What to do with Developer Preview and 8.1 forums?

[Laura Knotek]

In the past, if there was an early release that was part of a developer preview, we kept it in its own forum and didn't start a new forum for an OS until it was official. Now we have a mess with both Developer Preview and 8.1. How can we clean it up?

 

[James Falconer]

Short answer? Just keep things rolling! If folks are on 8.1 via the Developer Preview program, let them discuss in there. If they have the official install, let them discuss in the 8.1 forum. Honestly though, bottom line is it doesn't matter WHERE folks are discussing, the important thing is we're getting answers and solving problems for members (and others that find us via search engine!).

 

[James Falconer]

Some more thoughts on this...

Setup key reference threads. For the most popular topics, create these threads in both forums and sticky them.

Re-title poorly titled threads (this is HUGE and incredibly important). Here's a fantastic example. Check out this thread on iMore: How do i delete contacts on iphone 5 ios 7? - iPhone, iPad, iPod Forums at iMore.com

Can't recall what the original thread title was, but JustMe'D does a great job of going in to re-title threads properly in that forum. That thread alone now has over 100,000 views. Think of all the help we're providing to guests and members here. The amount of people helped is astonishing!

Point being, if we can title threads properly, i.e. give our members titles that they're actually SEARCHING for... we're going to be a HUGE help to the Windows Phone community. Just just here at WPC, but everywhere.

Post an Announcement. Once the madness has died down a bit (it should), I can post an announcement encouraging folks to look for key threads, or post their questions if they have them. This should be a huge help from an organizational standpoint.

Do what we can to move and organize in the two separate forums. If we need more mods, we need more mods (we can make that happen).

 

[Laura Knotek]

The problem is those 2 forums should have never been separated and titled as such. CB always kept leaked and beta OSes separate from official ones.

WP8.1 should be for the official release, once it is available. The current forums should be combined into one called Windows Phone 8.1 Developer Preview with Cortana as a subforum. Then we should have another forum for Windows Phone 8.1 once the official release is available.

 

[James Falconer]

@All - put our heads together w Daniel, Laura and Muessig on this... think we've come up with the OPTIMAL solution! Check this thread, will post there when everything is done.

 

[Rich Edmonds]

Hello, my favourite flowers! For this thread: http://forums.windowscentral.com/no...eveloper-preview-8-1-bugs-defects-thread.html

We're looking to do an article on the front page to draw some traffic to it and for folk to exchange what bugs they find (the previous one we did on Windows Phone in general seemed to work fine). Was just wandering, would it be possible for us to move it to the Windows Phone 8.1 forum? Would also need to fix the URL.

 

[James Falconer]

@Rich - hit me up on Skype and we'll make sure this gets setup for you!

 

[rockstarzzz]

Hello, my favourite flowers! For this thread: http://forums.windowscentral.com/no...eveloper-preview-8-1-bugs-defects-thread.html

We're looking to do an article on the front page to draw some traffic to it and for folk to exchange what bugs they find (the previous one we did on Windows Phone in general seemed to work fine). Was just wandering, would it be possible for us to move it to the Windows Phone 8.1 forum? Would also need to fix the URL.

I am sure James has Skype'd you about it and it's all underway. If my input does make any sense - it should rather be direct to a dedicate sticky thread that gets updated as bugs flow in and are confirmed. That thread should be in Dev Preview Beta. I am happy to take responsibility to make sure the first post stay on top of those bugs and only verified and real bugs make it to the first post. We already have a giant "bugs and defects" thread stickied, I can make the first post more informative on top of Muessig's excellent effort.

The reason I think this must be in dev preview is because, this is an issue with dev preview. We have to be optimistic that once the firmware is rolled out with official release most issues with screen, battery, network, heating up of phone, glance screen - will all go away! We can't let people be driven to a thread in WP8.1 that talks about bugs when the official one hasn't even been out. That will straight up generate negativity around WP8.1 which I honestly think, it doesn't deserve this time around.

If my 81 yr old uncle with a thick accent can chat with Cortana (outside USA!) it is the easily the best update ever.

 

[Muessig]

It's currently in the Dev Preview forum and stickied. I'll work with you to go through the posts and put in the OP the bugs and any possible solutions.

 

[rockstarzzz]

It's currently in the Dev Preview forum and stickied. I'll work with you to go through the posts and put in the OP the bugs and any possible solutions.

I say we start from one end each and make a list of things people have said and then exchange what we have, remove common ones and we would have a massive first post you can then update with bullet points. We can think of suggestions that may help or point blank - wait for firmware update.

 

[Muessig]

Rocky and I went through literally every single post in the 1100+ post strong bug thread we've catalogued and make the OP a valid community resource.

What a night!