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Moving forums to zendesk?

Discussion in 'Off Topic' started by Coby Robo 3D, Oct 18, 2017.

  1. Coby Robo 3D

    Coby Robo 3D Administrator
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    Hey guys, I have been working really hard trying to set up our new customer service platform called Zendesk over on our site help.robo3d.com. They have a 'community' portal that functions just like forums and was wondering a few things

    1) Would it be appropriate to port all the data over to those forums and everyone start using them there?It integrates with our entire help site help.robo3d.com so the search function could span across all articles in the forums as well. How do you all feel about this?

    2) Has anyone every used the zendesk forums in here? and how did you like the experience?

    3) Has anyone every ported over forum data to a new host? I can't seem to find anything out there.This is all just preliminary talks but wanted to get your feedback before moving forward with anything. Thanks!
     
  2. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Hi Coby,

    1. It may be hard to get everyone to move that way unless this link auto directs all members there?

    2. I believe the admin side of this forum is zendesk. Never used it as a user.

    3. I've never moved a forum but not opposed to a change either.

    @mark tomlinson @WheresWaldo ?
     
  3. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    XenForo 1.4.10

    Not exactly the same.
     
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  4. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    ZenDesk is a targeted customer support portal. Nice and not bad. However, migrating the data is the part that would be painful and there is an awful lot of good data on here that I would hate to see lost.
     
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  5. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Indeed, would be a tragedy to lose all the years info.
     
  6. Coby Robo 3D

    Coby Robo 3D Administrator
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    Yes we would link it all up so it would be smooth transition so that's not a worry.

    If we were to lose anything at all, we wouldn't migrate and we would have to think of another way to do it. I need to find someone that has potentially done this type of move before so if everyone can keep their ears open that would be helpful.

    Again this is just a thought I had so I'm just exploring the potential possibility.
     
  7. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Love the idea of a more advertised forum for users to get help for sure. Will keep ears open for people that have done this type of thing
     
  8. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Sanity check with them to see if they have done something similar. There may be a way to integrate them with cross-linking or something. As others mentioned if the search would work cross forum and lead back to the correct posts/threads* then it would be largely moot.

    *the current forum search is, well, buttocks. I use Google search targeted to this site and let it find the post I wanted (site:community.robo3d.com in the google search phrase)
     
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  9. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Its been so long since I've tried to use it I forgot it was broken! yea...its not good :D
     
  10. daniel871

    daniel871 Well-Known Member

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    Why not just archive the entire forum as-is and code a better search function (even if it's just a Google Search redirect to the URL the archive ends up being), then move to the new forum frontend?

    Anything truly useful in concept needs to be updated anyway due to broken image links and outdated third-party URL references (and other minor things that go out of date due to design changes in products, etc.).
     
  11. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    Some of that could be addressed in a new forum with download sections/files area. Then as opposed to uploading a new copy in a thread every time someone asks and you can't find the old link you just point them to the files area. That is one really missing feature in this forum software... we get a lot of requests for uploads and that would be a big help.
     
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  12. Coby Robo 3D

    Coby Robo 3D Administrator
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    Loving these ideas everyone! Lets make this forum how we want them.
     
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  13. KTMDirtFace

    KTMDirtFace Well-Known Member

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    I haven't used zendesk but I'm not much of a fan of the layout of it after going and looking at your help area.

    I much prefer normal forums like this one .
     
  14. daniel871

    daniel871 Well-Known Member

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    Yep. phpBB seems to be one of the most popular forum softwares to use outside of vBulletin (either one with custom skins for the community using them). Either of which would likely be much easier to port over to than Zendesk (which now that I've gone and looked at the example sites they share, I've instantly taken to hating it).

    Robo should only migrate to 100% Zendesk if they intend to kill the forum-style community.
     

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