We recently moved DNSstuff over to a "Free Trial" mode from now until March 31, 2013. This week, you'll see that our site will receive their first round of updates, with many more to follow. This post should answer some of your most frequently asked questions, but we're also updating the site FAQ with tips about lost passwords and other issues. If you don't see a question there answered that you think really should be there, comment or post here on Thwack so we can add it.
Why the Extended Free Trial?
We're going to be making regular site changes between now and March as we modernize DNSstuff's look and feel and better connect DNSstuff with other related SolarWinds resources (be they articles, community posts, videos, other content, our free tools, or even products). During this "beta" period, we're asking for your feedback here on Thwack and in anonymous surveys that will be clickable from the modified pages (and the homepage). We want to implement a lot of the feedback that DNSstuff customers have been giving us regarding how you use Professional Toolset, streamline overall navigation and Help content, and add features that make using DNSstuff an overall more positive experience. During this process, there will be some bumps - you might prefer a different organization of tools, you might have content that will be even more relevant to what you're doing than what we've provided - and we want to know how to make it better.
All Tools are Free.
We aren't charging for new subscriptions or renewals during the Free Trial period, period. Just sign up for an account to continue to have access to the tools. That's it. We ask a couple demographic questions so that we can better understand who is using the site, this helps us provide information on various pages that is more relevant, especially when it comes to content like whitepapers and articles.
What About Paying Customers?
Customers who have paid for a subscription to any DNSstuff tool will of course continue to have access through their full subscription period. When your subscription expires, your access to all tools will continue uninterrupted. During your paying subscription period, you still have access to technical support. As we come up on the March 31, 2013 date, we'll determine what happens next to anyone who was a paying customer when the free trial period began, and make sure we provide you that info here on Thwack.
What about RBL Alerts & Domain Doctor?
If you have access to RBL Alerts & Domain Doctor, your access will continue past your subscription date.
If you don't have access OR you want to increase the number of domains you're monitoring with either tool, you'll need to fill out this survey. We're still gauging the amount of interest in these services and determining what we have capacity for or need to plan capacity for going forward. As we have space in the beta period, we'll grant either new customers or existing customers access to more monitoring.
When Can We Expect to See Changes?
We will be updating the homepage and global site navigation first (at the end of this week), and continue rolling out site changes every 2-4 weeks. Some site updates will be oriented around customer feedback, some will be new content, some will be reorganization or redesign-related.
After the homepage, we'll be working on updating the look & feel of Professional Toolset, combining Professional Toolset & MSTC, and revamping our Help/FAQ content, among other things.
Are you Still Fixing Bugs?
Of course! If you're having an issue that you haven't already reported or seen reported, report it here on Thwack. Our support, development, and PM teams monitor for issues that crop up with the site and updates.
How Do I Get Help or Request a Feature?
Everyone can post their issues and requests here on Thwack. Our support, development, and PM teams monitor and escalate issues or prioritize features. You can also post feedback related to the site changes as they are deployed in the relevant survey links (on the homepage and changed pages).
If you do have a subscription that has yet to expire, you will also see the "Technical Support & Customer Service" link on the support page (note: this part of the page is dynamic, if you have Javascript disabled you won't see it) and can submit a case.
Thanks!
We appreciate your patience as we continue to make changes to the site. We know many of you have been using DNSstuff for a long time and it's your feedback that led us to the changes we're making.
(Disclaimer: There are statements in this post that indicate our general roadmap for DNSstuff. These statements are meant as a general indication of what we're working on and are by no means a commitment to deliver on these features in our next release. If you've got things you'd like to see, be sure to let us know.)