we need more feedback/readers for weblogs

[Former Member]

Sometimes i get the feeling that weblogs have become mutual admiration club. We need some more feeback/readers for weblogs. I don't know how you would divert the traffic but we should because there are lots of good technical weblogs that people should read/search before posting their question on SDN forum.

Message was edited by: Prakash Singh

[former_member184494]

I have found some weblogs quite interesting and some things I would like to know is:

1. I have posted some comments but after that nothing happened.

2. COuld we have weblogs in the same way the forums are listed - I am a BW guy and I know only BW - and also being functional I would not be able to appreciate EP or Java since I would not be the intended audience.

What we could do is have some keywords and have a infoindex sort of thing for the weblogs ?

It just has to be better packaged. And many weblogs - especially about Analytics and recent ones about SOA etc are quite interesting.

my 0.02

Arun

[Former Member]

Hi Arun,

I hope you are already aware of the feature to view the weblogs <a href="https://www.sdn.sap.com/sdn/weblogs.sdn?blog=/pub/q/weblogs_by_topic">by topic</a>.

Are you suggesting a more specific grouping of the weblogs?

Regards,

Anand Mandalika.

[Former Member]

Hi Prakash,

I agree with you completely. Many of our forum moderators answer the same questions over and over, and often the answer lies within weblogs or other library content, such as articles or code samples, even right on the homepage! With a simple search of the site, many could answer their questions on their own. However, I think you'll find this behavior in all discussion forums, no? Who's to blame them really, when in most of our forums, there is such a fast response time, many users can find a solution to their problem faster than searching.

Perhaps the best way we can change this behavior and avoid redundant information - and many community members are already doing this - is to refer users to the content that already exists, provide a link to the solution, as well as a recommendation to check out the other areas of SDN for any additional questions. By doing this, I believe most new users will eventually adapt the behavior of researching a little first and then asking (or maybe they'll even take over "teaching" the next new wave of newbies ;).

My two cents,

Kathy Meyers, SDN

[Former Member]

Hi Kathy,

I can't agree more with you on this.

I have observed that the users who are new to SDN (and not to the technology area of a forum) are always ready to go through the weblogs, at least when they are pointed to that.

But the users who are new to the technology area itself (e.g., ABAP or XI or anything else) are more interested in getting the exact code sample for their question. They are more concerned about making their program work and are looking for tailor-made stuff. These users are generally reluctant to sift through the weblog which explains the general concept with a suitable example and then think about what code they have to write to make their program work.

Your suggestion is perfect. But unfortunately, in my experience, a response where a link to similar content is given generally gets no (or low) points than the one which gives the tailor-made solution.

But I think every experienced SDNer should make it a point to only point to the content if it already exists and not give the user a solution with redundant content.

This might sound a bit harsh, but I can say for sure that the interest levels for the beginners can be stimulated if this approach is followed for some time. They would eventually end up more knowledgeable than they otherwise would have.

It is a tall call, but the experienced guys can cultivate the habit slowly, in the interest of making this community a better place.

Regards,

Anand Mandalika.

[eddy_declercq]

A possible solution would be the thing the new online OSS (if you're using MIE) uses: required sreach within notes, before actually open a msg. Something simular can be done here too. But then it would be made more flexible and certainly better than in OSS, 'cause I'm not so happy with the current solution in OSS.

[Former Member]

Interesting, one small problem. I did this quite often and along came someone with the exact code sample in order to get the points

It's a catch 22. A Blanace should be the goal here, find a balance between cultivating the newbie's and helping them directly.

[Former Member]

...and sometimes there is also who....

argh, I don't want to talk about that, it's enough to take a look here:

How sad !

[Former Member]

Hi Roberto,

Nantha Kumar is another Felix Reuben. We shouldn't excuse anybody that abuses SDN. I really think that giving second chances to these people is to condone their behavior.

Prakash

[Former Member]

Hi Roberto!

It was actually a shock to see a post like the one Nathan had made. It is extremely unfortunate to have people like this spoiling the fun. We shall try to do something about it once Mark is back.

For the moment, I have just made an attempt to put some sense into that guy.

Regards,

Anand Mandalika.

[Former Member]

Hi Roberto,

Thanks for giving us the heads up about this user. I have contacted him this morning and will be montitoring his forum activity to ensure that this doesn't happen again.

I am all about "re-education" for this behavior rather than retaliation - that is, I think with the right kind of guidance & feedback from our community, this user and others like him can really be productive, honest contributors to the community. However, any user, no matter who or where, must adhere to the SDN community guidelines. If users continually abuse the system, they will be removed at the discretion of SDN.

I am truly grateful to all of you forum "guardian angels" who have made us aware of this type of behavior. I hope you will continue to do so, as we cannot possibly monitor all of the forum activity and their users as closely as we would like to.

Please don't hesitate to contact me or any other SDN Community Manager if you learn of any similar behavior.

Thanks,

Kathy Meyers, SDN

[maximilian_schaufler]

I agree that there are a lot of articles out there that would solve forum questions, it's just that since registration for SDN has become free for everyone the amount of "hey, there is a forum, I go and ask something" users has risen to a higher level.

What could help would be a "guided tour" to SDN that one <b>has</b> to go through (after registration) before being able to first post a question.

Other than that it will be up to us to highlight the value of weblogs and remember all the others that there is something else to the forum.