Changes are coming to the Community!

[J_PM]

Hey Community, 

We hope you’re all enjoying a great Holiday season. 

As we get closer to ringing in the new year, we’re excited to share some big news with everyone.

From January 4 - 7, 2022 the Community will go through some changes to bring our beloved support platform to new heights! Our members have waited some time to see our Community evolve, and we’re very excited to launch and share our new Community with you all very soon. 

Heads up: You may experience odd updates on the platform during this time, but don’t worry, we’re just moving things into place for the grand reveal. 

Community Maintenance 

January 4, 2022 12:00am ET - January 4, 2022 9:30am ET, customers will be unable to sign into their Community account during this time. 

• You won’t be able to submit a ticket, as the community will be under maintenance 
• You can still search and browse existing posts in the Community

Email & Real Time Notifications Disabled: Jan 4 - 7 

From January 4 - 7, 2022 all email and real time notifications from Community will be disabled. You will receive an SMS notification (instead of an email) for new private messages from a Customer Support Agent (responses from a CS_Agent).

- Important: If you need to submit a ticket and are unable to receive an SMS, please make sure you check your private messages periodically or you can also provide the CSA with a temporary number, to receive your SMS notifications. 

• Email and real time notifications will proceed back on January 7, SMS will only be used from Jan 4 -7.  

We will return with another announcement to welcome and introduce you all to our new Community.

Thank you for all the support and feedback over this past year. We’ve heard many of your suggestions regarding ways to make our Community even better, and could not have done it without you!

Thank you 

- Public Mobile Team  

[BeachNBeer]

......🤣🤣

[ShawnC13]

@Anonymous, in the recent past you have vocalized your disdain for a "Stupid Rule" (as you called it) and would do what you wanted and deal with the consequences. Oracles are given the extra abilities to maintain these rules.  Just because of your choices and actions doesn't mean an Oracle doing what PM has asked is being overbearing or zealous. Those that abuse the privilege of posting in the community and not following rules, should they have the privilege of posting removed as well?

[Anonymous]

 @ShawnC13 : Things change. Experiences change. Perceptions change. Opinions change. Oracles have that little bit of extra power to be the moderators. I think that power gets abused. A forum should have moderators. But those that abuse that privilege should not be moderators.

And the reply quoted was some time ago and was more politically correct than my personal opinion so as to give an answer to the question posed.

[ShawnC13]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 @ShawnC13 : Clever deflection. While obviously we're all customers, the concern is whether the Oracles will have more power than the already too much that they now have. Oracles are also just customers. Some seem overly fond of that power.

---

@Anonymous, no deflection at all, you mentioned that you had no idea what the changes were.  None of the Oracles privileges have changed with past updates so not sure why you feel the extra abilities are too much now.  When you described the position to someone who asked the question about Who an Oracle was and why they could move posts, you described it as a little bit of extra forum power.

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Chandell25 wrote:

Hey I was wondering what or who is an Oracle? Why are they the only one able to transfer my question to the right topic? 

---

In this context, they are longer standing customers that have participated A LOT around here and eventually either get invited or nominated/invited to become one. They have a little bit of extra forum power that lets them be what other forums call moderators. That term has been a little twisted from normal nomenclature in this forum.

The first area of this post lists all the current ones.

---

The above post was from Feb 7, 2020, as it doesn't show in the quote

[Anonymous]

 @ShawnC13 : Clever deflection. While obviously we're all customers, the concern is whether the Oracles will have more power than the already too much that they now have. Oracles are also just customers. Some seem overly fond of that power.

[ShawnC13]

@Anonymous, every progression of the community has brought tweaks and improvements for the customers.  I would never expect or fear that PM was going to implement changes that would harm a customer from getting assistance with their service.

[Anonymous]

 @ShawnC13 : And how exactly were we to know that that was a motivation? Where in the announcement did it say anything about a "simpler interface"?

My only "fear" is that it will tip more balance of power towards the Oracles to use and abuse and being capricious with that power.

[ShawnC13]

---

@darkomega wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

 @darlicious : Agreed. Unfortunately, with the authoritarian ways of some Oracles or the manipulations and malice of others, I'm skeptical as to how it will all look and behave for the non's. I would take some solace in understanding that others were involved and not just Oracles.

---

that worries me that this all may wind up even more unbalanced, hoping for the best though.

---

@darkomega, what is your concern?  It seems some users are trying to create fear of change when PM is looking for a simpler interface for its customers to receive help.

[darkomega]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 @darlicious : Agreed. Unfortunately, with the authoritarian ways of some Oracles or the manipulations and malice of others, I'm skeptical as to how it will all look and behave for the non's. I would take some solace in understanding that others were involved and not just Oracles.

---

that worries me that this all may wind up even more unbalanced, hoping for the best though.

[Anonymous]

 @darlicious : Agreed. Unfortunately, with the authoritarian ways of some Oracles or the manipulations and malice of others, I'm skeptical as to how it will all look and behave for the non's. I would take some solace in understanding that others were involved and not just Oracles.

[darlicious]

@J_PM 

Thanks for the update. Burning the midnight hour....it must be quite the roll out!

[J_PM]

On January 7, customers will go back to receiving email notifications. From January 4, 5 and 6 customers will receive SMS notifications. 

Thank you, 

Jade

[pm-smayer97]

---

@J_PM wrote:

Hey Community, 

...

Email & Real Time Notifications Disabled: Jan 4 - 7 

From January 4 - 7, 2022 all email and real time notifications from Community will be disabled. You will receive an SMS notification (instead of an email) for new private messages from a Customer Support Agent (responses from a CS_Agent).

...

• Email and real time notifications will proceed back on January 7, SMS will only be used from Jan 4 -7.  

...

- Public Mobile Team  

---

There is a contradiction... so which is it on Jan 7?

[darlicious]

@Anonymous 

I believe there was a whole lot of Oracle imput on the upcoming changes. Whether or not that is representative of the community as a whole is debatable.

[fdrcamb519]

I am looking forward to see what the new changes are, the saying goes "we can always improve"

[darkomega]

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@Anonymous wrote:

 @darkomega : There have been prior "regular" member involvements in the past. I haven't heard anything about this round. Or whether it's a culmination (glacial, remember) of all those efforts in the past.

---

I do remember the past community involvement, like you I haven't seen any "help us out with feedback" roll calls this time around, they just kinda went forth on this, my guess is mainly from all the chatter about things sprinkled throughout the forums, so they didn't feel the need to ask anyone to do interviews or surveys. 

[Anonymous]

 @darkomega : There have been prior "regular" member involvements in the past. I haven't heard anything about this round. Or whether it's a culmination (glacial, remember) of all those efforts in the past.

[jib_tech]

@NDesai 

Cool that was a blast from the past. There is quite a difference from then and now so I am interested to see the future!

[LeePublic]

Just saw this, wonder what kind of changes are incoming!

[NDesai]

This is what the community front page looked like back in 2016 and 2017. 

2016: Public Mobile Community - Community (archive.org)
2017: Public Mobile Community - Community (archive.org)

2020 - Current: You are browsing it.
2022: ?

[AE_Collector]

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@darlicious wrote:

@ShawnC13 

Lol...I wonder what side of the happy quotient I will be on?

---

Where do we place our wagers? 

I am always happy to see improved processes here as there are a few areas that could use a bit of a kick start. I can’t help remembering the hype and fanfare around the relaunch of Simon though…..

AE_Collector

[NDesai]

Great News! The current community design already look so different than what it was back in 2016. With the current layout and brand design change, it altered how we navigate the community, and we lost some key functionality like quoting on Mobile or mass Delete PMs. I am hoping the new changes brings in these fixes to make it better for us to navigate and make it simple to provide help around the community. 

[darlicious]

@ShawnC13 

Lol...I wonder what side of the happy quotient I will be on?

[ShawnC13]

Looking forward to the roll out of the new community design!!  I know there will be some happy people with the changes coming to it. 

[SD08]

Thanks to PM for making the effort to revamp the community.  Looking forward to seeing the changes.

Happy New Year to everyone.

[esjliv]

Thanks for the heads up @J_PM .

That is very exciting, yet, a little nerve-wracking at the same time! 😂

I am sure the changes will be fantastic!! 👍  🤞

[softech]

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@darlicious wrote:

This should be interesting....I only hope you have abandoned the disaster of an experiment with private messages in the summer and that they are left intact or if not does anyone know a way of backing them up?

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That wasn't a great experience.. LoL

[darlicious]

This should be interesting....I only hope you have abandoned the disaster of an experiment with private messages in the summer and that they are left intact or if not does anyone know a way of backing them up?

[Triguy]

That is good news.  Looking forward to the new improvements.

[softech]

Let's hope the changes coming to the Community are change for the better .  Looking forward to it.