Symantec Connect

After reaching the ripe old age of 18 months Connect is due for a refresh.  In the next few weeks we will begin rolling out a completely redesigned community website.  We’ve come a long way since the original Connect site launched in March 2009.  In that 18 month period we’ve basically doubled in size and are can now boast more than:

• 3.5 Million monthly page views
• 190,000 registered members
• 500,000 discussions, articles, and comments

For this redesign we carefully analyzed traffic patterns on the site, conducted in depth focus groups, and consulted several celebrity astrologers.  We are very excited about what we came up with.  Here’s a sneak peek of what we wanted to improve and how we are doing it:

SIMPLIFY AND IMPROVE NAVIGATION:

In our focus group studies it was clear that the relationship between “Communities” (Backup, Security, etc) and the content types under...

You may have already noticed our newest feature on Connect, Ideas.  The concept is simple, we are proving a place where the community can suggest ideas for new features in Symantec products, new products altogether or even ideas for how Symantec as a company could change.  You can even suggest ideas for Connect.  Once an idea is submitted, community members can vote that idea up or down.  The page defaults to list ideas that are "popular now" at the top of the list.  So as you vote you increase the visibility of various ideas.  Take a look and let us know what you think - in fact, submit some ideas for how we can improve Symantec Connect!  

The short video below will show you around ideas.

It's been a couple of weeks since my last update on Connect. During that time we've been working on several (and by several I mean more than 150) enhancements to Connect that will roll out over the next three to four weeks as part of our 1.1 release. Before I get to a more detailed list, here are the big enhancements coming before the end of April:

Performance. We're making several tweaks to performance - especially when publishing content.

Login State. In addition to allowing you to stay logged in for a week at a time, we are returning you to the page where you clicked the "login" link rather than redirecting you to the home page.

Ideas. If you've ever wanted to share an Idea on a feature for an existing Symantec product or a new product altogether, this is your chance. Submit your idea and vote on other ideas. Top ideas "float" to the...

In the spirit of openness that a community site like this is built on I want to take a minute to address a few things related to the launch of Connect. Specifically, I want to talk about two things:

1. Status of bug fixes
2. What the future holds

STATUS OF BUG FIXES

In the first few hours and days of the launch we (and you) identified a number of bugs with the site.  It would be disingenuous to ignore that they happened or to downplay how they have affected what you do in the community.  Rather than come up with excuses as to why they happened, I’d like to give you a quick update on where we are with fixing them.

SEARCH RESULTS: We multiplied the indexing speed by 5X and I am pleased to report that the entire site is now indexed.

REDIRECTS FROM OLD POSTS: There was a major issue with redirecting from old forum posts to new forum posts. This bug has also been addressed. If you use a...