Improvements to the Community Forums

[PayPal_Olivia]

Welcome to your Community!

If this is your first time visiting the PayPal Community Help Forums, welcome and thank you for joining us. This is an exciting time to be here, because we're about to make some big improvements.

If you're an existing or returning member, thank you! This Community thrives on the members who keep coming back, and we really appreciate your participation!

What are the Community Forums for?

The PayPal Community Help Forums are a venue for PayPal members to assist and seek assistance from other PayPal members. While there are lots of assistance options available (such as the informational pages on the PayPal website, the Help Center, and Customer Service) sometimes there's just nothing that can compare to the unique perspective of a neighbor who's experienced the same thing you're going through. This Community is all about bringing you and your neighbors together to find solutions, share experiences, and even just to have a block party every now and then. 🙂

What's changing in the Community Forums?

The moderation team has done a lot of review lately to determine how the Community can be improved. We examined what's working, what's not working, and what would work better with a little bit of adjustment. Based on our observations and the feedback we've received from the Community, we made some changes to repair some of the biggest pain points, and will be adding some features to enhance the experience:

Tips Boards

- Looking for pointers? Take a look at the Tips from Moderators and Tips from Members boards to see what others have shared! If you have a PayPal-related topic about which you feel especially knowledgeable, make a post and help others become superstars like you. 🙂

Events and Social Boards

- Keep your eye on the Community Events board to join our weekly Community Chats to ask real-time questions or even just kick back and have some small talk around the water cooler. You can also use the Stop in and Say Hello board at any time to tell us about your recent vacation, share recipes, and get to know the other folks in your Community!

Special Feedback Boards

- Feedback will be encouraged in a separate board from the questions. Feedback posted in a board designed for questions and answers will be moved in order to make it easier to see the questions awaiting answers. Threads with productive discussion about those ideas will prove valuable to strengthening PayPal's effectiveness at meeting your needs.

Archives

- Don't fret! All the hard work you've done on your older posts is not wasted. Those posts will have a cozy place to sleep in the Archives, and linking to the information in them is still perfectly fine.

Ultimately, the changes we're going to make should do a lot to help every member find exactly what they're looking for when they come here. New members will find it easier to locate the information they need without wading through off-topic posts. Veteran members who want to help others will be able to easily find unanswered questions in their field of expertise. Folks with ideas, suggestions, or complaints have a place where productive discussion can bring out the best.

I'm truly excited to be here at this time, with all of you. There's great content to write, and great work we can do to help one another. Thank you all for being part of this Community. I look forward to reading your posts!

Olivia

[PayPal_Adrian]

Hello everyone!

As Olivia mentioned in her post, we're going to be moving quite a few things around in the near future.  At this point in time, we're expecting the PayPal Canada Community Help Forums to experience downtime on Tuesday, March 27h, starting at 8 PM CDT. 

What does this mean for me?

During this period, you won't be able to access the PayPal Canada Community Help Forums.  If you do attempt to access them, you should receive an error message stating your access is denied.  Don't fret - you'll have it back as soon as the changes are complete. 

Please note, all other portions of the PayPal website should be unaffected and will function normally.

How long will this take?

We've scheduled the necessary maintenance to run from 8 PM CDT until Midnight.  However, we hope to have your new Community available much, much sooner than midnight.  The moderation staff will work as quickly as they can to implement the changes, conduct maintenance, and turn the lights back on for you to check out the new boards.

Why are you doing this?

Olivia's post, above, about what is going to change covers the reasons we're taking this opportunity to conduct maintenance and make improvements.

Does this change affect any other Community?

No.  Only the PayPal Canada Community Help Forum will be affected.

Will I stil be able to use PayPal to make and receive payments?

Yes.  The maintenance we are conducting should not impact any other portion, feature, or service of PayPal.

You're sure?

Yes.

Ok, but, will I be able to see all of my old posts?

Yes.  None of your old content is going away, and will still be available in the new Archives section.  While you won't be able to reply to posts in the Archive, if your question hasn't been answered, please feel free to re-post or link to your question.  We regret any inconvenience this may cause.

Is this going to happen again?

This is an expansive change that has been a monumental effort by every member of the moderation team.  We're very proud of what we've accomplished, but you might see us tweak a few features here and there, maybe even introduce something new.... or improved... but you'll have to stick around to see what gets better   And no, we shouldn't have to turn off the lights again anytime soon.

Are there any other changes I should know about?

Yes.  With the new Community will come a host of new content, so please review the new Community Guide section once it is available.  How we moderate the Community will essentially be the same, but with new boards, come new features, and we've set up a number of articles to help you understand how they work and how they should  be used.  You'll be able to locate these in the new Community Guide section, and we'll also be placing similar articles in each of the new boards.

That about sums it up - I'll leave this thread open for questions regarding the changes if you have any.  Oh, and just in case you may not have seen it yet... did you notice the new emoticons?

Take care,

Adrian