14 DAY TRIAL // Apple has finally made good on its promise to revamp the Discussions forums into a new Apple Support Communities site with ab overhauled interface and more user-centric features.
In August last year, we reported that Cupertino had announced an upcoming upgrade of the Apple Discussions board.
Set to be called "Apple Support Communities", Apple promised that the forum would “bring together thousands of Macintosh, iPod, iPhone, and iPad users from around the world to discuss Apple products and topics.
"Apple Support communities provides a wealth of information about your favorite Apple hardware and software products to help you get the most out of your purchase,” the company explained last year.
“And, in the spirit of community, you can also help other Apple Support Communities' users by answering their questions."
The service, now launched, features a "Community Etiquette" policy which says users must post only technical support questions and answers, unless otherwise noted.
Forum members must be polite, constructive and stay on topic, and they are advised to search for questions similar to their own before submitting them to the community.
Rewarding helpful community members by marking answers helpful and correct is also encouraged, while speculation and rumors are to be avoided.
An introduction to the new layout and features of ASC can be found here.
Those who’ve grown accustomed to the old Apple Discussions forum will not feel like fish out of water, even t the changes are quite numerous.
For example, the main page now greets users with ‘communities’ which they can select and be a part of, based on the Apple products they own and want to get answers on.
From there, users can either browse all the existing discussions on that topic with options to refine their search using key words and tags, or they can simply ask a question on the spot and wait for the folks in that community to answer back.
Since the service is just fledging, the main page also features a Tutorials box with tips on asking questions, creating an account, and more.