Why are guide versions no longer viewable?

[JACOBSEN_C]

Why are guide versions no longer viewable?  "Version X" use to be a clickable link...

[scottdennis · Accepted solution]

Hi Clint,

Good question!  Jive is the community platform we use to host the Canvas Community, including the guides. Lithium, which is a company that acquired Jive (technically JiveEx) has decided that they will not grant non-community admins the rights to view version history.  We do not agree with this decision and have made our opinion about it known to Lithium.  Unfortunately that is about all we can do at this point.  If you have a specific question about a given version or when something might have changed in the documentation, please feel free to DM us.

Seeing your question is specific to the community as opposed to pertaining to Canvas itself, I'll go ahead and move it to the Meta Community Group‌ which is a mini-community about the community.

Thanks,

Scott

[JACOBSEN_C]

Thanks for the reply,  @scottdennis .  It was handy to have... "they" do know we work for and with folk who value things like preserving and researching the historical record, right?  It's a "selling point" in some regard... especially when things change and professors feel the rug has been pulled out from under them.  Rational and record: maybe it's just a fad on campuses across higher education...

Most Lithium in the Universe Is Forged in Exploding Stars | Smart News | Smithsonian 

Thanks again!

[scottdennis]

Hey Clint,

I'm totally in the realm of conjecture here but I am guessing that most clients only want admins to see version history because they are less transparent about changes that is our standard default.  And I would imagine communities that work with educators are a small part of "their" customer base - again, just guessing. 

[JACOBSEN_C]

Ah!  Well... if Instructure gets a chance to, they may want to mention to Lithium that following an information deficit model isn't going to help any of us in the long run.

Information deficit model - Wikipedia 

Cheers!

[scottdennis]

That's true!  For context, the wide majority of corporate community teams report up through the marketing org of the particular company and are much more focused on advertising, generating leads, etc. whereas our's is a more support focused community.  Our goal is to communicate change and help people be successful in using our products, so its a very different mindset.