Epicor Release / Patch Mega-Threads

Have the moderators here ever considered, or would they be opposed to, creating something like a Mega-Thread you’ve seen in other forums - but one for every new release of Epicor? A place where folks could post certain highly valuable feedback (i.e. bugs, workaround, and SCR/call numbers) related to a particular release/patch of Epicor.

I’ve been wanting something like this for awhile - or something like it, something to alleviate the scenarios like we had this morning: where 3 weeks after your go-live on Epicor 10.1.500.X, you realize that your LaborDtl.LaborRate field - and thus your Inventory/WIP and COSandWIP captures and GL postings, have all been created with LaborDtl.LaborRate = 0.0 since you upgraded. You search this forum with just the right keywords, and call Epicor Support, and learn that this is a known issue that has been lurking there, probably since before you even went live. Epicor users knew about it. Epicor support / developers knew about it. Yet you don’t know about it until one of your finance people stumbles on it a few weeks in and with a big mess to clean up.

All of my users get extremely upset when I tell them there is an SCR. Why? Because they say “Epicor knew about this and they didn’t tell us?” Now, my knee-jerk reaction is to explain to them “that is not how things work in the software world” but then I step back and think “Hmm… maybe why indeed?”

4 Likes

The site does have the ability to apply tags to posts. A list of current tags can be found here:

If people tag their posts with a tag with the particular release, as some have, this would help in tying all of the threads together. Advance search already allows one to select topics with certain tags.

Mark W.

2 Likes

@Mark_Wonsil
This is a good solution, it would be difficult to track and create individual topics specific to each version

Can we actually create tags? I don’t seem to be able to. Its a neat idea, although I’d argue you’d need a little moderation and more than one tag (e.g. maybe tagged “10.1.500.14” and “epicor-bug” or something like that) to put the relevant bits I’m talking about together in once place.

I guess what I’m talking about isn’t necessarily linking together all the discussion about 10.1.500.14 in one place. Wouldn’t want all the clutter of “hey, how do you guys do this?” or “how does this new feature in version X work?” or “Have you guys ever seen this?” or “Do you think this is a bug”… I’m talking like one-stop shop place where we could help out fellow users by posting / updating when we have valuable information about issues related to our specific release (obviously, I know, this might affect other releases as well - I suppose that releases mega-thread could link back to the post on the first megathread… e.g. “10.1.500.15 Release Megathread” could have a post that simply links back to a post on “10.1.500.14 Release Megathread” and says “This issue is still present in patch 15”.

I’ve never moderated mega-threads on a forum, but I’ve seen them used effectively - something that functions more like a wiki page but is still done with forum software like this - and in my head the mega-threads here would look something like this (faking in issues):

  • Original Post: Release 10.1.500.14 Mega-Thread
    • Post Text: A little release information, and some instructions on how to use the mega-thread. Something about "no ‘thanks!’ or “me too!” replies, only SCR/Bug replies, and whatever else is deemed appropriate.
  • Reply1: BUG SCR123456 AP Invoice Entry Error if old Credit Card data present
    • Reply Text: Description of the , Epicor Call/SCR numbers, Known Workarounds, etc.
  • Reply2: BUG SCR123457 AP Invoice Entry Error if old Credit Card data present
    • Reply Text: Description of bug, Epicor Call/SCR numbers, Known Workarounds, etc.
  • Reply3: BUG SCR123458 AP Invoice Entry Error if old Credit Card data present
    • Reply Text: Description of bug, Epicor Call/SCR numbers, Known Workarounds, etc.

That said, maybe my idea is needlessly rigid. Maybe all I really need to do is create a new thread like “Epicor 10.1.500.14” and post all of our bigger issues and experiences there, and ask for others to add in their experiences.

To create tags right now you need to have a Trust Level of 3. This is so that new people that aren’t active aren’t littering the forum with random Tags.

Actually the software that we use has the ability to turn a thread into a “WIKI” where anyone can edit / add / modify.

A topic may have multiple tags. Here’s what you see when you click on 101500:

It would require some moderation so we don’t get 10.1.500.14 and 10150014 and 10.1.500-14, etc.

Mark W.

Yeah Mark,
The Tags don’t allow periods… for some reason :frowning:

until we figure a way to engineer a requirement or standard in for that administratively slapping a suggested format or tag system wont be effective.