Forum Feedback - Create new topic

  • 16 May 2023
  • 3 replies
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Userlevel 5
Badge +16

I apologize ahead of time for how this may come off. 

Please do not get it from, I love this Forum and I do appreciate the hard work it takes to build and maintain this forum.

that said:

 

This is obnoxious:

MAKE THIS GO AWAY

I understand that one of the problems with forums is that people are likely to ask questions that have already been answered but there are 4 problems with this specific solution.

 

  1. IT DOESN’T WORK - This speaks to a larger related problem specifically searching the support site, namely that if I search for something using the exact keywords, not only will it not find it, it will find things completely, totally, and comically unrelated. The heading that says it will provide related topics provides 8 suggestions that could not possibly be more unrelated.
  2. When you are typing on a smaller screen it takes up 80% of the screen while you are trying to type, in other words I have less space to type what I am looking for help with than is dedicated to a search that is suggesting something that has absolutely nothing to do with what you are typing. It’s like that person you know that always interrupts you to complete your sentence but get it completely wrong. I react exactly the same way in both circumstances; if this isn’t really important I walk away.
  3. It’s not time relevant… Commvault software changes over time. That is to say that an answer that was correct 6 months ago, may not be correct now. Referring people to older conversations may be useful or it may be destructive.
  4. Is related to 3, it is important for the same questions to be asked again and again. As the product changes and as technology changes in order for new people to come up to speed and older people to stay fresh there should be ongoing interaction, older posts should probably be aged out and marked as read only and reference only. 

I had to get that off my chest. I would say that more often than not I cancel creating topics when this search thingy overrides the window. I cannot be the only one.

 

This strikes me as a good idea implemented based on a bad premise.

Meaning if the search worked well or even passingly this would be killer feature.

But the fact that search doesn’t work makes it irredeemable. 

 

Think about example number 2, a friend that can accurately complete your sentences is a gift from God, but a friend that interrupts to incorrectly guess your next sentence makes you want to dropkick them down a flight of steps. 

As Always I am not talented enough to accomplish the changes that I am suggesting but I think it’s important that those people building these solutions understand how well they are working with the users.


3 replies

Userlevel 6
Badge +12

Hi @christopherlecky - thanks for the honest feedback. This is an automated function from our community platform vendor and can often be a challenge as forums scale. We’ll chat with them to see what options there are for improving that aspect of the experience. On the general search (not create new topic) side, @Damian Andre can share more about utilizing the Coveo federated search approach. 

Userlevel 7
Badge +23

but a friend that interrupts to incorrectly guess your next sentence makes you want to dropkick them down a flight of steps. 

 

Look @christopherlecky, you owe me a coffee because I just lost half of mine 🤣😂😅

 

As @Jennifer Kelley mentioned, we’re currently bound to the search solution of the vendor we are using to underpin the community. We like these guys, because they have fresh ideas, allowed us to be agile as the community scales and the platform is amazing to work in (lets ignore the resolution/dimensions for the purposes of this conversation 😅). That being said, you are right on the search. We have been promised that newer capabilities are on the horizon and I will be sending them this thread 👊🏻.

The introduction of Coveo to underpin our doc search has been a game changer for us, and while its nowhere near perfect, it has improved things considerably to bring meaningful results, show us where we are lacking content and providing us with tools to elevate knowledge for trending issues (looking at you Log4J and Spring4Shell 😡). The search there is based heavily on a couple of machine learning models. In a basic sense, it learns between what users search and where they click to improve relevancy over time. We actually spent time training the system internally first with all Commvault employees before we unleashed it on our customer base - it was pretty cool to see the ML in action; We halved the click-rank (one of several key search indicators) in a matter of weeks.

Let me assure you that community is a huge focus for us, not only because we love our passionate customers and being able to geek out on these posts and call it “work” is my dream 🙂 - but we want to accelerate the time takes to find valid solutions to issues or questions without waiting in a support queue. Don’t get me wrong, I am super proud of our support team - but sometimes you just a question answered without the ‘full stack’ experience.

From our documentation search, 10% of the searches lead customers to the community which is a pretty neat stat considering both the age of the community and customer intent when searching docs.

But in summary let me say, we hear you - we’re working on it, and we are constantly trying to improve the  self-service/self-help experience in all areas. Your feedback in invaluable and validates the journey we are on completely - so thank you!

 

PS. You still owe me a coffee. I’m considering introducing a forum ‘decaffeinated’ award just for you.

Userlevel 5
Badge +16

😂

Decaffeinated is probably the last word for me but your point is taken.

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