February 24, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Not Connected
February 25, 2008 at 6:51 am
Steve,
Last week you suggested that we all vote for SP3, so I visited the web site. I already have a Windows Live ID and I am even a registered MS Partner but it still asked me to "sign up for Connect" which is total MS-BS if you know what what I mean. Why would they throw up roadblocks to our feedback, unless they don't really want our feedback & are just going through the motions.
February 25, 2008 at 8:26 am
I have no idea, but my guess is that Microsoft is not a monolithic entity and they need a separate registration for some reason. They use Connect for beta, MVP, and other programs, so perhaps that's the reason.
I have no idea why they require a separate registration beyond Live to vote. However they do use this to allocate resources, so please vote.
And please complain if you don't like Connect. I hate being the only voice out there on this.
February 25, 2008 at 8:43 am
I guess my voice on this is - it's so discouraging to use that I don't use it. I too have found that it seems structured specifically to put up roadblocks and discourage hearing what the issues are.
I've had a few doozies for problems, which could easily be considered flaws and/or bugs (like - SP4 crashing mid-stream, after having deleted several key system stored procedures like the ones for adding or removing users, add/drop tables, and enough that you could no longer add any stored procedures to the server, with no recovery point....), and most times I've walked away smarting from the experience with those interfaces. Of course - it's made me more creative in how to deal with issues, but that's no thanks to them. Desperation makes one do some stupid things at times, and just because I got "lucky" a few times really isn't an excuse.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Your lack of planning does not constitute an emergency on my part...unless you're my manager...or a director and above...or a really loud-spoken end-user..All right - what was my emergency again?
February 25, 2008 at 9:13 am
I have to agree with most of the comments here about the system being rather difficult to start using.
I have seen several ticketing systems which do AJAX searches while you are typing up your report. It then displays suggestions unintrusively to the user about other tickets which may duplicate their problem. If connect would simply allow us to type up our report, then check a box saying "yes it looks like a duplicate of this other searched issue" and add associate our report with that other ticket I think it would be a huge improvement.
It wouldn't completely solve the problem, but it would make it easier to use.
February 25, 2008 at 9:19 am
Theonly way to get this changed and something effective put in place is to tie customer satisfaction of the product (in this case , Connect) to salaries of those who make the decission on what is used to handle this.
This is an example of the classic scenaro of those who make the decissions are not bound to live by or follow the same deccisions they make for others to live by or use. If the decision makers (in every industry or field of study) were required to follow/live by the same rules/guidelines they put in place for others, the world would be a far better place.
Kindest Regards,
Just say No to Facebook!February 25, 2008 at 10:15 am
I completely agree with this. The system is just unwieldy. Enter a bug or feature request, see it closed with little/no explanation, eventually give up. I did find out that there was a bug in some engine used for Connect that was closing tickets when it shouldn't have and that's been corrected, but it is still painful to use. I understand why the dev team wants it - it makes prioritization easy. However, there needs to be a better consolidation of the bugs/feature requests like you noted. If I enter one that is really close to someone else's, but using different terms, someone should be consolidating that with a note indicating that it's been consolidated with some "master" ticket.
As for me, the system is so annoying that I only visit it when I have no other option. I don't know if anyone @ the MS Connect team reads this, but if you do, please give us some relief. Steve's suggestion on the Interns is a pretty good one and I think would go a long way toward building some good will for the users of your product.
February 27, 2008 at 5:19 am
I truly love the concept of Connect. When I first got introduced to it, early on working with Data Dude, I was all over it, constantly searching for bugs, voting, commenting, submitting. But over time, the weaknesses and flaws that you've already pointed out made it less & less of a useful experience. I actually forget to check there when I run into issues now. Of my two biggest complaints, you've already nailed the first, searches just stink. It's very difficult to identify issues without lots of reading through issues that have no relavance. The other issue I have, and it's a nit, really, but one that digs in under the skin, is that it's a pain to navigate into the site. You can't easily bookmark the page you want to go to and if you haven't logged in recently, you have to search your way back down to the Visual Studio or SQL Server pages in order to start an extended search... eck!
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply