I have been a Plex Pass subscriber for a number of years. I have utilized these forums on and off during that period and have observed a number of things.
What I describe here are a series of OBSERVATIONS. They are not complaints and should not be interpreted as such. Anything developed in the course of human commerce will always be subject to defects. Becoming aware of such defects is an important step in managing and mitigating such issues.
A number if posts can be seen which received no response and were automatically locked after 90 days. This is probably a source of frustration to the poster, who was frustrated to begin with or he/she would not have posted. Perhaps there could be some way to analyze these posts to determine if changing posting documentation would provide a better chance of meaningful responses. Continued frustration is not a fitting result to a plea for help.
2⊠Additionally, a number of posts can be seen in which all of the responses are from fellow travelers with essentially the same problem, These posts have seen no suggestions for resolution. Thus there exists a community of users with the same or similar Plex issue, yet none of them have found closure. Perhaps a way could be found to analyze posts like these. Analysis may show that the initial post was not to the best forum category and reposting it to a better category could result in a solution. Also such analysis might alert developers to a common problem of which they were unaware. After all, it is impossible to solve a problem if you do not know it exists.
I hope these observations are seen in the spirit in which they have been provided. I hope they stimulate constructive discussions which enhance the effectiveness of these forums.
Then you are overly optimistic. The Plex pundits only respond when they wish to or when some question tickles their fancy. It has nothing to do with need or relevance or even the number of people with the same problem.
Thank you for bringing up a tough topic with kindness and care.
I think itâs OK to make observations that are critical or even include complaints.
I think youâre even being soft about it. Itâs absolutely infuriating to open a support request via the forum, not knowing if you will receive official help or not. And then to feel guilty, after a week, when you say âHey, can somebody help me with this?â
My perhaps-related observation about the forums is that thereâs also a lot of entitlement, rudeness, and some other forms of â â â â â â attitude.
âPlex doesnât careâ, âPlex doesnât listenâ, âPlex works on stupid things and ignores customer requestsâ, etc. Itâs surreal to me that people insult the human beings that they want help from, even if theyâre disappointed.
Or maybe even worse, when users help others, but insult them. âYou just need to learn how ________ works.â
Maybe Iâll open a Feature Suggestion for an official/formal way to get help from Plex.
Possibilities exist. I use this system and do not mind paying for something that gives me a benefit. I already pay for Plex Pass. I would not balk at paying another reasonable fee for support if it meant that problems would get timely attention from those who know how to solve/fix them.
In any case, I posted an issue last week about a playback/casting problem I have been experiencing. I notice that this problem has been posted by a number of users. No solution for it has ever been posted, only workarounds and workarounds are often a bit tedious. Clearly, there is a need for âsupportâ and paying a fee for it would not be unreasonable. It would also relieve the frustration, especially since we currently get more than enough frustration from a pandemic that our national leaders have not brought under control.
I am really disappointed in the forums. Once upon a time a question got attention and suggestions were made. Now not so much. I have been using computers since 1967 and have been an IT service provider for nearly 40 years. When I am finally ready for entertainment, I do not want to experience frustration and futility dealing with an entertainment application which works only some of the time, and do not want the task of troubleshooting what I think has become a kluge when I just want to relax⊠If present trends continue I will not be renewing plex pass, which used to provide better access to technical help.
This entire situation is extremely disappointing to say the least.
I am accustomed to highly technical programs. I support complex data networks for businesses. I run a managed service provider company that has been in the IT business since 1985. And I have two servers in an equipment rack in my basement running VMware Essentials 6.7U3b, each hosting a number of virtual machines. These are not toasters either, but still they function.
On the other hand, when you have had videos that had been streamed multiple times flawlessly, which still work when viewed through the web interface (and also directly on a PC) but throw a âsomething went wrongâ error when streaing is attempted, something is wrong.
I have posted this as have a number of others, yet I have not gotten a viable response, nor can I find one intended to my fellow travelers.
I can cast netflix, youtube, britbox and others from my phone to my chromecast device. I used to be able to ALWAYS do the same from the plex app on my android (galaxy S9) but no longer. I can even cast a symphony performance from a browser on my phone to the chromecast reliably, but can only cast plex some of the time.
As for my toaster. It had better work ALL of the time, or I will discard it and buy a new one.
Can you point me to a thread. That is a generic error that can be caused by lots of different things. We would need specifics to track down the issue you see.
This is my first time in the forums and itâs INSANE. I just had a Q about Plex movies coming up with black screens and WHO KNOWS where to find/post about it.
Start by picking the category for your issue from the drop down at the top or the list of categories on the home page. You said Plex movies, so that would be our Video-on-Demand.
I love the fact that you advise people to waste their time trying to put their questions into the right categories when you presumably know that you hardly ever respond to problem questions regardless of whether they are in the right or wrong category.
To be fair it would probably help if users didnât choose a five month old dead (not to mention answered) topic to make a sarcastic pointless comment.
It may free up more of the devs/employees/ninjas time to answer more relevant stuff.
I made the same point in a new thread of my own about three days agoâŠpointing out that my two technical questions about difficulties I had loading music into Plex had received no replies from anyone associated with Plex. In the thread I compered the Plex forums unfavourably with the forums associated with another competitor product.
The forum admins deleted the thread after one day.
Since they arenât prepared to hear the criticism in new threads I decided to reply to existing posts.
for bringing up a tough topic with kindness and care.
