Please keep these Forums. Please invest in them to make them more useful. I agree that if nothing is done they will die as too few people are actively involved.
Yes, they have less traffic than the previous forums, that I suspect, is due to the software and documentation improving but more the absence of omni staff in answering questions and possibly the historical posts containing answers to user’s questions. E.g. Due Date vs flags - read the historic posts and you probably don’t need to ask the question.
Fully understand that with limited resources Omni needs to decide where to deploy them.
What is the general trend though? are user groups generally departing discourse for Slack? If so it is a matter of time (unless the trend reverses.)
I don’t use slack and there are several other groups that I review/use on DiscourseHub (pulls all the discourse groups into one place on an iPad). Would I follow omni on Slack? Probably not.
If Slack had a searchable history (don’t know, haven’t tried) and that history included the knowledge base of user workflows and different approaches, perhaps.
Are slack replies indexed by search engines? If not a major route into finding answers would be removed.
Regarding the reminder about the in app documentation, I’m as guilty as many (probably most?) users in not going through it in detail, especially since, on the Mac, it seems I can’t even do a search on it the way I can on iOS/iPadOS.
Seeing the discussion here I decided to look for references to “automation” in the OO Help on OO Pro 5.8.2 for the Mac and OO Pro 3.7.2 for iPadOS. To my surprise, I came up with zilch, nada, nothing, nary a mention. It must be buried in there somewhere and I’m just missing it.
I imagine developing cross-platform automation must have been a substantial investment. It’s a cool feature few apps have. Why discourage use of it by killing the forum, one of only a handful of good sources of information about how to make it work?
I find browsing and searching through forums easier than navigating Slack channels. I’ve never had a hit on Slack when I do a web search, whereas forums can pop up. Forums can have a spam problem, I suppose, but I wonder how that could possibly be as hard to manage as email spam!
Please keep the forums! And make sure legit questions are answered so this place doesn’t become a ghost town.
I was puzzled until I noticed it apparently describes an older version of OO than I have. And it directs out to @sal’s site and back out here too: “For sample Plug-Ins and to learn more about scripting OmniOutliner, visit the Omni Automation website, or join the discussion on our forums.”
So here I am back out in the forums, which, it seems, are even being considered for the chopping block rather than being considered a valuable support channel commonly provided by developers of premium software… Yikes!
When I started using OmniFocus, these forums provided the information I looked for every time. I had no need to contact support with these kind of questions.
I think the (private) exchange between a user and support don’t replace the dinamic that takes place in the forums. Here, we can share and learn in a community. Plus, a database of ideas and solutions to common problems grows.
I used to post often but I’m (currently) in a little town with no Wi-Fi connection. I hope that situation changes in the near future and I can continue sharing as I used to do.
Having said that, I clearly see how bug reports should be sent to support. However, often a user reports a bug in the forum and, perhaps another member can point out an error in a certain procedure or confirm the problem.
Speaking about the company, I think they made a great job with OmniJS API. It’s a world class cross-platform scripting solution. Also, Ken Case and Tim Cook were super responsive and helpful each time I contacted them regarding this topic.
I see how understanding the API is difficult. However, perhaps the forums could become the place to share questions about it and learn collectively.
I started doing automation in this place several years ago. I hope the forums continue to exist and I can continue sharing what I’ve learned.
I just came across another another frustrating (to users trying to learn Omni Automation) and embarrassing (to the Omni Group’s reputation) example of a legitimate question simply being ignored for weeks and weeks because a user happened to post it on an Omni-hosted forum instead of going through private (preferred by @kcase but clearly not preferred by many users) channels.
