Well, I mean, any member of any forum is providing a valuable service for the forum owner, creating content for others to view alongside ads. And, as of now, I’m macrumors 603… Not sure what level that equates to, though
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'Apple Community+' Launches to Recognize and Reward Top Contributors in the Apple Support Community
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I’m pretty sure all forums use some kind of “level” or “advancement” tags. And, if someone, say, posts a question here that’s then answered by another member here, I mean… that’s still non-paid Apple support with extra steps.
The top contributors on most "help" forums often seem to be people who see being a top contributor as a goal unto itself. If they stayed in a lane where they have actual knowledge it'd be one thing, but I've run across some truly horrendous "advice" from top contributors on certain sites.
ASC is an awful place.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.
'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).
Apple have the forum set up in such a way that they can distance themselves from any bad advice that's given.
Their TOU is VERY carefully written, allowing them ti strike a comment and/or user for the smallest of transgressions. Whilst what she said/did was absolutely the right thing to do. In absolute terms, yes Jessa did go against their regs.
I stopped using ASC years ago because of their unofficial but official moderators. Complete shills they were.
If anybody ever asks me for advice on apple products, I more often that not send them here but NEVER send them there. In fact I actively tell them not to go there.
I must say I agree. While there are some exceptions, many times it seems people assume the problem is never on Apple's side and often the ”help” to a problem is general troubleshooting steps all not going to the core of the issue.
Talk about troubleshooting from the hip.
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I also find those answers really off-putting because they seem super condescending. Any time I see one of them I get the urge to leave immediately.
Exactly what I came here to say. The users with “high levels” there are people who post generic and useless copy/paste BS at anyone coming with legitimate issues.
Just today I watched the calendar widget being stuck on TWO DAYS AGO, in the current iOS version. The problems are often engineering issues: Software bugs that get reported but never get fixed. Features never completed to a state of robustness or reliability.
This announcement is gamifying volunteer support, so that one of the most wealthy corporations on the planet can excuse putting less money into actual support. Proper support would lead to more data collected about software flaws, too, and we can’t have that at Apple…
Yes - specially disturbing if you are posting about serious bugs (very often not fixed by Apple for years).
I want to bitch-slap the next guy that posts, that he "understands my issue" and then posts a stupid link
Yes but if you look on the helpless, verbose and generic ******** that most MVPs post, you must admit:
Apple gets the same value for their support pages with paying less
Not on the Microsoft side, majority of MVPs are very knowledgeable in their product or service. Your answers are evaluated by the community, fellow community and folks internally at Microsoft.Yes but if you look on the helpless, verbose and generic ******** that most MVPs post, you must admit:
Apple gets the same value for their support pages with paying less
I know, right?
“Here’s a thing I don’t like about ASC”
<defines things that are generic to all internet forums>
Well, it is - isn't it?
I have a strong suspicion that some folk who oversee what goes on here ALSO do the same on the ASC forums.
IS that the case?
Can anyone here answer the question raised?
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254021958
I'm aware that if one is 'banned' one may simply sign-in to the ASC with a different Apple ID. I expect folk here already know that!
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/254021958
I'm aware that if one is 'banned' one may simply sign-in to the ASC with a different Apple ID. I expect folk here already know that!
There is one jackass who always posts "No problem for me!" and somehow has the ability to turn their response into SOLVED.
I am 1 yr into Apple and on my way out. Just plain piss poor attitudes all the way around. I much prefer the assistance I received and gave with Android.
And here you go.... Apple Communities supports jackasses like this. Note that I never used that word or flamed anyone. I stated exactly what you see above and asked him to never again comment on my originally created posts.
And now I will escalate to the executive level simply because I can. I truly hope this troll and those who support him lose their roles in the "We Hate You! Apple Community"
And now I will escalate to the executive level simply because I can. I truly hope this troll and those who support him lose their roles in the "We Hate You! Apple Community"
Apple has effectively politicized Apple product help. I have noticed over the years that Top contributors have become the watchdogs of the Apple Community forum. I have also noticed that they appear to moderate the forums or are at least in close contact with moderators because they can flag responses to their often patronizing and inflammatory comments (which oddly seem to slip past moderation themselves). It's like the fox guarding the henhouse. Of course this isn't always the case but more often than not I avoid posting there. I like the Stack Exchange format much better. At least they aren't giving out goodies like Apple does to curry favor.
That's what I was thinking. I found the M-MVP quite worthwhile though, I learned a lot about hypervisors in meetings with microsoft devs, and it was interesting answering questions in the forums and testing specific software for the devs.
There are people on MacRumors that act exactly the same. Especially blame the users type.