Apple has refreshed its online Support Forums look quite unexpectedly and launched it as Apple Support Communities. The earlier Apple Discussion Forums have been give bit refreshing and intuitive look that would be customizable by the registered members. New Apple Support Communities interface has been inspired heavily from the iPhone and iPad interface – loads of popovers and overlays. With brand new icon for the Support Communities, Apple clearly has turned its Discussion Forum into kinda of Apple Social Network for the product users.
Rather than following the rudimentary Forum look refresh, Apple has added some social elements to turn it in to communities. Registered Users would be able to customize the Apple Support Communities with widgets that will help users to get more personalized look. On the Support Communities landing page –https://discussions.apple.com/index.jspa, you will find that all latest discussion replies/posts will dynamically appear up front. Similar to what one can see on Twitter home page where recent updates keep showing up.
Users can get notification by emails or can subscribe to RSS feed of the particular thread about specific products or topics. Once the users with Apple ID login, they’ll have to accept the new Terms and Conditions since the Forums have turned into communities. Post that, users can customize their look which will be accessible via “Your Stuff” tab that has your Posts, Bookmarks, Notifications, Replies and Documents.
Though Apple has given up on Forum, thankfully users can set up their Avatars from the given list of images. Apple has also laid down “Community Etiquette” policy for Support Communities:
– Post only technical support questions and answers, unless otherwise noted
– Be polite, constructive and stay on topic
– Search for questions similar to your own before submitting them to the community
– Reward helpful community members by marking answers to the questions as helpful and correct
– Avoid speculation and rumors
Based on the activities in the community, users would be awarded with points and certain amount of points signify a level. As of now there’s no clarity on whether those points stand just for authority or could be redeemable for some discount coupon. Check out all new features and the function of new Apple Support Communities in a guide over here.
Source: MacStories