When to use forums versus using TBSupport tracking system
Posted: Tue Apr 12, 2011 9:48 amTelcoBridges offers different tools to all its customers to facilitate the use and deployment of its products:
At some point, it might be tempting to use the forums to report bugs or to troubleshoot an issue. However, a forums is not a proper tool to track issues as it does not provide any tracking number and an easy way to query a topic's status (opened vs resolved). A forum is not an issue tracking system. This is better achieved through TelcoBridges' TBSupport portal. A rule of thumb about using the forums would be to answer the following question: "is the topic meaningful to other users or is it specific to my own application/deployment?". If the question is applicable to other areas, customers or is general, then it probably fits the forum (e.g. configuration questions, product behavior in a specific network, how to use a specific feature/API, scripting questions/hints/usages, etc).
Other topics such as reporting issues in a deployment sites (which would typically involves debugging) is not fit for the forums as it will involve the transfer of logs files and dumps which may contain information you don't want to disclose publicly. (Remember that a forum topic is seen by other forums' users). The TBSupport tracking interface will allow TelcoBridges' support and engineering team to track the status of the issue and monitor its state appropriately. The best approach is to report issues in the TBSupport tracking portal and convert it later to a post with the conclusion.
- The documentation wiki (http://docs.telcobridges.com)
The forums (https://forums.telcobridges.com) [requires online registration]
The license server (https://licenses.telcobridges.com:2444) [requires a username/password from support@telcobridges.com]
The TBSupport tracking portal (https://support.telcobridges.com:2443) [requires a username/password from support@telcobridges.com]
At some point, it might be tempting to use the forums to report bugs or to troubleshoot an issue. However, a forums is not a proper tool to track issues as it does not provide any tracking number and an easy way to query a topic's status (opened vs resolved). A forum is not an issue tracking system. This is better achieved through TelcoBridges' TBSupport portal. A rule of thumb about using the forums would be to answer the following question: "is the topic meaningful to other users or is it specific to my own application/deployment?". If the question is applicable to other areas, customers or is general, then it probably fits the forum (e.g. configuration questions, product behavior in a specific network, how to use a specific feature/API, scripting questions/hints/usages, etc).
Other topics such as reporting issues in a deployment sites (which would typically involves debugging) is not fit for the forums as it will involve the transfer of logs files and dumps which may contain information you don't want to disclose publicly. (Remember that a forum topic is seen by other forums' users). The TBSupport tracking interface will allow TelcoBridges' support and engineering team to track the status of the issue and monitor its state appropriately. The best approach is to report issues in the TBSupport tracking portal and convert it later to a post with the conclusion.