Welcoming Toolbox - What do you like about Spiceworks?

gregghill · 2020-05-11T20:57:52.000Z

Welcome to Spiceworks! As others have noted, nothing beats the community. I started in IT back in 1998 and would peruse Microsoft’s newsgroups for HOURS a day. One afternoon, I ran across a VERY strange NT 4.0 problem and saved the info just for the heck of it. That night, I got a panicked call from a friend who was at a client after hours and had a down NT 4 server. I could not believe it when he read me the error message. When I told him I knew the fix and it actually worked, it blew his mind about how I knew about it. I have never seen the problem again. One weird problem fixed by a community of techs!

Now I get that same kind of information here. The EXPERIENCE from hundreds of fellow IT techs, and their willingness to share it, is PRICELESS!!! Sometimes you have to weed through some whacky answers that have nothing to do with your post because someone read it wrong (which I have done a few times myself and posted useless responses), but it’s usually VERY GOOD information.

Gregg

mrg3 · 2020-05-11T21:11:22.000Z

Spiceworks is cruise control for cool.

“The only way to get smarter is by playing a smarter opponent.”

—Fundamentals of Chess 1883

(1) The community is made up of some of the brightest people I would never have a chance to meet in person under normal circumstances. Smarter People = Smarter Answers = Me Getting Smarter.
(2) The tools offered are nice for a variety of types of shops to use. From small to large and everyone in between. Many find the tools useful.
(3) The ability to actually find solutions to problems instead of Fortnite Flame Sessions For The Inept and Confused.
(4) The free backrubs. Yup You get your spice rating high enough and you get free backrubs you can download right to your hdd. (not included in the stripped down model you are running).

(5) The Staff. Good People. Good Moderators and they listen to their community. They chime in. They participate. The community is not rudderless but stays on point, even when we are goofing off.
(6) A video says it all.

(7) I mean they have a T-Rex as their Mascot. Who has not loved the T-rex since the poopy diaper days?
(8) The website. Clean and easy to use. Not bombarded with god awful CSS and bad acting ads. The site actually works and is easy to use. This is a major plus
(9) Did I mention the professional answers? If I did then its worth mentioning again.
(10) You don’t get bombed every 5 minutes with marketing. My inbox is not all spammed up. If I get an email from Spiceworks it has meaning for me. I know SW depends on vendors and ads as well but the balance they keep between the site, the vendors, and the ads I think is a perfect balance.
I am a Spiceworks User and I approve this message.
Now.
Has anyone seen my pants?

markvadams · 2020-05-11T21:26:07.000Z

Welcome, welcome! This is a great community of professional, like-minded folks. I came for IT information, stayed for the bad jokes and water cooler banter. Enjoy!

specter01101 · 2020-05-11T21:32:27.000Z

Hello box peoplz and the tools you bring to the Spiceworks group! It will be great to consolidate and centralize more knowledge in one spot making it faster and quicker to get answers or help everyone needs.
For me, I think it’s the width and depth of knowledge you can find here. You’re always learning in IT as things change daily and it’s a nice place to come and help others and get help when you need it. When I have time, I love to go in and help out as much as I can, it’s giving back for the help I got and still get. It’s also a nice place to hang out and get to know people.

michaelmtallman · 2020-05-12T02:46:58.000Z

Neally:

Welcome!

Kyle (Spiceworks):

Toolbox.com

Never heard of…

What I like most is the diversity and the openness, someone is always willing to chime in and give their 2 cents and help out.

I concur with my comrade from across the pond, that I actually have not heard of Toolbox.com before - however, that doesn’t mean I’ll ignore them or their contributions, as a matter of fact, after I get done writing this I’m going to take a stroll over there and take a peek. Always looking for professional places such as the community here at Spiceworks for information. I came here originally due to a task on https://www.cloudcredibility.com/ many years ago. The professionalism here is 99% true to the mark and the camaraderie is tops, even if @dimforest is involved. Pretty much the rest has been said already. Oh, any tools available for evaluation? Asking for a friend (not @dimforest )

@alexw

Brony-Overlord · 2020-05-12T04:41:00.000Z

Welcome, Welcome, Welcome!

We’re a fairly relaxed community of people who like to play as hard as we work, so feel free to Introduce yourself , get caught up one some of the Community in-jokes , have yourself a good old fashioned Rant or Huzzah! , Post a Funny Picture and check out some other Awesome Topics

Briser-fae-the-broch · 2020-05-12T05:58:45.000Z

Well, on here you quickly learn that there are more than one ways to skin a cat, and you can also sometimes teach an old dog new tricks.

But you also learn you can lead a horse to water but not necessarily make it drink!

And with regards getting in and answering someones question to get a Best Answer, well the early bird catches the worm.

Seriously though, having a large community to draw on can get you out of jail, and can also be an ear to sound out your ideas, and in some cases, a collective arm over your shoulder when things are not doing too well or you just need some advice. Spiceworks is all of that and more.

PS. Narwhals, and Bacon to all!

DoctorDNS · 2020-05-12T06:19:26.000Z

Welcome, Kyle and the ToolBox folks!
An interesting question. By way of background, I’ve been doing online communities since the late 1980s (CIX in the UK, Compulink in the US), then Usenet (I was on the organising UK Usenet committee fo 10 years and part of the global committee for a further 5), I was an MVP using the Microsoft.* newsgroups then moved over to their online forum. I’ve been here for a few years.
IN all communities you have several different personas and they all exist here. You have the question askers, and the question answers, you have the SMEs (who do much of the answering). You get idiots (who get here simply by google) who ask poor questions, you get trolls and folks pushing a purely commercial angle.
The advantage of Spiceworks is that the MOd team dispense with most of the crap. You see very little spam and rather less bad attitude which is so prevalent elsewhere. Sometimes I feel I need a shower after spending time in some forums (NOT Spiceworks). You also get good reporting on things like spam (that was missed earlier), home users (politely told to go somewhere else), or bad attitude (leading to posts being deleted). That means that the overall tone is polite, respectful, and relevant to IT Pros.
So I like it here. The focus is more on basic to mid-level questions which is fine. We sometimes get into the real depths though and that is fun too. We have the Amazing Sean ( @sean-spiceworks . One of the best CMs I’ve seen in 25 years. ANd his team is pretty good too.
Al in all a nice place to be, fairly non-commercial and IT Pro Focused.

lisalyons · 2020-05-12T06:36:47.000Z

Welcome to the Family. That’s what makes Spiceworks so special, it’s not a simple community, once you start meeting people, they become family! And even if, like me, you drift away as work priorities change, you’re always welcomed back.

ich · 2020-05-12T06:44:10.000Z

Whatever your problem (IT or otherwise), there is an expert in here who can help. Sometimes it is even me! Spiceworks is my virtual support team.

deanmoncaster · 2020-05-12T06:49:05.000Z

Now that toolbox is here, i have made myself a promise, One day i will post something that might be akin to an answer to the original question instead of a joke.

Unless this post is a joke and now i do not know and have just confused myself

alayjha · 2020-05-12T08:14:04.000Z

Welcome to DIm’s Simulation world.

I thought I would lurk around in the forum but the people here has so much knowledge to share. Watercooler is the place to be.

adrian_ych · 2020-05-12T08:34:13.000Z

Tools in a toolbox makes machines…what is a machine ??

John5152 · 2020-05-12T08:37:55.000Z

Lots of real cutting edge knowledge and help for IT in here!

But there’s also a big social and fun side too.

mhunt · 2020-05-12T09:22:10.000Z

As with most members, I came for an answer but I stayed for the attitude.

You can get the help you need here, you can give the help others need and you can have some laughs too. You can also learn some stuff along the way.

What I like particularly is that answer threads usually stay on topic and get some sort of resolution.

zak · 2020-05-12T10:32:26.000Z

Spiceworks is Cheers, you know that bar where everybody knows your name. Granted we might not know your name yet, we do know you fit in the IT crowd some how and we support that.

While I can find answers to questions and some really good guides to follow. The big thing that brings me back are the people. They change a little year to year, I miss some of the old guys that I don’t see any more. I always feel at home though.

Now if you need me I hang out over in the gaming section of the watercooler and I like my cave.

scottbrindley · 2020-05-12T10:39:33.000Z

Welcome onboard to Spiceworks, this can only make the community stronger and better

Huw3481 · 2020-05-12T10:46:46.000Z

Gregory for Microsoft:

Looking forward to assisting the new community members! Just tag me on your posts and I will do my best to help.

Can you assist with moving a carpet which may or may not have dubious contents rolled up inside?

Asking for a friend.

@gregory-for-microsoft

liamsullivan · 2020-05-12T11:01:06.000Z

Dammit, I knew I should have replied to this last night when I got the message at 7pm, pesky UK time difference. Anyway, despite being buried on page 4 and being likely to just parrot everyone else here goes on the “Things I Like About Spiceworks”:

About 8 years ago I came to Spiceworks for the on prem helpdesk application for where I was working at the time. I started lurking around the community a bit, trying to suss out whether it would be as toxic as other IT communities (I’m looking at you Stack Exchange!) or whether it would be about as much use as ExpertSexChange (subscribe to see the wrong answer!), however, the more I dug around I was pleasantly surprised. Great expert knowledge on pretty much everything you could want to know in the world of IT and even some areas that are not IT related. So while I came for the helpdesk, I stayed for the community. The people here are great and what makes it even better is that we all share a common passion for Spiceworks and the contribution it makes to our professional lives.

In fact the knowledge and support I’ve had on Spiceworks over the years has probably been what has kept me in a job Whilst the helpdesk app that brought me here all those years ago now seems to have fallen by the wayside, it matters not, because it really is the community that makes this place what it is. That is due in part to the excellent community management from @sean-spiceworks and his team along with the army of Moderators, Group Admins and volunteers that keep everything ticking over nicely, but what really makes it is the people. Hands down the best atmosphere of any professional online community I’ve been a part of in my 20 years of working in IT. One of my favourite things that happens here is that when the site has one of its “very rare” malfunctions, there is an army of IT pros all offering advice on how to fix it There aren’t many sites that can say that hehe.

In addition to the wonderful community we have here, the experience is enhanced even further for many of us with the Unoffical Spiceworks Discord™ which you can find by visiting https://spiceheads.chat . Here you’ll find a lot of the most active members of the Spiceworks community providing tech support to each other, sharing stories, telling awful jokes and generally just having a crack. @eaglemitchell and @dimforest can tell you more about that if you’re interested.

Anyway this is turning into a longer post than Dim’s bi-annual Sizzle! so hopefully it’s answered the question. I for one look forward to welcoming the Toolbox folks to Spiceworks.

PS: Try to ignore the obnoxiously sized billboards ads that are here now, I’m sure someone will fix them eventually

ilsbfe · 2020-05-12T11:04:35.000Z

Welcome! I enjoy Spiceworks because there are really smart people here who have done IT since birth. I was a latecomer, but I know that if I need advice or help with an issue I can get the answers I need or pointed in the right direction. For someone who is a lone IT person it is invaluable.