What's up with this "community"? nobody here but us chickens.

erniec wrote on 11/29/2010, 9:16 PM

Magix has terrible documentation.  The written docs do not match what is on the screen.  Many, many items on the screen are not even mentioned in the text.  And when they are mentioned, there is no detail.

 

As a result, I find myself here, relying on my fellow users, the half-blind leading the blind.  I get into this "community" with Internet explorer and I see, for example 17,826 entries in the Questions/Video section.  I come in with Firefox and for the same URL/section, I see there are only 17,826 entries.  Why is that?  I notice more European languages in the IE "view".

 

Most support fori like this normally have one or several employees answering users' questions.  I don't see that here.  In the IE view, of the latest 30 entries, 17 have at least one reply.  In the Firefox view, the first 30 have only 6.  From what I see, we're talking to the wall here.

 

I do appreciate those users who graciously take the time to answer newbie questions.  But where are the Magix folks?

 

I've bought two different versions of Magix Movie Edit Pro, but because of the terrible support, I won't be buying another.  And, I've had many friends ask me which product they should buy.  I've told every single one of them to stay away from Magix because the support is so terrible.

 

Magix, would it be so hard to support your english language customers by hiring a competent technical writer, getting screen shots of what we are actually seeing, and fully describe what it is we are seeing and how each button, box, etc. works?  Your programmers put a lot of effort into coding all that.  The least you could do is tell us what they did.

 

As you can tell, I'm frustrated after butting my head against the wall trying to get this program to do what I want.  It can probably do it, but it does a good job of hiding it.

 

Maybe we as a community could do their job for them, build a wiki that describes the product, but I'm sure not going to give away hundreds of my hours to do their work for them.

Comments

Lazerboy wrote on 11/30/2010, 5:07 AM

Hi Erniec,

 

this is an user community. As European and long time user of Movie Edit Pro (Video deluxe) I had not that problems with the product, also the support seems to work better in Europe as in the US. I read a lot about this here and I read also, that Magix is obviously investing in improving the support for US.

 

Honestly I do not know what is bad about this community. You can put usually requests via the Magix support forum and you have the additional choice to use this here. I am not able to answer real deep tech questions (that is what I feel the support of Magix is for), but I can help with questions about the daily usage, tips and tricks. That is the sense of such a community...

 

What is Apple doing or Pinnacle? Do they offer free direct support from their service (the answer is no)? Do they host such a community as additional user exchange base? I totally understand that if the support does not work appropriate, Magix needs to change this...but this does not mean that this community is a bad thing or that they host it only to save money in the support.

 

Cheers

Lazer

ShadowDancer wrote on 11/30/2010, 9:39 AM

Dear Erniec,

 

Thank you for your comments, they have been passed on and are being taken seriously by management.

 

We understand that historically our support in the English language area has been underperforming. We have introduced a lot of workflow changes to try and remedy that for the future. It is important to us that our customers have confidence in our software and the support. Video Editing and Music Editing are very complex applications and what seems simple after years of usage can often be daunting for newer users.

 

We are working on improving the sharing of our knowledge, the new Support FAQ system is being built up and we are able to spend a lot more time on the forum and this site, one of the benefits of the new work flow changes.

 

It is worth bearing in mind that this site is not a direct replacement for Support, it is a complementary service, where experienced users can share their knowledge. This also includes MAGIX employees, many of whom post as private users in their spare time. However, it is not an officially monitored service, although I try to post as often as possible now and in the future, with it being one of my weekly tasks.

 

Your idea on a "Wiki"-type system is a good one, we are already developing our Lexicon system that will be incorporated shortly into this site to make accessing information easier. It is one of the critiscms, that MAGIX info currently has a lot of activity and questions are lost very easily. This often means that the same question is answered multiple times, this can be frustrating for long term users, as they may have already answered something many times before.

 

Kind Regards,

 

Nathan

erniec wrote on 11/30/2010, 9:59 AM

Lazer:  Sorry if I was misleading on the target of my frustration.  I am always grateful when other users take the time to help out other less-experienced users.  Sharing what we've learned with strangers is a noble thing.  What I am frustrated about is Magix' poor support, primarily with their inadequate manual and help, and secondarily with their meager participation on this forum, which leaves many poor souls checking back to see that their questions are unanswered.  I've experienced many other products' fori, where employees are quick to answer even the most basic, often-asked questions again and again.

 

Nathan: Well, you proved me wrong, at least partially, by replying to my ill-tempered rant!  But, if you want Magix to really help everyone, and we english-speakers in particular, you could start by re-writing both your help and your manual.  Just see to it that everything I see in the program is shown in the manual, and that every thing I can click on or manipulate on the screen is fully described, both what it is and what happens when you use it.

 

Right now it looks like the manual is a few generations behind what's on-screen.  For example, one word is used on-screen, while a different word is in the manual for that option/pull-down menu/button.

 

One quick way to improve your support would be, as I mentioned before, to take the manual on-line.  By having it as part of your website, you could update it often and everyone would see the changes.  Also, prospective buyers could browse the manual to see if your product will do some task they are interested in, before they buy.  I've experienced this with other products, where I can get answers to my questions before I make my buying decision.  I'm pretty sure that doing this would help your sales.  Along with this, you could have a lot more how-to blog posts from your experts, each one going into depth on one specific task.  This way, you could point many of the questions asked to the blog post that covers the answer in depth.  One more thing you could do is make it easier for english speakers to use this forum.  It is in german, and I have to use a translater application to know where the "reply" button is, for example.  If you built a translator into this forum, that would help all your non-german speakers.

 

Thank you for replying to my rant, and talking me down, at least a little.  Now, if I could only get my questions answered...

 

Ernie

erniec wrote on 11/30/2010, 10:10 AM

Nathan: A bit of a correction.  I see that you do provide several different language versions, or at least a language selection at the top of the page.  But, after choosing "English", I still see many posts in German, which is expected - people post in their own language.  I resort to using a translation application so that I can figure out what those German conversations are, hoping someone else has already asked my question and I can use their answer.  It is for reading other posts that it would be good for you to somehow include a translation feature in this forum.

 

Ernie

erniec wrote on 11/30/2010, 10:31 AM

Nathan and Lazer: A question for you both.  Lazer, you mentuion a "Magix support forum", where I can get more technical answers directly from Magix.  Nathan, you talked about your "support FAQ system" being built up.  But, the only real support I've been able to find is this community forum. 

 

When I look for support from your home page, I see two options, Technical Support and Knowledge Community.  "Knowledge Community" takes me here, to the user-to-user sharing.  The "Questions and Answers" section is the only one that appears to be timely, but it's still all users sharing their experiences. 

 

If I go the "Technical Support" route from the home page, I see two choices, Technical Support and the already known Knowledge Community.  If I click on Technical Support, "Find an Answer", "Downloads", and "Support Request" are my choices.  "Find an Answer" appears to be the Magix-directed knowledge base, but there are very few items in there, none of which I can use.  Is this what you're talking about with "support FAQ system".  It looks like it, but I've not paid attention to it in the past because it is so bare.  If this is indeed what you're talking about, I look forward to it getting much more comprehensive.  This could be the place that fills the "employee blog" niche I was talking about.

 

Ernie

ShadowDancer wrote on 12/1/2010, 9:46 AM

Yes, the support forum is located here :

 

http://support.magix.net/boards/magix/index.php

 

Make sure you scroll down to the English section.

 

The FAQ system is being updated as we go along, we have been a little resource strapped the past few weeks but I hope this will shortly resolve itself, so that we can start putting more documents in.

 

erniec wrote on 12/1/2010, 10:54 AM

ShadowDancer, thanks for the link.  I've now pinned it to I can go directly to it.

 

I tried navigating to it from Magix' home page.  I eventually found it, but it wasn't easy.  It's buried down in the technical support page:

Technical Support / Online Technical Support / Customer Forum

with none of the links being prominent.

 

I suggest you make access to that forum a bit more obvious.

 

I have a question:  What is the difference between this forum and that one?  They both appear to be similar, a place where users help users, with Magix support folks chiming in occasionally.

 

I would suggest that you make both of them equally accessable, or better define their different purposes, or eliminate one or the other.

 

At any rate, I'll be spending some time on the other board to see if it answers any of my questions.

 

Thanks,

 

Ernie