This Community Forum

[videosoul]

@Peter_SUK @Peter_S. I've just registered with this forum to discover that none of my rankings, profile informtion, kudos etc have been transferred over from the Sony USA based Sony Community Forum. I had a very high ranking there.

This is rather dissapointing.

I thought the whole point of the new single-sign-on was to make things like this eaier? Now I have one Sony login, but two seperate forum identities. That's a bit silly, isn't it?

[videosoul]

@IamNic the reason those links don't work is because, it appears, the new USA forum doesn't have a professional products section at all. All those forum posts from the "large sensor camera" etc sections are gone entirely.

[IamNic]

Hi @videosoul,

it doesn't just affect threads from one particular section, yet all posts:

Example 1 (linked to me from a user on Reddit) - MDR 1000X Headband-cracking thread: https://community.sony.com/t5/Webcast-Discussion/MDR-1000X-Headband-Cracks/td-p/619760/page/13

Example 2 (Google search result) - Post of a user asking when the next Action Cam will be released: https://community.sony.com/t5/Action-Cam/Buy-now-or-wait-for-next-version-FDR-X3000/td-p/669281

The issue is far bigger than you think - as I said - every link on another forum which leads to the Sony US community is now broken, same goes for forum threads linked in YouTube/Vimeo video descriptions or comments last but not leas - EVERY GOOGLE SEARCH RESULT IS BROKEN.

- Nic

[videosoul]

Oh. That IS messy!!

[IamNic]

Hi @videosoul,

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@videosoul schrieb:
Oh. That IS messy!!

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think about it - you do a Google search - find the thread with your exact problem and it is also "Solved" - meaning there is a solution just one click away.

Then you click and BOOM - just the error page appears.

That is the WORST that can happen to a forum designed to solve issues.

- Nic

[JPSendall]

If this is a conscious effort then Sony execs are like King Canute. Doubt any of them will understand that reference.

People will find a way to talk to each other so Facebook becomes a prime source of info, info that Sony will not be able to deal with. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot, you've taken both legs off with regards to the pro community, and all just when you release what looks like to me one of the finest digital cinema cameras to come out since the F65, the Venice!

Sony, be nice and play ball.

Thanks

Jonathon Sendall

DP

London

[IamNic]

Hi @JPSendall,

while we don't offer pro support here, I could ask @Peter_S. if he could create a Pro-Camera sub-forum for discussions here.

Would that be sufficient?

- Nic

[videosoul]

Hi @IamNic and @Peter_S.,

Personally I think that would not be a good idea, and would not be sufficient.

The reason for this is because these forums are region locked. I cannot log-in to the US equivalent, and thus I assume a customer in the USA/Canada/South America/Asia-Pacific/Australia wouldn't be able to log into this one, were it to be created.

This creates fragmentation of both the information, and the user base.

The major benefit of the previous (US hosted) professional products forum, and the reason it was very popular, is because it was international: anyone anywhere in the world could access it, contribute to it, and reap the benefits of it.

If Sony really want to help maintain an online community for their professional user base, there is, as far as I can see, only one solution. Leave these forums (and their counter-parts in other regions) just for consumer products. Instead make a new, separate forum on the new pro.sony website. Port all out old posts to it, and make it region free: for all users around the world to freely access.

The worst outcome would be to create one forum in one region, and a separate one for another region, thus totally fragmenting the resource, scattering information, and forcing separation of users who are used to interacting cross-region.

[IamNic]

Hi @videosoul

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@videosoul schrieb:

The reason for this is because these forums are region locked.

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This one is not region locked.

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@videosoul schrieb:

anyone anywhere in the world could access it, contribute to it, and reap the benefits of it.

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Same would be the case here.

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@videosoul schrieb:

Instead make a new, separate forum on the new pro.sony website. Port all out old posts to it, and make it region free: for all users around the world to freely access.

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I could check back with Peter, yet I don't think this will happen. Peter is "only" in charge of this Community platform (for all the countries found here:  https://community.sony-europe.com/t5/custom/page/page-id/CountrySelector ).

In my opinion it would be best to have it as a sub-categorie in the UK-forums "Cameras" section. 

You though would need to port the information from old discussions manually in some way, since - as Peter said - the US community forums and the EU community forums are not interlinked in any way which makes an automated transfer technically impossible.

- Nic

[Dr_Chris]

The irony is that although I am actually on the leaderboard of all the other Sony communities (US, Canada and Asia Pacific), I cannot log into any of them due to my European location. And to top it all, I cannot even log into my original acount in this, European Sony community! Hopefully a solution will be found soon.

Regards,

(the original) Dr_Chris 

[IamNic]

Hello @Dr_Chris,

I lost my account in the US-community as well. I was on top of multiple boards back then.

- Nic