In the interest of complete/accurate information. . .
1. Eric Beatty is not a SWX employee, though he is a fanboy.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/eric-a-beatty/
2. The message "You are no longer a member of SOLIDWORKS User Forum" was extremely poorly done. It
does not mean you were kicked off their forum. It did more harm than they expected, despite this message.
https://r1132100503382-eu1-3dswym.3dexp ... gI6OLvXhOg
If the full explanation had been included in the message, or better yet, if it had been worded better they could have avoided the problems caused.
I post these just to try to tamp down misinformation and hysterics. Truth is truth and fair is fair. Let's keep it that way.
That said, I only go to that swamp to see additional information and even then only review recent posts because searching there is a horrible mess and an exercise in frustration. The pace of change is incredibly slow and the things they are implementing seem to be small increments at best. It is obvious that whole platform was put together without any input from the very people they want to use it. Some of the things they are "about to implement" I told them about over a year ago. They were so obvious then, but it seems like someone just gave them an epiphany. (Yes, that is a sort of pun-in-time.)
Do you remember when the
SOLIDWORKS News & Info used to be
SOLIDWORKS Connect? People were posting in SWX Connect questions that should have been posted in the Forum. That still happens in the News & Info section, but was reduced a bit when they renamed it.
(You should see the long emails I sent 'splaining that to them. It still took them a few months to reach that conclusion and then another couple to simply rename it.) I also told them that the SOLIDWORKS News & Info group should only allow people to post replies to their "official" posts. This would really reduce the mis-posting of forum questions.
And now, after an even longer period of time considering my suggestion, they are about to fix another problem that was obvious and simple to do right in the first place. In the Forum section you will not be able to post an Idea, but only post a Question (default) or a Post (Discussion).
Ideas will be directed to another group for
ideas to improve the forum or to the customer portal for submitting an Enhancement Request for
improving the software. Believe me, I have my heartburn with the current TTL/ER systems, but at least these moves will dramatically reduce the clutter and confusion in the forum over there.
The really sad thing is that these things did not require any serious programming, just a) naming the News & Info to what it should have been all along and b) the other items are permission settings. They are basically what we used to have on the old Jive forum, but it took me and a couple of others a lot of effort to get this through their corporate skulls.
/rant=off/
Brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls aren't there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to show us how badly we want things.
- - -Randy Pausch
) 
And sometimes it shows up under my name, and sometimes it doesn't. However, the User Forum content shows up under 'Dassault Systemes' and as a user group leader our SWUGN content shows up under 'SOLIDWORKS User Advocacy'. It directs you to 2 different sites if you will.
