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I’m a relatively new member to the Spiceworks community. I’ve wanted to join a group like this one for years, but the workload at my previous jobs has prevented me from doing so. While interviewing for the job I now hold, I specifically mentioned to the interviewers that I wanted the opportunity to network and share my knowledge with the IT community. I’m fortunate that management understands the need for and benefit of doing so.

Now that I’m in a position to give back, I try to log on to Spiceworks every morning, before everyone else arrives. I do the daily trivia, read one or two of the featured articles, and read several technical questions that need answers, with the goal of answering at least one question per day.

Here’s what I want to know from you: How do you interact with and use the Spiceworks Community? Are you a net consumer of information, meaning that you ask questions more than you answer? Do you primarily answer questions? Maybe a little of both? Are you here strictly for answers to technical issues? Do you engage in discussions? Do you use Spiceworks in a unique way?

I’d love to hear the thoughts of my fellow Spiceheads.

91 Spice ups
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Maybe a little of both? Try to answer questions. Enjoy discussions. Try to learn new stuff. Try to win cool stuff (and have gotten some awesome prizes).

This is the best community I’ve found - in ancient times, other forums would get over-run with bad attitudes and unfriendly criticisms. This is the most fun and educational and supportive group, you’ll appreciate it more the longer you’re here…

15 Spice ups
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Just post.

I’m not necessarily here for technical information unless there is something that I either need help with or feel that I can help with. I tend to spend most of the time in the watercooler posting… well, posting stuff. The community is pretty great and it’s just nice to drop into threads and chat.

7 Spice ups
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It’s the primary home tab in Chrome, I update the feed every time I touch the tab and tend to stay current with the topics; that’s most days/weeks. I do tend to take breaks away from the community especially if/when I get busy, but when I have free time this is my default goto. I ask, I answer, I participate, I piss people off, I make snide comments when needed, and i encourage interaction and the sharing of knowledge. I don’t set out with any specific goal, for me the community is a fluid place of learning, educating, and communication.

Without Spicewworks (and Google) I would have failed in this industry.

With it my productivity could be questioned… :wink:

11 Spice ups
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I start most mornings with the Daily Trivia, then I’ll go through any messages to see who’s spicing up my comments. Next, I’ll go through my feed and starting answering questions.

Very occasionally, I will ask a question; probably less than once a quarter. It’s more likely that I’ll post a thread more for discussion, contribute a review, a How-to or supply an item for one of the other parts of Spiceworks.

During the day, when I get time, I’ll check out how things are going. The last few days have been crazy busy, out of the office, so I’ve not done that much. Today has been a bit quieter, so I’ve had time to keep looking back to the site.

Even though I read and answer questions, I feel that I am still learning; sometimes, there can be some interesting discussions about better ways of doing things. It might not be appropriate now, but you never know how things pan out; and I might find myself in a situation where I would glad of the experience of someone else.

1 Spice up
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Definitely both. I find lately that I spend more time in discussions (Water Cooler) rather than answering questions, but I do answer some questions across several disciplines.

4 Spice ups
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Well, I’ve been here for a LONG time (9 years) and I try to make it a goal to either impart some bit of knowledge that I have on the subject, share what scripts or other resources I’ve developed over the years, or simply help steer a topic to assist a poster reach their answer.

The professionalism here in the forums in unparalleled (or at least I’ve not found anything quite like it) amongst the community members, so it makes it easy to come back and poke around without fear of being lambasted. Don’t get me wrong, ask a dumb question and someone will invariably call you on it, but overall, the place is friendly. We’re all in this together, so a bit of comradery goes a long way.

Sharing your frustrations or anecdotes of any challenges you run into (and how you overcome them) is a good way to interact.

Check into a local Spicecorps group, that’s a great way to get out and take the conversation into real life :wink:

12 Spice ups
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I generally refresh the feed every couple of hours and scan down it seeing if any of the following are true

  • Something posted relating to an issue I am facing.

  • Something posted relating to an issue I know how to fix.

  • Something posted something that interests me as a possibility for my system.

  • Someone spiced me or answered my post

  • Someone posted something in WaterCooler which I am interested/curious about

If I posted a question or discussion, I will pay extra attention to that and feed the thread information as needed.

I use Spiceworks to increase and reinforce my knowledge. Plus it is the only forum I have found that (for the most part) only provides you constructive answers without your issue being derailed so badly it becomes unrecognisable.

1 Spice up
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Don’t forget, interaction with the Spiceworks Community also takes place in real life, at Spicecorps meetings and at Spiceworld in Austin and London.

I consider myself fully involved. I come here to get answers, I come here to give answers,

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I’ve been to 5 Spiceworlds in London and Austin once (although I will be back there this year, because I’m getting married to a Spicehead I met through the community and we first met IRL in Austin).

I’m done quite a few Spiceworks Unplugged events and I aslo help moderate the community.

I think that’s involvement :wink:

Strangely enough I do actually find time to have a life as well!

26 Spice ups
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I live in the water cooler.

23 Spice ups
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Mostly here for the random stories, and interaction with other people in similar positions. I try to help in database and programming groups where I can. Otherwise, I moderate when I need to, but this is a relatively easy community to moderate.

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With my keyboard and mouse.

Seriously though it’s a little hard to get started. You need to pay attention to who’s posting so you can get a feel for which members you find interesting/useful for you. Then follow them. Also if you have specific interests follow those groups as well. This will help tailor your experience.

1 Spice up
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I too do the daily trivia first thing each morning.

I answer questions. I ask questions. I post in the Water cooler frequently. I once started a game of Mornington Crescent, which really confused some of the American spiceheads! I also (shock, horror) look up the answer to questions I have using the search facility, to see if there is already an answer on here without having to start a new thread to get the same answer.

I have done a few Unpluggeds, I am a regular attender at my local SpiceCorps meetings, and I go to SpiceWorld London. I was on a panel at this years event.

My bosses are fully on board with my use of the community, as they feel the school gets benefit from my activities. As I am flying solo as the only IT employee, they recognise that I need to interact with my peers, and that the community is a useful source of information and support for me.

I am here for the information I get, to share what I know, and to be involved in a social community.

2 Spice ups
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Check out your local SpiceCorps and the private user groups .

I’m a bit all over the place in the community but I try and focus on the products that I believe in and try to help folks who are having issues with it. Following people and categories helps build your “feed”.

1 Spice up
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I’m pretty much an all around member. I’m part of the IT Voice group so I tend to help with surveys, product demos, do the occasional on the air, or other video meetups, etc. I also try to sub people that interest me and will chime in on things I find interesting or questions that I may know the answer to. I also tend to spend a bit in the water cooler to be able to converse with other like minded IT pros which helps negate some of the stress of “end users”. As others mentioned it’s also nice to go to some of the meetups such as Spicecorps or Spice World if you can as you tend to actually put faces to the names and build some good friendships with people dealing with the same things you do.

And finally I use my Spice Agent to bounce ideas off of for work projects or to do research for me so I can focus on other things to get more done. I will say that this community is by far the best IT based community out there and it just keeps getting better.

1 Spice up
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… I’m getting married to a Spicehead I met through the community and we first met IRL in Austin…

Congrats on your upcoming nuptials.

5 Spice ups
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I take part in local spiceworks group meet ups. I view the forums daily from work. I try to provide any help i can to threads looking for answers to issue, read threads that may be related to issue i am seeing. Most of my interaction in the forums are smart ass comments in water cooler threads.

As you try to use the forums, open new threads and figure out how to word questions to get useful answers to issues that you have. More than half of what you get will be people who are just trying to mine points for their online epenis. There are some VERY helpful and knowledgeable people here in the forums everyday as well. You will start to figure out which category users of the forum fall into as you read more.

Welcome to the community.

3 Spice ups
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That’s the first time I’ve heard the term ePenis… thanks for the vocabulary lesson :slight_smile:

3 Spice ups
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You mean TFT11P?

:stuck_out_tongue:DogBaking.jpg.

2 Spice ups
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lhatsynot wrote:

Damn, I’m really gonna get dinged as a n00b, but what is TFT11P?

2 Spice ups