Closing Answer Display

[Bob's Garage]

Just another post in attempt to help SureTrack into the 21st century.

First of all I did a comparison of the SureTrack "question" format to IATN Tech Help.

I used the same car, a 2000 Mercedes CLK 430 NO START issue. I am not a Mercedes expert, far from it, so I was shocked when the car was towed with a no start. My service writer thought it would a starter, slam dunk, oops.

So I decided to look for help.

First thing I noticed was how poor the response was on SureTrack. At least I got a "sympathy post" from Crusty ....

I got 13 really good replies from iATN members and even a long distance call from a shop owner in CA who had good knowledge of these cars.

iATN helped me fix the car, Sure Track did not.

Another thing was that the "Fix" in SureTrack took my paragraphed "Fix" and crammed it all together in a narrow column like a classified newspaper ad:

20140704-1110-1.jpg

Really bad in my opinion. This is the important part of the whole post crammed into a narrw column wasting a 2/3 ofthe usuable page space.

Look at how well iATN displays the "Fix". My paragraphs are intact, and in my mind much easier to read:

20140704-1046-1.jpg

One place I can say where SureTrack does a little better, is that you can add screenshots or pictures to your "question" in SureTrack "Questions". You cannot post pics in TechHelp. However, you can post a link to an iATN Forum where the screenshots can be displayed.

Personally, as I stated in earlier threads here in the SureTrack forum, the screenshots should be part of the body of the post, exactly as I have done in this post.

That would be a great way to make a help request.

At any rate, I would like to see SureTrack succeed. If they (management)are flexible, good. If they want to continue with business as usual, it will stay in the 20th century.

Brutal comment, I know. Start comparing SureTrack to the leaders and you will see what I mean.

Thanks, Bob

[Nick_Taylor]

Bob,

I really appreciate your feedback and I'm sorry you didn't get the response from the SureTrack community that you expected. The community is growing day by day but I know that doesn't help you immediately. I will pass your feedback along to the team.

As for your issue with screen space, I don't know what resolution you have your monitor set to but it may be the issue. Here is what I see and although I have a large monitor, I have the browser window shrunk down.

bobsgarage.jpg

One thing you can do to get more real estate is to minimize the menu bar on the left side of the screen. Click the "Hide" link.

bobsgarage2.png

By the way, I had to figure out how to do the inline attachments in this post like you did. Every forum is different. This one isn't that intuitive. Most techs are not very familiar with forums so we'd have to simplify it.

[Nick_Taylor]

Also, I will look into why the system removed your paragraph breaks from your post. I'm not happy with how the system styles posts.

[Crusty]

I would like to learn how to put the attachments into a post as well.

As for "hiding" something on a page, I'm reluctant to do so as once you hide something, sometimes it's GONE and you can't see how to get it back on some sites so I don't.

Bob is right. Management needs to LISTEN TO PEOPLE which seems to be a bit of a weak point within the Corporate culture......
Heck...they can't even get FONT SIZES consistent......and because I'm the "only one complaining" it's Ignored....

As for gaining real estate....why not "hide" the menu in the default and let people SEE that it can open up-??

THANKS for the post Bob....informative
THANKS for the timely response (s) Nick

[Bob's Garage]

[QUOTE=Nick_Taylor;43447]Bob,

I really appreciate your feedback and I'm sorry you didn't get the response from the SureTrack community that you expected. The community is growing day by day but I know that doesn't help you immediately. I will pass your feedback along to the team.

By the way, I had to figure out how to do the inline attachments in this post like you did. Every forum is different. This one isn't that intuitive. Most techs are not very familiar with forums so we'd have to simplify it.

Good job on the screenshot attachments, Nick. It took me awhile the first time too. Getting the attachments in order and adding text between them makes it a good presentation. I do a lot of that for Diagnostics in the internal forums, it helps for a step-by-step description.

I like the drag and drop way of adding attachments in iATN, but it is still cumbersome, mostly because they want info on each capture.

This forum is very good. I guess I am used to it using it since 2008 or so. I have been to other forums that aren't nearly as good as this one. I was hoping Sure Track was going to adapt this format.

Thanks, Bob

[Bob's Garage]

Bob,
As for your issue with screen space, I don't know what resolution you have your monitor set to but it may be the issue. Here is what I see and although I have a large monitor, I have the browser window shrunk down.

[ATTACH]17257[/ATTACH]

One thing you can do to get more real estate is to minimize the menu bar on the left side of the screen. Click the "Hide" link.

[ATTACH]17258[/ATTACH]

By the way, I had to figure out how to do the inline attachments in this post like you did. Every forum is different. This one isn't that intuitive. Most techs are not very familiar with forums so we'd have to simplify it.

Nick, I collapsed the left menu column, It gave me some space:

20140705-0831-1.jpg

I tried different resolutions:

20140705-0836-1.jpg

20140705-0838-1.jpg

Although the resolutions helped reading it, I found myself scrolling a lot more, a new problem.

No way to make the "Fix" the width of the post?

I don't find that intuitive, along with the de-paragraphing.

It has to be easy to read.