Chill lounge

[Vampfy]

Hi aftab123,

The Device Loan Programme appears to be open to people who are contributors in the forum (Mentor Level 2 and above).

The best way to get involved is to look about the forums and help people. Helping people earns Kudos, which in turn will increase your Mentor Rank within the forums.

Hope this helps!

[Northern-dj]

I have emailed Ya Tom But i will review Any i'm not fussed after all at the moment due to ill health i'm doing nothing 

[Bobbin]

Tom, can you send me an email please as I cant seem to message you, thanks mate.

[Northern-dj]

So any more handsets Tom ?

[Tom]

Just the stuff mentioned further up NDJ! Nothing new yet.

[davidnevis]

Hi Tom.

I would love to part in this programme as I am lookin at a new handset for September but not sure what to go for.

Regards


David

[Jebelious]

Davidnevis - to be able to take part in this you would need to become more active on the forum and start helping folks with queries. I believe you need to be a level 4 Mentor and above?

[Tom]

Afternoon All!

As promised, here is the list of handsets which will be available on the first trial:

1x Nokia C6

2x Nokia C7

2x Nokia N8

2x LG Optimus 7

1x HTC Trophy 7 (with another to follow later on)

I've already received requests from those I've invited for the Trophy (AnnS and TSD have both asked already!) so whilst we'll be able to reissue the phones to someone else after the first trial, I just thought I'd set everyone's expectations on availability.

For this first run, I've invited six members, and if they all accept, that will leave initially two handsets, but hopefully three for people to "bid" for. If you'd like to take part, head over to TSD's thread and tell us what you'd do with the phone if we loan it out to you. Would you write us a review? Would you compare it with your current handset? Would you write us some help guides or film a video?

I'm looking for the most interesting submissions, and you have until 5pm Friday to send in your ideas. As I mentioned beforehand, demand is huge and we're using this scheme to reward the forum's top contributors, so whilst I will consider all entries, I'm prioritising anyone with a Mentor Level 3-9 or Master Mentor rank, or any ranks with Community in the titles. If you're not on one of those ranks and you'd like to take part in the future, get involved in the community, answer some questions and help other members out! You can find some handy help on how to improve your rank here.

Thanks so much for all the interest so far in this scheme, I can't wait until we start sending phones out to you all!

Thanks,

Tom 

[Tom]

Hi Everyone,

I thought I'd give you a quick update about where we are with the programme.

So far we've got five handsets out on loan. Here's who's involved:

thesoupdragon - Nokia N8

AnnS - HTC Trophy 7

jimc130 - LG Optimus 7

very_teknical - LG Optimus 7

frostfree - Nokia N8

I'm really looking forward to some great discussions about the handsets over the next week or two, but appreciate everyone's been outside enjoying the amazing weather and maybe haven't had so much time for the forum!

If you'd like to find out more about device loans, take a look at my explanation here. If you'd like to be involved, email me at tom.rushton@vodafone.com with your reasons why and ideas for what you'd like to review.

Thanks,

Tom

Community Manager

[mrsemsley]

it doesnt say when the programme will start and were to post if we are interested in taking part which i definatly am!!

[Nabs]

---

Tom wrote:

I'll announce in this forum section when new devices are coming, and then it's down to you guys to pitch to me about what you'd do with the phone if we loan it out to you.

---

Subscribe to the board to get the latest posts, i'm sure Tom will put up as and when devices are available.

I would assume we post against the announcement if interested.

I'm quite excited about this, would love to get my hands on some new gadgets, + i've written plenty guides and how to videos for various things befpre so don't mind doing a bit of work for the privilage to play

[Tom]

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to pop a quick update on here to let you know about some changes I'm going to make to the Device Loan Programme.

Believe it or not it's quickly getting on for a year since we first launched the DLP, and I know it's been quiet for a few months, but it's still very high on my agenda to source some new devices and get them out to our top contributors to test and learn about.

I'm hoping to have a whole bunch of new phones available really soon, but am conscious this board can look pretty inactive, and actually stops topics about specific devices from being in places where they're more valuable to people browsing the forum. With that in mind, I'm shortly going to remove this board from the forum, and spread the phone related topics out amongst their respective boards. I'll merge general DLP discussion into one main thread, although I think it generally all is anyway. I'll then house a thread about the programme in the Community section and link to the discussion thread which will be in the Chill Lounge.

How does that sound? I'll also keep a link archive of previous content for anyone who wants to refer back to useful stuff

Tom

[Nabs]

Sounds like a good plan!

Will definatly help some users, I'm guessing they wouldn't think to come to this area looking for help.

[thesoupdragon]

I am really glad that the DLP is still on the table. This is something that no other Provider or Forum have come anywhere near replicating, and is a real first for the eForum.

I agree that content should be placed in their relevent sections with a link back to the discussion thread?

Also members on the programme should be encouraged to write a general customer review so that anyone looking to acquire the phone who does not use the eForum benefits from "Expert" knowledge.

I am working on a PDF document that will be downloadable, which is a sort of tick list of settings to test.

Hopefully I will finish this week and see what Tom thinks.

It may be a useful tool to bring some sort of level testing platform?

Soup.

[Tom]

Sounds great TSD, I'll link it within the main thread. The thread will consist of:

Post 1: Introduction/overview of what the loan programme is about, rules etc., link to the discussion thread (we'll link your post from here)

Post 2: Archive of content created over time (encased links to the existing content in different forum sections, as something new is created you can just email me the link and I'll add it.)

[Northern-dj]

As stated on My Google+ post

My fear is posts will get lost in the system

Current phones that are in or are still on sale by Vodafone need to be in a section that is easy to get to and not have to troll through a search area

Some of us put a lot of work in to the Loan program

Soupdragons S2 review is now on the main S2 page and with out Bump post will be lost with th rest

Yes I no there are reviews on the main Vodafone shop bit but there basic and you can not show any pics

I can under stand a reason to move old threads But

These threads were don to Help people make a choice on there phones and see in real life how they are

I still can not under stand why these can not be put in a section

Called something like Customers Phone review and Locked so there there for all to see

It would be a shame for all that work to be lost in the system

The DLP has ground to a Holt Because of the lack of phones Launched which is normal for this time of year

Also the lack of phones Vodafone are looking at

We have had two the Lumia n800 and the Galaxy Nexus

who got them to look at ???

This would of kept it going

Or will now the DLP be a thing of the past as the way of all good ideas

It worked and worked well and benefited customers

tHis is a strange way of thinking  

[Tom]

NDJ, from looking at page views per thread in that forum, I know that threads in the DLP board didn't get viewed as much as threads in the general boards they're in now. Moving the threads means the content will be seen more often in general, and the library post I've created in the top section will make the content easy to browse for anyone who did use that section. It'll also make the content easier to find as I'm encasing the links to the threads with relevant words, which helps with SEO.

Give it a chance!

[Nabs]

Tom,

A slight advance on NDJ's suggestion,

Is it possible to have sections within a board?

I think this would be the idea solution. A section within the board that contained all the relevant content produced by the DLP for that device. See my rather poor attempt at an illustration below

[Northern-dj]

hey nabs careful they might have copyright on that  LOL

but

But that is spot on idea saves all the work getting lost or in a mess

It needs something

@Tom yes on paper and figures

But what happened to common sense and logic and what customers want and not what looks good on figures

Yes those threads might have not had people looking at them cos they were in the wroung section to start with

as Nabs has pointed out

Here it is in tree Form

Customer comes to Forum

Manufacture

Model

Top of the Model Page a Review section

Now the customer might not have the phone and might be wanting to see what problems the phone has had

I check that first

If not Nabs Idea a Full section for Phone reviews on them all

Lets not make this forum more complicated then what it is

[thesoupdragon]

@Tom

I have created a Downloadable Check List that members can use as an aid to investigate the phones that they borrow from the DLP.

There is no reason why any member could not use this list to investigate what features their next phone may or may not have at their local Vodafone store!

Phone Check List.pdf

If anyone has any amendments they would like to make to the document, just let me know.

TSD.