Revised 11/20/2004.
MADISON, MO -- After initial testing earlier this summer,
Flagship Technologies today officially announces the opening of new
discussion forums on Flagship's web site, www.goflagship.com,
as well as revised product support policies which rely heavily on
the new forums.
A direct link to the main page for the forums is: www.goflagship.com/forums/
.
New Forums: More Features, Easier to Use
Flagship's new discussion forums are maintained by the DiscusPro
forum operating software from Discusware.
This new software offers forum visitors a lot more features and
flexibility than was available in the old forums.
Because discussion topic categories are now easier to maintain,
the forums now offer a wider variety of topic areas than
before, including product support areas where users of Flagship
Technologies' software products can get answers to their questions
about using those products.
A search facility lets forum visitors search for keywords
and phrases in existing forum messages, making it much easier to
locate specific message topics or information. For example, doing a
search for "reports" in the ManagePLUS product support
category may help a forum visitor find answers to his ManagePLUS
reporting questions in messages that were posted days or weeks
earlier, without the need to post a new question.
The forums' recent-message feature saves time for anyone
who visits the forums often. It lets the visitor see just those
messages which have been posted since their prior visit, making it
easy to "catch up" with ongoing discussions and new
messages. This facility works across all topic categories, forum
visitors don't need to visit several different categories to see
what new messages have been posted.
While most forums are entirely free to the public and require no
registration for reading messages, member registration is required
for posting messages in certain forums, such as the user support
forums. Signing up as a forum member is quick and easy, and membership
is completely free, yet it provides benefits both to forum
visitors and to the forum operators.
The forum membership system results in better and faster
support for Flagship's products. It allows Flagship's support
personnel to send follow-up email, if need be, to questions posted
in the product support topic areas. For anyone who has posted a
support question, this means they may get an answer to their
question without having to frequently check the forums to see
whether an answer has been posted.
Similarly, members can choose to receive automatic email
notification when someone posts a reply to any message they have
posted. So a forum member can stay current with a particular
discussion just by checking their email. Even better, the
notification email contains a direct link to the discussion topic.
So all that's necessary to go to that specific topic is to click on
the link.
Member registration also makes possible another unique feature:
forum-based email. Any forum member can send email to any
other member while keeping the recipient's email address hidden
from the sender! How? Forum members are normally known only by a
member name or "handle" within the forums. When the forum
software is used for composing and sending an email message, the
recipient's actual email address gets added "behind the
scenes" to the outgoing email message--the sender doesn't see
the recipient's email address. The recipient can continue to keep
his or her email address private by using the forum software for
composing and sending replies. (Replying directly to email, without
using the forum software, will make the original recipient's address
visible.) Members control whether they will accept being contacted
via forum-based email; if desired, they can turn off the feature.
Changes in Product Support Policies
Commencing as of this announcement, support for all Flagship
Technologies products will be available only via the
new discussion forums. (Previously, support was available both by
email and via the old Web forums.)
This change is supported by several benefits provided by the new
discussion forums:
Web-based forums offer better support features than are
available by email. For example, replies to user questions can
contain direct clickable links referencing other message posts,
other Web pages, etc.--something that's less functional in
text-based email. Yet the new forums have all the advantages of
email because they provide email notification when a reply is are
posted in a discussion topic.
Over time, the publicly posted questions and answers of a
Web-based discussion forum become a valuable knowledgebase of
information and experience about a product. Unlike private emails,
the messages in a discussion forum are available to everyone for
browsing and searching. Many times this lets users find answers to
their questions--at any time of the day or night--among messages
that others have already posted.
Asking questions in a public forum allows other users to
contribute to finding answers--support isn't limited to the
experience and information provided by product support personnel.
In effect, this magnifies the amount of experience that can be
brought to bear upon a question or problem.
About Flagship Technologies
Flagship Technologies, Inc., is located at Madison, Missouri. The
company's primary focus is on QuickBooks-related software products
and consulting services, with special emphasis and experience in
agricultural accounting problems and solutions.The company can be
contacted by these means:
ManagePLUS is a trademark of Flagship
Technologies, Inc. QuickBooks is a registered trademark of Intuit.
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