Please post here anything else (not relating to Maxwell technical matters)
User avatar
By Nasok
#399865
Probably better fit for a wishlist section 😜

Recently I was thinking about Maxwell's community in general, and I believe we can greatly improve it by making this forum... wait for it ... open to the public. :shock:

I understand the reason why it is made to be for customers only - but let's be honest, it doesn't really help to grow the community. Pushing all support on dev's shoulders is not really ideal way of getting responsive forum + fust updates of the software. 🤷‍♀️

I believe it would be much better to have this forum opened to the public - so everyone could register and post their questions / answers here. If devs have time to comment - great. If not - there will be plenty of people who would help with that.

I know that if it is for customers only - the existence of this website could be justified as customer's support expenses. But I do think that Maxwell currently at the stage where we need to grow community bigger, and then, if that is the motto of the company - we could have a section on the forum that is only for registered customers - basically a section where you would normally seek advice from devs.
Everything else could be open so that everyone could participate. And I do think we should welcome everyone who is interested or potentially interested.

Maybe someone is looking to switch and wants to know more - they'll never write to support email. Maybe they would want to find if Maxwell can handle a specific situation. Or maybe, someone who has just joined the company that uses Maxwell render - he/she has no login and in many cases going through HR / finance department to retrieve the purchasing email is not an easy / friendly way of finding an answer. Or, I don't know, maybe a company purchased a floating license and software is used by multiple people?
Even in the obvious case that someone torrented the pirated version of Maxwell .. and he comes here :lol: :lol: :lol: for an answer - I still see a big benefit as their questions and answers will eventually help others and that all together will inevitably grow the community.

Aaaand once the community is enormous - well then it might make sense to make forum closed ... but even then I would rather have a sort of live board with devs.

I think Maxwell is a beautiful and powerful piece of software and it deserves a big vibrant community. And it doesn't matter how people got your software - purchased from the webshop, or bought it from resellers, or bought it from other users, or torrented it or found it in magical pony kingdom - it doesn't really matter - people want to use it and it's great.
Closed forum will not inspire people to purchase the product (it definitely will not be the decision making nuance), those who can't afford it but still want to use it - they will find their way to download it - but they still can contribute to community growth.


Sorry for a lengthy note, potatoes are still rendering :)) - I just hope this will help management to reconsider and open up the forum.
I'm happy to help and support 🙋‍♀️

Cheers 🙌🏼
User avatar
By Mark Bell
#399867
I tend to agree, there's perhaps more to be gained by allowing 'any interested party' browse through the questions and answers as well as see examples of renders (one of Maxwell's best ways to entice new users) and read genuine comments and concerns from existing users. I'm also on the DataCAD Forum (architectural) and it's open to any one, registered or not, but does include a 'hidden' section only available to registered and/or beta users so something like this could be adopted here? Anything that promotes growth in Maxwell is a good thing.
User avatar
By Forester
#399887
..... the best part of this query has to be "found [ my copy of Maxwell Render] in the magical pony kingdom!" Made my whole morning better! :D

But, the query poses a very good idea. I'd be for it, and I'd try to be helpful and do my part.
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