Alphasim forums ditched

[Nick C]

Well it's happened, it seems Phil has decided to pull the plug permanently on the Alsphasim forums. With the wealth of information that there was on them, I find it hard to believe that this was in the best interest of the customers, although obviously it is less work for staff.

http://www.alphasim.co.uk/index2.html

Due to technical problems, both the forum and gallery are no longer accessible. The gallery will be re-instated as soon as practical, however after much consideration, we have decided not to re-instate the forum. We are confident that a leaner AlphaSim is the way forward and this increased efficiency will result in more and better models and scenery in the coming years.

Although this comes as no great surprise, I'm sorry to see them go.

[harleyman]

From just reading here it seems they were destined to just outright drop the ball..Looks like they just want to sell and offer no support..Just ask HellDiver.......

[Nick C]

I'm sure the idea to offer support via email still stands, although helldivers case is a worry. If Phil decides that he's not dealing with a customer, what other avenues are open? With the F1 wrapper system, it means products will be sold via other shops, you should be able to gain support via the retailers own support procedures in the future.

[jmig]

Maybe they will have a section in the F-1 forums?

[harleyman]

I would think once they hit other retailers they would insist there be some type of support offered if they were to sell the items......

[Francois]

I'm sure the idea to offer support via email still stands, although helldivers case is a worry. If Phil decides that he's not dealing with a customer, what other avenues are open? With the F1 wrapper system, it means products will be sold via other shops, you should be able to gain support via the retailers own support procedures in the future.

Retailers don't DO support

[Nick C]

I hope so John.

I haven't had any problems with Phil or Alphasim as a customer and to be fair I hardly know anybody who has (with the exception of HD), but I think that forums in this day and age are a vital part of customer service allowing the developer to interact with customers directly.

The Alphasim forums, like many, were great if you were looking to buy a product. If the product pictures were not great in the shop, and they seldom aren't, you could go to the forum and often find pictures posted from users of that addon. Of course there are companies, such as Real Air, who don't have support forums, but they also have a small collection of addons. Alphasim, by comparison, have many projects under construction at any given time and frequent previews are key to marketing. Support can quickly be offered by the many Alphasim developers directly, rather than having to wait while they are sifted through by one person.

The Alphasim forums were also frequented by a community that enjoyed their products, fans, I wonder how those active members felt when they found their forum was closed? Pretty much the same way anybody would feel if their favourite forum was closed. Sadened...but then you would move to another forum...which means the customers would not be as frequent to your site, wouldn't it? I certainly visited the Alphasim forums far more frequently than their website.

Anyhow all of this, I guess, is irrelevant now.

[Nick C]

Retailers don't DO support

They certainly should Francois. If I buy a product from YOU and it's faulty, I want YOU to offer me a refund :d

Speaking of support, I'll try to catch you on Skype this evening, I have a feeling I've been neglecting my duties and need a deadline!!

[Ickie]

Running forums is not automatic, its an awful lot of work, it can be a full time job.
You are always a target for all kinds of attacks.
Sometimes you have to deal with the nut cases, (who think they know everything and are always right).
Maybe Phil just had enough, and to quote Poppy the sailor,
"Its all I can stanz and I can't stanzs no more".
Its Phils choice not to re-open the forums and his alone.

[Francois]

I have a feeling I've been neglecting my duties and need a deadline!!

Real Life comes first for all those not stuck in this thing professionally

[IanP]

Running forums is not automatic, its an awful lot of work, it can be a full time job.
You are always a target for all kinds of attacks.
Sometimes you have to deal with the nut cases, (who think they know everything and are always right).
Maybe Phil just had enough, and to quote Poppy the sailor,
"Its all I can stanz and I can't stanzs no more".
Its Phils choice not to re-open the forums and his alone.

Forums are, however, a lot easier than answering the same question thirty times - most people will at least look at, if not search, forums for answers before submitting a support ticket/e-mail. If the forums aren't there, and you can't put the answers to the most frequent questions in one place, then sticky it, you end up answering them twenty, fifty, two hundred times instead. At the same time, a lot of customers will talk about your products, share experiences, share repaints/updates/add-ons and answer all the new threads that the staff aren't around to.

Yes you have to deal with the nutcases, idiots and complaints, but that's part of being in business, not just running a forum.

Alphasim are, once again, making life more difficult for themselves than they need to. It only takes so many nails to make a coffin and I know of a lot of people that would love to see Alphasim fall, who will be falling over themselves laughing at this announcement. I'm the opposite, I want to see them survive and thrive, but certain members of their staff really could make life a lot easier for themselves at times.

Ian P.

[jmig]

It only takes one unanswered or brushed off question to lose a customer. Lose enough customers and you are out of business.

[CodyValkyrie]

Even Ariane has a forum....

I don't understand why some addon companies continue to think that providing less open support increases productivity. I could rattle off quite a few companies who have gone this route whos product line hasn't changed in the least.

Oh well. Not my company. While I like a few guys over there, I never was a big Alphasim supporter. I do however have a "couple" sweet gems from them, namely the Gee Bee and the LongEZ.

[pernik]

Can't say I am surprised, very disappointed but not surprised.
The way the forums were heading made this move inevitable. What I don't understand is the "announcement" which comes across as bad tempered and ill concieved.

Announcement : Customers must not be concerned by the moronic comment made by the SimFlight News page editor that 'AlphaSim has given up supporting its customers'. Such stupidity beggars belief. Like many developers, we do not require a forum to provide support, that will be done initially by e-mail and later by a dedicated support page which we are putting together. SimFlight should realise that the purpose of an FS News page is to simply announce things - not to make harmful subjective comments. We trust that the saner minds there will eventually prevail.

It's announcements like this and similar forum posts that irritate the hell out of me. The impression they give of the company is not the best, coming across as defensive, bombastic and not a little childish.

Oh well I can see my long standing support ( both financially and otherwise) of AS coming to an end.

[CWOJackson]

Kind of reminds me of LAGO.

[michael davies]

Deep breath




Big mistake IMHO

Regards

Michael

[MudMarine]

I'm with you MD. I stopped visiting the AS forums months ago. Due to the idiots and the real lack of support. I like AS, BUT I'm disapoint in the direction they seem to be going lately.......:isadizzy:

[deimos256]

with this move they have just lost my business, as i was trying to get on the forums for information about a purchase i was going to make, but now forget it.

[michael davies]

with this move they have just lost my business, as i was trying to get on the forums for information about a purchase i was going to make, but now forget it.

You see thats what the rub here is really all about, a large percentage of Alphasims products are team efforts.

By closing the forums and other 'adverse' actions, Alphasim is not only hurting customers but is seriously hurting the third party developers who helped make those products.

In some products a respectful% of the product fee goes to third party developers, not to Alphasim. People not buying isn't hurting Alphasim as much as its hurting the fringe that prop up Alphasim.

This isn't a case of please buy from someone you disagree with to help support the fringe and often important minions, its a case of actions taken by 'some' having an adverse impact on other innocent parties.

Closure of the forums will generate less interest and lower sales, thats a no brainer before it even started, lower sales will effect those on the outer fringes the hardest, not the inner core.

If you cut too much fat and skin off the carcass your only left with a pile of dead bones.

Best

Michael

[deimos256]

well hopefully these developers will move their efforts elsewhere, didnt a scenery team recently pull their stuff off AS? Maybe they knew this was coming

[S]

Crap. That place nearly felt like a virtual home to me. I don't like this at all.

[CodyValkyrie]

Crap. That place nearly felt like a virtual home to me. I don't like this at all.

You were one of the people I was referring to when I meant friends! Don't you work for or with AS? If my assumption was wrong, my apologies!

[tigisfat]

having been booted off the alphasim forums some time ago, I'm personally at no loss.:costumes:


I do have to say, however, that we shouldn't make a big deal out of this. Most manufacturer's forums are no more than clubhouses these days. I have respect for the amount of effort it takes to run a forum. Forums are probably costly monetarily as well. It's no secret that Alphasim has not been highly lucrative for all involved. There comes times when every business, for better or worse, must cut their overhead.

That being said, the best support I've recieved for Alphasim products has been by going directly to the likes of Dan, Mike and others. I've never been turned down and I've never waited more than a day or two for detailed one-on-one support.

We've seen this before. Let us not judge a company or their products by the actions of one man. Alphasim is a consortium of talents.

We can't say that the company is going downhill when 2008 has seen top level, highly competitive releases of the utmost fidelity. Moving towards the release of boxed products will only increase their profitability and it's possible that some of the internal struggles there wil cease to exist.

:redf:Let us also ignore the angrily written comments that are now featured at the top of their news page.:redf:

[S]

You were one of the people I was referring to when I meant friends! Don't you work for or with AS? If my assumption was wrong, my apologies!

I'm not part of the AlphaSim team but I have created quite a few movies for them.

Forums are easy to control if you ask me. Not timeconsuming at all as long as you've got the self discipline to stick to your ROE.

Developers - Simply only add news like preview shots and new releases.

Admin - Simply said the tech guy who keeps the forum software healthy and running.

Moderators - They are the voice of the company. Make sure these guys know what is going on. They need to have excellent PR and marketing skills. They will handle the customer support.

And the golden rule, when opening a forum make sure you have crystal clear rules layed out for the moderator so that they know exactly how to respond to any situation. Nothing is worse than two moderators saying two different things.

I just wish we'd get a forum back. Even if it'd be very basic. It's not just a forum, it has developed itself into some sort of online community.

[tigisfat]

I just read the simflight comments. I don't know why Phil (or someone else) would make such an angry post on the Alphasim main page:

"Customers must not be concerned by the moronic comment made by the SimFlight News page editor that 'AlphaSim has given up supporting its customers'. Such stupidity beggars belief. Like many developers, we do not require a forum to provide support, that will be done initially by e-mail and later by a dedicated support page which we are putting together. SimFlight should realise that the purpose of an FS News page is to simply announce things - not to make harmful subjective comments. We trust that the saner minds there will eventually prevail. "

I don't think the simflight comments are out of line. Alphasim has indeed given up on supporting customers VIA their forum. Simflight didn't say anything about Alphasim ceasing support all together. Here's what simflight said here:

"It was pointed out by readers that the New Zealand based Alphasim has taken its forum off-line. There are no further indications as to why, but speculations run high in the (military) flightsim communities on various forums. Their ‘Coppermine’ based photo gallery is also off-line. Aphasim has had its share of forum ‘discussions’, from both sides, and recently published a first product through Flight1. Their website is still on-line.
Update: it is now confirmed that indeed Alphasim has given up on supporting its users via their forums and they are closed now."