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So while this is an okay thing, digging through forums to find the solution to that one problem can be a pain, especially if it is a very rare problem.

@ redunion1940: you do realize that every Forum has an internal search engine that makes "digging" easy, right? :-)

The next time I find a Forum Internal Search engine that is even half-way useful will be the first time.

funny, it's rare that I have any troubles using forum searches. There are the occasional ones with strange character restrictions, time-between-searches, or generally poor results, but most i've used are just fine and help me find what I'm looking for in no time.

I like this idea, especially since they used to be e-mail based.  Forums offer a great way to consolidate similar problems.  I wonder how many times e-mail support got the same questions?  This will be much easier because if the question has already been asked, it's probably already been answered, and the answer is visible to all.

I applaud Microsoft for moving in this direction.  I would probably even prefer a support forum over actual telephone communication.  Albeit, I probably spend more time on forums than the average person, so I would be more comfortable using them.

On a side note:  I can't wait for Live Services Wave 4...waiting...waiting...waiting...

This was completely the right thing to do.  Anyone that hasn't tried to use Windows Live Support prior to this needs to do everyone a favor and just shut up & listen to those that have.

Questions frequently went unanswered and the times in which there were return mails, responses after the initial "we're reviewing your question" automail could take as long as 3 weeks.  There was no accountability for response times or resolution.  It was frankly worse than best effort.

More to the point, because the message had no owner per se, and there was no transparency around questions being asked about issues (no one other than WLSupport saw your issue), no one else ever knew if they were the only one's having the problem or if it was systemic.  There was no community assisting you.  No one else chiming in to say, "Yeah I have this problem too!"

What this DOES do is it exposes any issues customers have with Windows Live products way out in the open in a central location.  This is a risk for Microsoft in terms of the perception people have around Windows Live products but it's also the brave & right one to do.

Kudos to Microsoft for having the stones to do this right.  Finally.

This is the one thing that I find annoying about the Zune service...support there is via forums. There are so many trolls that are there just to muddy the waters. When a widespread issue surfaces, like they do for all electronic or computer related products, the trolls flood the forums with nonsense, making finding a good solution tough. Luckily, Zune and Xbox have Major Nelson to consolidate the good answers.

--tayme

@tayme

Another thing I dislike is when someone asks a question and five people respond with "just Google it."  Interestingly enough, I find that half the time the answer could have been answered with just as much effort as typing "just Google it."  It's a shame that just a few people can make such a great service not as useful.

Community forums can be nearly useless if the company's own support people aren't actively participating.  I wasted a great deal of time on Linksys community forums with a malfunctioning router which would every 3 days or so totally lose all ability to do anything until it was reset.  That included both wired and wireless traffic.  All I ever got from "the community" were tips on how to configure and troubleshoot an intermittent wireless connection.  I repeated my issue  several times and emphasized "this is NOT a wireless connectivity problem" and still was given tips on checking the wireless signal strength, moving closer to the router, using one wireless encryption method rather than another, etc.  Unfortunately this is too typical with community forums that have no active company tech support people.

I'm terrified of this.  I currently have a security issue.  Someone was able to gain access to my Windows Live ID (presumably through the xbox, because my profile was recovered on someone else's xbox) and then my Live ID password was changed.  Now I'm locked out of my Azure services, Mesh, messenger, email, and a dozen other sites -- including forums -- that use Live ID as the authentication system.

I've been waiting 8 days for an email reply and just today finally received an email (that unfortunately began with "we never received the form you were supposed to fill out", that I did fill out a week ago).

When email is no longer an option, what path would I be able to take?  It's terrifying having my account in someone else's hands and Microsoft taking weeks to reply.  The community could never help in this case.

"There are so many trolls that are there just to muddy the waters."

Just like this blog!

@Dr. Daniel Jackson

Watching Waethron/MikeGalos go at it with Logjamming/rr0de is part of this blogs charm ;)

Email, forum based, whatever. It's support for a free service. You get what you pay for.

I've never used support for the Live services so I can't compare but if it's anything like the support from other popular, free, web based services (cough, Facebook, cough MySpace) then it will suck for various reasons no matter the format.

That being said, I've always found Microsofts *paid* product support to be awesome :)

@RTE - Very true on the "free" vs "paid" support comment.

--tayme

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