Purpose of the SP3 forum?

[dman27]

I have to ask, what exactly is the purpose of this SP3 forum, if we can't "really" discuss our opinions of the SP3, whether good or bad?

One of the posts here was actually locked when a member explained he returned his SP3 and the reasons.

Some of his reasons included that he still needed to run OSX applications after he realized that the SP3 would not have the horsepower to run those PC versions of the software. He did not blast the SP3, or demean others for their choices to love and use the SP3

Others took offense and demanded that he take his Mac loving off of this forum and how dumb was he to not realize the SP3 was not a "True" replacement to a full laptop among other comments.

Many Mac users, such as myself, are not fanboys and are trying to replace larger Macs and PC's with the the more mobile SP3.

This is supposed to be the place to find out great tips, usage stories, issues, testing, advice and if a user expresses their regret, ignorance, or overall indignation, point them to alternatives and don't feed into the trolling that some will try.

Here is a comment that does not add to the forum and discourages a huge Mac audience from exploring an incredible alternative, the Microsoft SP3.

"Is this forum about MacBook PRO? Move on! Find yourself a forum about MacBook!"

This type of comment also causes a back and forth escalation that leads to LOCKING of a good initial post and all those that contributed great info to that post.

Here are great follow ups that shows how to actually inform the poster and potential customers of the alternatives. These come from two different posts of user's returning their SP3.

"$.02 from a heavy MacBook user: Mac has no touch screen, no pen. Digitizing hardware needed to draw on a mac using a pen.
And how about this cool article: Turn your Surface Pro into the perfect PhotoShop machine... Linked Article."


"Up until the latest (beta) release of CC, Adobe (like Google) was using XP Style Scaling for GDI which doesn't render well on high DPI screens...."

"MacBook Air actually - they were clear that this is an Ultrabook Class Machine in a thin Tablet form factor. MBP is a Mobile Workstation Class Machine like the ThinkPad W530 or Dell Precision M3800...."

Some did not know this info and were actually confusing the comparison that MS made of the SP3 to the Macbook Air rather than the more powerful Mabook Pro.

A forum moderator shouldn't censor or lock posts, but actually handle those that are inflaming the situation.

 

[megatronium]

And away we go.....

A forum was created for SP3 vs. other machines. It would seem that the Administrators wanted this forum to be about the SP3 specifically. Now that the SP3 vs. forum has been created, it doesn't seem to be getting much traffic. Some might take that and believe that the purpose of the posts you referred to were merely inflammatory comments meant to antagonize SP3 users. Just my observation.

 

[ctitanic]

And away we go.....

A forum was created for SP3 vs. other machines. It would seem that the Administrators wanted this forum to be about the SP3 specifically. Now that the SP3 vs. forum has been created, it doesn't seem to be getting much traffic. Some might take that and believe that the purpose of the posts you referred to were merely inflammatory comments meant to antagonize SP3 users. Just my observation.

Correct. This thread is off topic in this subforum. And as you can see, I do not participate in the SP vs Others one, I prefer to use my energy helping those who needs help using their SP.

 

[ipaq_101]

The purpose of the SP3 forum is for SP3 users who can help troubleshoot or share ideas, not a bunch of people posting why they returned theirs because it didn't meet their expectations and that they ordered a fully spec'ed out MBP 13. That doesn't help me use my SP3 better or help solve problems. Telling me that CS5 for macs can't run on a windows is quite useless information, who doesn't know information like this already?

 

[grumpy]

I am not a Mac user, but I think that comparisons to comparable devices should not be discouraged. I like the idea of the Surface Pro line but MS's execution has been deeply flawed. I am somewhat disappointed with the direction of the SP3 so comparable alternatives are of interest to me.

Thread moving in 3...2...

 

[ipaq_101]

A forum moderator shouldn't censor or lock posts, but actually handle those that are inflaming the situation.

It's generally not a good idea to tell forum moderators how to do their jobs. If you want a forum run a certain way, you should create your own. I participate in many forums and in each of them a community of moderators and administrators make decisions together as they best see fit for their forum. I don't always like it, but it's my choice to come back to it.

In this case I like the decision they made, it helps filter out the mac talk that I don't care about at all. I am a windows user and always have been, to me it's useless for me to read 20 posts about something I don't find relevant. This forum is for mainly for window users who have window questions, lately it has turned into a forum by disgruntled mac users who choose to go back to their macs and let everyone here know about it.

 

[dman27]

^Dodgers

It's generally not a good idea to assume or attack others like you did in other posts simply because you don't find something relevant.

This forum is about the SP3 (hardware), which was compared to the Macbook Air in it's launch, compared to tablets in it's commercials and weighed against a MBA onstage.

To assume they are disgruntled Mac users rather than consumers merely trying to make an informed choice is the issue.

I used my SP3 for 90% of my work, 100% replaced all tablets (Android and Ipads), and only use my Macbook for very specific applications.

Microsoft directly invited the comparison to the mac, not the consumer.

As many others have stated, information and comparisons help them tremendously in their decision making.

It seems your frustration is misplaced.

 

[jnjroach]

It wasn't as much the content, it was the fact that in multiple threads the conversation despite what a vocal minority felt, was off-topic to the thread conversation.

We have created a Sandbox for this line of debate, but please remember OSX has less than 5% of the OS Market (understanding that there are some who use it are very passionate and loathe to use anything else) and well over 90% use Windows and come here looking specifically for information relating to their Surface Device. I don't go into WP Central's Nokia 1520 forum and say, I retuned it because it wasn't running Android, that post would be considered Off Topic and would be removed.

If this thread digresses into another complaint thread I will lock it as well.

 

[jnjroach]

^Dodgers

It's generally not a good idea to assume or attack others like you did in other posts simply because you don't find something relevant.

This forum is about the SP3 (hardware), which was compared to the Macbook Air in it's launch, compared to tablets in it's commercials and weighed against a MBA onstage.

To assume they are disgruntled Mac users rather than consumers merely trying to make an informed choice is the issue.

I used my SP3 for 90% of my work, 100% replaced all tablets (Android and Ipads), and only use my Macbook for very specific applications.

Microsoft directly invited the comparison to the mac, not the consumer.

As many others have stated, information and comparisons help them tremendously in their decision making.

It seems your frustration is misplaced.

We now have a forum specifically for you to compare and debate the merits of one platform to another.... it is why we created it.

What you have omitted (as has most of the MBA touting Tech Bloggers) the comparison was not just the MBA vs. The SP3 but the SP3 vs. the MBA and the iPad, all of reviewers fail that part of the conversation. MS could have compared against the Samsung ATIV Book 9 and NOTE 10 but Samsung is still a Windows OEM.

 

[dstrauss]

It may be a subtle distinction to some, but I would not come to a specialized forum like this expecting to get opinions on why I should reject this device. At more generalized forums, like TabletPCReview which many of us here haunt as well, there is often spirited and informative debate BETWEEN types and classes of devices. At this forum, I, and many others, are looking for solutions, tips, tricks, and just general information to make our experience better - not to hear why X, Y or Z are better choices for someone than the Surface.

 

[ipaq_101]

^Dodgers

It's generally not a good idea to assume or attack others like you did in other posts simply because you don't find something relevant.

This forum is about the SP3 (hardware), which was compared to the Macbook Air in it's launch, compared to tablets in it's commercials and weighed against a MBA onstage.

To assume they are disgruntled Mac users rather than consumers merely trying to make an informed choice is the issue.

I used my SP3 for 90% of my work, 100% replaced all tablets (Android and Ipads), and only use my Macbook for very specific applications.

Microsoft directly invited the comparison to the mac, not the consumer.

As many others have stated, information and comparisons help them tremendously in their decision making.

It seems your frustration is misplaced.

It seems like you are missing the point of what others have posted as a lot of them are indeed disgruntled (dissatisfied), if they weren't they would not have returned the SP3s. In many cases it wasn't the hardware that didn't meet their expectations it was their software.

Many software products from 10 years ago don't run well on newer OS architecture, while most may get by, it's not ok to assume that everything that worked on OS iterations 10 years ago will run perfectly on today's new operating systems.

I get frustrated that once people return their SP3's they continue to come back to the forum and keep posting. At this point it's not relevant because you don't have the machine anymore and you keep posting about how great your MBP or MBA is going to be, many times they don't have those machines yet to even make a proper compare and contrast review, they are waiting to get them still. That is a bit premature, don't you think? Yeah, go ahead, call me frustrated, but its not misplaced.

 

[douglasfurs]

dman27 - A great and thoughtful post. It's sad to say but it seems as though some moderators in this forum are... what's the word to use... fanboys? and are obviously in favor of certain members/certain discussions.

I find it quite funny I was pegged as someone who had a vendetta against the SP3 but if you look at my posting history, you can see 99% of my posts are all positive comments towards the SP3. It just goes to show people really have no clue what they are talking about.

And to everyone who is complaining. It really works like this.

Forum> Sections > Threads > Posts > Conversation

If you don't want to see conversation about members who own or owned a SP3 then don't click on a thread that says "My Thoughts On the SP3 and why I returned it" - I mean, it's quite simple. I mean. It's not rocket science!

JNJROACH - "I don't go into WP Central's Nokia 1520 forum and say, I retuned it because it wasn't running Android" - Sorry to say but you're way off with that comment. Like 100% off. Nobody did anything of the sort. Did we seriously read the same thread or did you just pick and choose what you wanted to see? If the Nokia 1520 marketed itself as being able to run android just as good as your android specific phone runs android then yes, it would be relevant and that's basically what the OP was getting at.

The initial post from the OP was about how the SP3 didn't replace his laptop or his tablet like the marketing for the device said it would. Again, on topic and completely relevant.

My post was what i liked about it and what I didn't like about it.

HOW ARE THESE CONVERSATIONS NOT RELEVANT!?

Neither conversation was a debate of the SP3 versus another device. So why would that thread be appropriate in a debate section of the forums? Makes absolutely no sense.

I'm not telling a mod HOW TO do his job. I'm simply telling a mod TO DO his job. How he does it is up to him.

The fact is. In the thread "So long SP3 Friends..." the OP didn't even say he returned his device to go buy mac products. He simply said the SP3 did not replace his Macbook Air and Tablet as the marketing said it would.

In my follow up post I talked about what I liked about the SP3 and how that worked for me and what I didn't like about the SP3 and how that did not work for me. It had nothing to do debating why a mac was better. Why a mac is far more superior. Nothing of the sort. I simply stated instead of me keeping my SP3 I returned it and went with another machine.

Seriously, how do I report the admin Jeff Roach? I'm going to look into doing this now. This is absurd!