e14 changes and updates

It’s harsh to say, but the site’s Information Architecture is really poor (I worked in this area professionally for a time.)  The response seems to come down to Verint software restricting the choices of E14 developers.  Verint isn’t fit-for-purpose for what they market it for when it comes to this type of site - although in the salesman’s eyes, fit-for-purpose = universal applicability.

Andrew J said:

The response seems to come down to Verint software restricting the choices of E14 developers.

I would say partly so, it's also a choice by the developers to not want to customise anything 'out of the box' (to make upgrading easier) and insists that Verint make the changes.

You may find it interesting to browse through the Verint Community forums.

Well it makes perfect sense to not customise the core functionality if there aren’t hooks to do that - I’m with them on that.  That doesn’t really change the point about the software not being a good match for this type of site.  Did the salesman throw in the shoe-horns ? Incidentally, I presume they use the software on their community forum?  How have they managed to default sort “by last post date” but it seems impossible to do here without creating a separate widget?  

Andrew J said:

That doesn’t really change the point about the software not being a good match for this type of site.  Did the salesman throw in the shoe-horns

If you look back through the archives, pre transition I seem to recall some community members actually suggesting/recommending this software for the new platform.

Perhaps also need to consider the alternative options that were available at the time. I don't recall there being a very long list.

beacon_dave said:

If

beacon_dave said:

If you look back through the archives, pre transition I seem to recall some community members actually suggesting/recommending this software for the new platform.

I take it they were led around the back and shot!  Were you involved in the selection process?

Andrew J said:

I presume they use the software on their community forum?  How have they managed to default sort “by last post date” but it seems impossible to do here without creating a separate widget?  

Have a look at it if you can

Andrew J said:

That doesn’t really change the point about the software not being a good match for this type of site

What software would you say is?

Verint is very much a like-for-like with Jive which we were using before.

To be fair I don't recall anyone stating the software was any good : ( I was certainly aware of Verint the firm (they make security products) but pretty sure I would have stated I'd never used their community platform, and was aware of zero features of it, i.e. it was up to element14 to do the evaluation. 

It's a pity the Jive version of the site was not viable any longer. Towards the end it was really pretty much perfect from a user experience.

shabaz said:

It's a pity the Jive version of the site was not viable any longer. Towards the end it was really pretty much perfect from a user experience.

Oh, it had its issues too, but it did have a lot of customisations. It would have been nice to be able to say "Sure, give us the source code, we'll support it ourselves and run it in-house" - I feel that has a 'here be dragons' caution around it. 

scottiebabe said:

Start the DW show!

There's been suggestions of starting an hour long, regular podcast actually and we're being asked what topics we should cover on it, and who we should have talking on it.

cstanton said:

Have a look at it if you can

Is it not working that way for them either then, wouldn't surprise me, but my first, limited impression it did?  TBH, I can't work out if E14's What's New widget is actually working to filter posts with latest comments to the top.

As for software, something actually geared towards Forums would be my first go-to; blogs are typically just a longer form of that and can be presented, sorted, searched and filtered in similar ways.  Even if it had its own Content Type for additional metadata the underlying engine could be the same.  On the more expensive side, any Content Management solution that had built in Forum functionality - by which, I mean functionality that works to deliver Forums as they have been for decades.  Verint seems more geared to Knowledge Management activities where content is more article based rather than dynamic.  Of course I can't tell what is built-in Verint functionality and what is customised but the UX is  awkward.