howdy

Thought i share my thoughts on the forum software, im not a techie so im giving you a user view.
I getting ready to implement a forum for the company so In the past few months ive look at about 8 different forum software. Im down to 2 this and another one.  The following is just my opinion, no one else in the whole world may agree....

Before trying I ask for an install doc and received an reply with the doc............good job !

I installed the software and on first startup i got a "cant find table 0 error" after browsing the forum for a while i found the fix, forum is up and running.

Im leaning towared buying this software but compared to a few others i think this one is a lot harder to understand and use. Other programs have just about the same amount of features, give or take, but the way there layed out and the hellp docs make them eaiser to use.

It may be there but i haven found it yet, but a how to doc would be a nice idea.
Didnt want to get into a nick picking thing just my over all impression, from a user that doesnt do this full time.


thanks......pete

Pete, I would tend to agree that the documentation needs work, and a how-to on the features is really important from a marketing perspective. Samuel did a fantastic job on this forum from the ground up but to take market share from the vbulletins of the world he needs a stellar documentation set.

Samuel's support is excellent but to save himself the time of explaining basic features and minor adjustments a nice documentation set outlining these things in a clear easy to understand for a non-techie manner ("ASPPlayground for Dummies") is critical for the overall success of this venture.

Now that the new software is here and after the final bugs are shaken out I'm sure it will be promoted heavily. I'm ready to offer my recommendations to the ASP.NET review sites when the time comes. More people will buy this forum and therefore more and more support requests are going to come in, and Samuel's time is going to be heavily dragged into answering simple questions that a good document would help prevent 90% of.

I would prefer to have Samuel focused on upgrading the code with new features than explaining simple things. I know some of us will help out when we can, but I say this with the same intent of helping ASPPlayground become a top forum leader: comprehensive, clear, thorough documentation a non-techie can understand and follow is of the utmost importance.

I'd be happy to help review and offer my advice on documentation including the installation, I do a bit of technical writing at work and I have a good knack for breaking down complex tasks into simple steps for the non-technical.

This is a truly great set of code, now let's make it complete and knock vbulletin out of the park!

Thanks to both Pete and Wayne for your comments. I agree that the document needs more work, more from a non-techie perspective.

I will work on this and have it ready with the next upgrade (3.1).

Again, thanks for Wayne's kind words and Pete's suggestion!

ASPPlayground.net Developer