Quite a shame since the discussion boards are the only place I've personally ever been able to find the answer to a problem. The standard help sections are useless.

The discussion forums are the first place I turn to for the difficult questions. I hope that Apple sees the lost value and reverses their decision.

I'm not too sure I understand this, there was no official reason for firing the Moderators from Apple? Did the breakdown in 'etiquette' happen soon after? or did it start before? warranting the firing of the mods?

In the end its Apple doing what it does best, screwing the customer . . . when they don't like people making comments against their 'hallowed' products they try to squelsh them. . . typical big business response. . .

I have gotten LOTS of help fom those discussions boards in the past, people with similar experiences is a gold mine of information for someone trying to fix their own problem. . .

Wow I've been a Mac user since 87. I do a lot of support for many Mac users. I'm pretty good at troubleshooting, but when I get really stumped, I've usually found the answer in these Apple Discussion forums. This is a bad move.

The thread that Nikki commented in has now been removed

Bryan, could this be a business opportunity for the TMO discussion boards? We have more experts here than have ever been pooled in one place. You could totally monetize it, dude.

Quote

Bosco wrote:
Bryan, could this be a business opportunity for the TMO discussion boards? We have more experts here than have ever been pooled in one place. You could totally monetize it, dude.

I love these boards, but in my experience troubleshooting problems, the boards at AppleInsider and AppleNova have more experts on fixing Mac problems than TMO.

Still, this could be an opportunity to seek some out and bring more onboard here - perhaps disgruntled Apple Support Forums users. That would really kick things up a notch here.

How refreshing to read an original, interesting, and--most importantly--relevant article on a Mac site. One more reason to delete MacDailyNews from my RSS aggregator.

It's a very bad move. Very, very bad. Very, very, very bad.

Very, very... you get the idea.

Quote

Engine Joe wrote:
I love these boards, but in my experience troubleshooting problems, the boards at AppleInsider and AppleNova have more experts on fixing Mac problems than TMO.

I dunno Engine Joe. We have everything needed to be an effective Apple support channel here... Apple fanboys, AAPL fanboys, Microsoft haters, MSFT haters, Steve Balmer haters, Bill Gates haters, Steve Jobs worshippers, ex-Apple employees who write articles far too serious and and insightful for this crowd, struggling fiction writers who get inside the head of Steve Jobs, one court jester (me), and a public kicking bag (Biff). How can you beat that?

Follow up thread now started:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=578293&tstart=0

Quote

DunsfordMage wrote:
Follow up thread now started:
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=578293&tstart=0

Ugh. Deleted.

I think it is very important for there to be Apple Discussion groups. Whether Apple hosts them, moderates them, has employees contribute or not is something they have to decide. I don't think they necessarily need to comment on each and every issue, but they shouldn't delete stuff.

As long as Apple computers cost more than other computers of similar hardware specification, I do expect them to "offer more" than other companies. Then, employees contributing SENSIBLE content (which isnt' always the case) are what I'd expect of a company charging more AND delivering more.

However, all of that isn't necessary. In some instances that I came across some more serious problems, no Apple representative could possibly have helped in a discussion forum. The first problem of that type were two consecutive shipments of a 2.0 and then a 2.5 GHz G5 dual processor machine, both Dead On Arrival. The second issue was a 'crackling noise iPod mini', where Apple representatives couldn't possibly admit what I have no problem stating after rearranging parts and fixing the issue: it's an inherent design problem. The third issue is the one of 'narcoleptic Powerbook G4s' due to broken trackpad temperature sensors, where any Apple involvement would equal to admitting something'd be wrong. In any case, an employee would possibly make the Apple company vulnerable to lawsuits, or to extension of warranty requests that would be entirely justified, but costly.

On the 'narcoleptic Powerbook G4' issue, recently, a technical fix follow-up got deleted, possibly by an administrator. This means that Apple may not have been happy with what they read. Such involvement proves that they are not cool with other people fixing their hardware, and they are not cool with technically sound tips for going about design flaws that were produced at Apple.

So I think there's a reason Apple employees shouldn't mess with the really interesting, intriguing design problems that plague Apple products. First of all, "they" are responsible and ultimately liable - even though they don't like to hear it. Secondly, they are maybe not 'cool' about people discussing things, because in every company, the 'quick and dirty' versus 'perfectionist' discussions are likely hot, heated, and controversial - and why should Apple be an exception. Last but not least, Apple has a whole bunch of these problems and not just one or two within 6 years.

In other words, I think they have no business messing with the interactions of people who (a) buy, and (b) fix the stuff Apple built They have one business only: read our posts, learn from them, issue official technical fixes and technical documents as much as they can, issue official warranty extensions and replacement programs, and build better products. There's no other output I ask from Apple employees than to be as professional as they can. It's not hard having such attentive users as us

I also asked the question about the forum staff in the Discussions feedback forum. My post was deleted within a day. Vanished completely...

but it seems Microsoft wants them!

http://blogs.msdn.com/jledgard/archive/2006/08/02/686635.aspx

Wouldn't that be a kicker.