Why did the Forum hyperlink disappear?

Come on guys grow up. My browser has a book mark feature. It also has a history. I did not know the link was missing until I saw 55 post. Thought is was something important. Why don't you go over to MacTopia (the link still works) and give Gates pointers on web design. I am sure you will get the same level of attention and correspondence from Microsoft you have received from Parallels.

 

But what if you had not been in at the beginning when the link was visible? How would you have found it so you could peruse the info? How could Google index it so that people can search for help later?

David, WQ2S

 

There's a link to it on the official parallels blog (Benjamin's blog).

http://parallelsvirtualization.blogspot.com/

Entry dated May 3rd has it right up top nice and visible.

 

Better than nothing - but that's a backdoor that can easily become useless should Parallel reorganise the forum and put it at a different link.
D

 

I thought the forum was attacked and closed for a while. I have been totally blind until I found the present situation in the blog yesterday. It could have been informed to all the testers as the same way as an announcment of a new beta.
I agree the S/N ratio has dropped significantly, however.

I would appreciate the great work and the responsibility of the PW team. I have been using beta6 for real works without major problems.

 

"All we've done is remove some of the links in the main menu structure, so the forum can be a place where real Parallels users can discuss the product."


I can see some reasoning behind that....

Still, when I first found out about parallels and looked at the site I very nearly passed it over because I thought it didn't have a forum. It was only after I typed 'parallels forum' into google and found this space that I gave the app serious consideration.

At the end of the day Parallels is something that is going to have a substantial user base that is technically savvy... either enthusiasts or people in the I.T. industry - it draws the same ilk as VMware and Zen users, etc. These type of people (and a casual Mac User) will many times go to the forums to see what the community is saying about the product before purchasing it.

I think forums lend to a product's credibility - ya'll have a good commenting base, you should put a link for the forum on the front page, in bold!

 

To limit posts to actual users, how hard could it be to require a valid activation key for registration? Then anyone could browse the forum, and only valid users could post. Even if moderator approval was required for registration, the wait for the ability to post would be short, and new potential users could at least read. Seems like a near ideal situation.

Even though the forum software is third party, there has to be a better solution.

 

Have you found the new developer forum yet?

 

I found the forums via Google....I don't think you're really hiding anything.

 

it's mid july now. yet no link on main page. you want to know what I (maybe future customer) thinks?
first, it took me 5 min to search and find this forum. not a good hiding place.
second, when i could not find a forum on the main page, i thought they have bad support. and then my email went unanswered (still ), so it's over loaded bad support.
after looking for someone who started a forum, and finding the official, I think you are hiding cause some bad comments which will not bring in new customers. don't worry. I will read through the forum, but it's not a good start.
having the software today is not good enough reason for me to buy it. get me annoyed and i will be looking for a download.
so when i heard about this software and was ready to put down the money (rare for me), playing cat and mouse is not a good start.
now lets see what i find in the forum.

 

I would also agree that its a bad idea, probably good for sales, but bad for potential buyers.