely heartbreaking, because it is absolutely not true," she said.

"Most toilet phones, common family water accidents, most of those are recoverable, especially [from] water damage."

CBC News also contacted the official site for Apple Support and received a similar answer from one administrator.

'Apple can't help': How a molecular biologist trained stay-at-home moms to recover lost iPhone photos | CBC News

A group of independent repair technicians are challenging Apple’s approach to data recovery from water-damaged iPhones.

www.cbc.ca

When I worked for a contractor of Apple's doing Apple Sales Online (apple.com and the Apple 800 number), I got screamed at by a supervisor when I told a customer they could upgrade their MacBook's HDD after purchase.

If people don't remember, both MacBooks and MacBook Pros had notoriously easy upgrades for HDDs. In fact, one MacBook even had a latch that opened up the bay for the battery an HDD and had the instructions for replacing the HDD engraved on it.

I showed my supervisor the manual that comes with the MacBook that gave step by step instructions on how to replace the drive (the good old days).

And she just responded that wasn't their policy. I was expected to lie.

The same with this person trying to help people recover their photos.

Edit: Not for nothing, but the levels and perks on Apple's page of going up the ranks immediately made me think of Scientology's Bridge to Total Freedom, especially given that you get points for being a narc (reporting other people's posts).

 

[gsmornot]

1,000 plus replies for any meaningful level. Seems incredibly high, and the perks are probably not worth it. It's Apple's way of shifting technical support from paid levels to volunteers helping out.

That was my thought as well and its smart on their part. Motivate those who dedicate time for free and keep them wanting to reach that top level of support.

 

[swingerofbirch]

It would be rather helpful if trillion dollar company Apple employed more support staff, rather than rely on members of the public.

Yes, and if the engineering team fielded phone calls!

The whole point of AppleCare is to help users use products where the product is working as intended.

That doesn't work when the problem is not the user but is instead Apple's software.

So often there are software issues in which Apple engineers don't even bother to include error messages anymore.

And AppleCare just has these very broad troubleshooting steps, which isn't their fault at all. The point of them is to guide users.

Like if Image Capture doesn't work, the default now is just to upsell iCloud.

See Image Capture not working for me over every OS release for the last 5-6 years:

Image Capture not seeing photos on iPhone

Plugging in phone via cable. Image Capture launches and can see the device, but no images or videos show up in the list. It was working when I was running the Public Beta, but now running the general release of 10.14.0 it's no longer working properly (this is the first time I've connected the...

forums.macrumors.com

These are engineering issues.

I'm the type of user who doesn't need help using a product if the product is working correctly. I think AppleCare generally does a good job for those sort of users who need how-to guidance.

 

[211]

"...sharing quality content and helpful answers to technical questions." So Apple wants the public to do its job for them and disguises this free work by giving them badges? There is no quality control in these forums. It's a mess with out of date queries, flooded with unhelpful comments and the same issues repeated constantly. A better way is for Apple to curate what issues there are from these forums and provide official solutions for them. I have found MacRumors to be way more helpful and knowledgable in finding answers to issues I have.

What about the Feedback app? Why isn't this reward system in place for that? Feedback is given directly to Apple to be aware of and resolve, rather than digging through forum posts. If they want to improve quality control, a response would be nice to know that it isn't being ignored. Better than that, whatever issue I have actually gets fixed.

 

[universenz]

It would be rather helpful if trillion dollar company Apple employed more support staff, rather than rely on members of the public.

Can’t unionise volunteer work, right?

 

[southerndoc]

What about the Feedback app? Why isn't this reward system in place for that? Feedback is given directly to Apple to be aware of and resolve, rather than digging through forum posts. If they want to improve quality control, a response would be nice to know that it isn't being ignored. Better than that, whatever issue I have actually gets fixed.

Do they even look at feedback via Feedback Assistant anymore?

 

[Bodycalming]

Will this include the forum contributors who had their threads mysteriously deleted? 😉

Just like when I was complaining about 'Battery Health' on my iPhone 12 Max, that dropped down to 90% in 14 months. Even Apple Care and my Apple Store stated "Oh this is normal battery health". The battery Health eventually dropped to Maximum Capacity of 87%, that's where it is today since Apple released an IOS update because of 'Battery Drain" and I'm still waiting for a reply from Mr Tim Cook regarding battery drain! 🔋🔋🔋

 

[macrumors3131]

Everybody that has a support problem already knows not to go the Apple forums and instead come here or one of the product subreddits for some real answers. It used to be helpful about 10 years ago when not every answer is like this. It starts with "Hey it seems like you're having a problem with enabling Bluetooth on your menu bar.." That right there is the first sign. Then it goes into a copy-pasted content on turning on and off your iCloud, resetting SMC and PRAM, and re-installing MacOS from scratch.

 

[JM]

"...sharing quality content and helpful answers to technical questions." So Apple wants the public to do its job for them and disguises this free work by giving them badges? There is no quality control in these forums. It's a mess with out of date queries, flooded with unhelpful comments and the same issues repeated constantly. A better way is for Apple to curate what issues there are from these forums and provide official solutions for them. I have found MacRumors to be way more helpful and knowledgable in finding answers to issues I have.

What about the Feedback app? Why isn't this reward system in place for that? Feedback is given directly to Apple to be aware of and resolve, rather than digging through forum posts. If they want to improve quality control, a response would be nice to know that it isn't being ignored. Better than that, whatever issue I have actually gets fixed.

Yep, I think there should be some reward for submitting feedback emails and participating in the beta test program. That stuff takes time!

 

[KittyKatta]

Most Common Apple Support Community responses:

1) Link to generic Support Notes that do not address stated problem

2) People stating that “I dont have that problem” (so therefore its a non-issue)

3) Telling users to Reinstall Everything


Its a shame because you can see that most people who use Apple Support forums are lower end users that have solvable issues but are rarely given relaxant solutions. I feel like this will only encourage more problem deflection and that “politely blame the user” support.

 

[JM]

Just like when I was complaining about 'Battery Health' on my iPhone 12 Max, that dropped down to 90% in 14 months. Even Apple Care and my Apple Store stated "Oh this is normal battery health". The battery Health eventually stopped to Maximum Capacity of 87%, that's where it is today since Apple released an IOS update because of 'Battery Drain" and I'm still waiting for a reply from Mr Tim Cook regarding battery drain! 🔋🔋🔋

90% in 1yr2m does seem normal.

Battery to 80% in two years seems normal.

I guess maybe I’m missing the part where you only use 25% a day at the most, and always keep the battery only plugged in between 20% and 80%?

Did you drain the Max every day and need to charge to 100% every day?

Regardless, maybe you really did have a little bit of defective battery (but not too bad). Hopefully you tried to get the. Artery replaced to see if that helped?

(Also, if you have a forum thread discussion about it, I’d be happy to educate myself.)

 

[randyhudson]

The SSD on your new baseline M2 Macbook Pro is the most solid, secure, and innovative that Apple has ever produced. The speeds are revolutionary and will make your Apple experience magical.

The speeds really are revolutionary, as in on par with spinning platters of rust.

 

[Bodycalming]

90% in 1yr2m does seem normal.

Battery to 80% in two years seems normal.

I guess maybe I’m missing the part where you only use 25% a day at the most, and always keep the battery only plugged in between 20% and 80%?

Did you drain the Max every day and need to charge to 100% every day?

Regardless, maybe you really did have a little bit of defective battery (but not too bad). Hopefully you tried to get the. Artery replaced to see if that helped?

(Also, if you have a forum thread discussion about it, I’d be happy to educate myself.)

Sorry my friend drop in 14 months isn’t normal, although for iPhone 12 Pro Max that may have been ‘Normal’ my old iPhone X still in daily use by a family member is still showing 90%. I rarely allow my phones to get below 40%.

 

[Mr. Dee]

it's microsoft mvp all over again, how useless that was/is.

Huh? I was a Microsoft MVP for 10 years and there were some high quality benefits in there.

- 1 Year Office 365 E3
- 1 Year of MSDN Sub (basically 50,000 dollars worth of MS software
- Free technical support for any Microsoft support
- Access to training material so you could get certified in a Microsoft product or technology
- MVP Summit trip - hotel accommodation paid for by Microsoft for three days. You get to meet the product teams, share feedback and engage with them. You get to visit the Microsoft Campus, meet amazing people from across the world.

And you kept this as long as you maintained your MVP award.

I forgot to mention, as an MVP, you get free third party software by just presenting your MVP ID. I got VMWare Fusion, SnagIt for free just to name a few.

Here is another kicker, I used my MVP ID to get discounts on Apple hardware. I got like 100 off at the Apple Store.

You could also purchase software and some hardware products at the Microsoft Company Store at a steep discount.

The program has lost some benefits over the years as it has grown and the pandemic certainly has changed it dramatically. But definitely enjoyed and benefited from my time in the program and it certainly opened a lot of doors for me in the IT field. You could even get recommendations if you are applying for a job.

Apple doesn’t offer anything close to this. Maybe they are, but their MVPs are specifically selected and curated group of people:

John Gruber
Rene Ritchie
iJustine
and there are quite a number of them who are pro Apple YouTube.

 

[t0rqx]

Sometimes when I end up on such page, feels like a dead space. Reddit might be a more better and realistic approach finding answers.

 

[joecomo]

There are a lot of people there posting strange stuff.
They don't even read or understand the questions - just collect some generic text blocks of advice in an attempt to score points.

Not really helpful, if you try to work around bugs from Apple.

 

[symphony]

Most of the top contributors I’ve seen just waste a user’s time with padding by saying they appreciate the user, they understand the issue, rephrasing the issue, then providing a link a link to an Apple Support article.

Always found plenty of those. Not helpful at all.