HP/UX forum popularity

[Vincent Farrugia]

I think a strange phenomenon happened here at ITRC Forums... A wonderfully huge popularity of this forum, compared to the others.

My suggestion is to... um... start visiting more the other forums. Why is it, for example, that the congratulations of one crowning is posted in the HP/UX forum? What does HP/UX has to do with all this? I'm not saying that they shouldn't be congratulated, far from it. They've all done an amazing job to get so many points, but why in the HP/UX forum? You can only see the top points earnings of the HP/UX compared to other forums to see what I mean. Currently, JRF is the top man here, at 18699 points, whereas in the servers forum it's Patrick Wessel at 1329. It's more than 10-fold!!! People post in the servers forum, they don't get answered, then they post the same question in the HP/UX forums and, voila, answers start flowing. I know this because I tried it. I mean, it's the same question isn't it?

I know that here we get easy points, but are we here for the points? Even myself was forced to post here this message! :-) I mean, why isn't there any other forum for us to post such messages such as this or congrats or whatever. It seems like the HP/UX forum is some kind of meeting place where everybody goes, I dunno.

Comments on this please. Regarding points... well I'll see what I will do :-)

Thanks,
Vince

[Volker Borowski]

Hi Vince,

interesting observation.

I think this has to do with the fact, that we have a very high percentage of real professionels in this forum.
I mean, people who have to work and get things done.

So very few people here spend time to deal with nonsense stuff (like: Linux is better than MS or so [...may be because we all KNOW, so there is no need for this :-)]) you have in the forums where a higher percentage of end users or PC-kids are in.

You can check the "business customer discussion groups" and will find a big diffrence in the "tone of voice" in these forums, because you have one-timers in it, that just want to get rid of their frustration about their new xyz-product, that is not working as expected (may be because they did not read the manual).

In addition, I think the forum team is doing a great job to have things under control, take care about everything and so on.

All in all it is this "family" feeling I mentioned somewhere else, that makes this forum special.

Just what I think
Volker

[Michael Tully]

Hi Vince,

I'm not sure what it is with me.... it is
more of an addiction to help people and at
the same time learn more about things
that I don't know by reading postings
and reading the answers placed to them.
I know one thing for certain is that my
boss has got value out of me learning
and he is not paying for it in the way
of training courses.

As far as visiting other forums... Well
I look in all that is related to HPUX.
Servers, Management Software, Storage as
well as this one.

Please no points....

Cheers and have a great weekend!
-Michael

[Stefan Farrelly]

Yes, very interesting. I think originally there were less categories/forums (eg. tapes, servers etc.) but as more and more questions came in the administrators decided to break it up to make it easier to manage. But in my opinion the site is now far too fragmented. I would absolutely love to answer questions in tapes, disks, servers etc. but the site is so slooowwww that I can only be bothered monitoring one forum - and HP-UX it is as thats my speciality.

I wish they would make the site faster and allow us to monitor more categories speedily, I for one would then monitor a lot more categories and answer more questions.

[Alex Glennie]

Yeah I tend to agree .... maybe it's goes back to the early days when the key contributors (not necessarily those now in the top 25) were predominantly hpux based experts and consequently more posts got answered quickly in this area than others .... as the site's got more popular, the trend has stuck and the gap has widened.

Also Stefan has a valid point, not all the forums categories existed originally and HPUX could cover just about most things hpux h/w and s/w based.

[Justo Exposito]

Hi Vincent,

I think that you are ok, but is too hard to monitor more than one forum, then I must to select one. And for me the most interesting and the forum were I can contrib is this, then I select this in order to contrib and to learn about.

The points are in second place, but I must tell you that the points tell me if I help or not to other people and this is nice for me.

Regards,

Justo.

[Vincent Farrugia]

Yes that is true. I use points that way.

[BFA6]

Hi,

I have looked at other forums, but this one has topics and information that is more use to me.

As for points, well they are a bonus. It's also nice to help out, as many have done for me.

Hilary

[Mark Greene_1]

Except for perhaps the linux forum, most of the other forums are much too specialized for me to spend time reading. As an HP system admin, I get the broadest input from reading this forum. I occassionally get to assist others and often learn from that experience too, and know that I would not be able to as much in the other forums.

--
mark

[Frederic Sevestre]

Hi,
In addition, points not only help me to know if my answer help the requester but also help me when I am using a search on the forum. 1 pt I won't try it, 10pts here is the solution !!
F??d??ric

[Darrell Allen]

Hi Vincent,

I DO look at SOME other forums but I spend ~95% of my forums time in the HPUX ones for one basic reason: I am an HPUX administrator!

There's much activity in the HPUX forums for which I'm grateful. I learn much each day and hopefully my contributions are helping someone else along their way.

I'm not slamming the other areas, rather I think it speaks highly of HP's HPUX customers that this forum is used so much. And while I wouldn't be wasting my time in a number of the other forums, frankly the ROI (knowledge gained and shared versus the time spent) would be low for me.

I know it's good to have separate categories for certain topics but some of the categories / forums should be re-thought. For instance, there are some discussions in the storage and server forums that really apply to HPUX systems. Instead of being in a those forums, I think there should be an HPUX storage and an HPUX server category. But's that's my opinion.

As far as congrats, I think it appropriate that they be given in the forum where the majority of points have been earned. It would mean more to me to hear from my HPUX family than from others.

Now for Dan Gazzaniga and everyone else associated with maintaining these forums: BRAVO! These forums are much more appealing that any others I've visited. Much better designed, more eye-appealing, easy to follow threads, overall just an outstanding job!

Darrell

[George_Dodds]

I think a lot of it is down to what people are interested in, also the sort of kit they support, why look at the disk array forum if you dont support one.

People want to get better at there own role, it's makes life easier that way.

Allthough I do agree with Vincent, theres a lot of good info hidden away in the less popular forums, especially if you have that sort of kit.

The forums as a whole are some of the best i've come across and I have learnt more in the last few months of actively using it than i have on any course.

Long live the Forums!

[Craig Rants]

Vincent,
I think the point issue really is an intrinsic bonus to most people in the forum. I use it for three reasons.

1. To help others, when I first got into this line of work I had a lot of questions, and it took a lot of time to find the answers. I wish I had this type of tool when I first started.

2. To challenge myself, you really learn something inside and out when you have to explain it and teach it to someone else.

3. To learn, I still have questions I want to bounce of the best HP minds, and this is the place to do it.

The HPUX forum just seems to be the place that everyone has congregated, it is broad enough that someone out there should be able to answer your question.

That's my feelings.

Craig

[Rita C Workman]

Vince,

Why in HPUX? - Because that's where most folks are 'hanging' out. And assigning points.
I have posted responses in other sites and gotten nothing. The points weren't the whole issue...it's like what the above guy said 'if it's one point I keep looking'. The sad thing is there are times that 1 point (or no point) answer the THE ANSWER. But time and again, not getting anything does make a person go back to where folks do acknowledge the answer.
For myself, like others, I tend to hang out in areas I know at least something about..Servers (where they are negligent on any points); OmniBack; and HPUX. I have gone to BizForms and posted a couple times there...but I always go back to my 3 regular sites. We humans are creatures of habit...what can I say.

Nothing new said here...so no points are necessary,
Rita

[Wodisch]

Hello Vincent,

a sharp observer you are! Not kidding here.

I do NOT understand the reason for having ALL the congrats-threads over here! Some have earned their points somewhere else...

But for the selection of forums to read: similiar to me
- I am interested most in HP-UX and OpenView
- only if nothing happens there I continue with M$, servers, workstations, storage, Linux, and such
- and if nothing interesting is to be found there (interesting to me) I go for the business customer discussion groups...

I would like to have a way to read "all new postings" in one page, though!

For the top users lists - I do like them, just that I cannot understand why how many are shown. Sometimes 3 of us, sometimes more???

And for easy points, well, these congrats threads have to be stopped as point-sources, true (i must own a "cap" by now only from those), but I do feel better on telling my "friends" on the forums that I appreciate their help!
Smileys instead of points there would be nice! Or Lightbulbs? Such a separate list of points would show the true addict, but nothing else.
Tell Dan about this, and you have me voting for your request!
But most of what I do is reading postings, especially those with a "rabbit" (i.e. lots of points) and those with a lot of replies - just for the sake of interest and learning more!!!

Oh, and smileys, yes, please, but no points ;-)

Just my $0.02,
Wodisc

[Vincent Farrugia]

Hello,

Ok, some clearing up.

I never said that I'm against giving points. If you look at my profile, I've given points to almost all the people I could give (except you, but I just wanted a general feeling about this and will assign points later, didn't want to influence other people with my assignments of points). I have quite a lot of points too so I'm not complaining :-)

All I wanted to say was that there are other forums in here which you (and me) might enter more often. A strictly hardware problem posted in the servers forum should be answered as promptly as one question posted in the HP/UX forum, in my opinion. Same goes for all other forums.

That was my concern.

Points will be assigned later, don't worry. According to my judgement :-)

Vince

[Christopher McCray_1]

As for my answer, I basically echo all previous responses, so I will not rewrite their thoughts. I will say this, though, that this HPUX forum has been THE most singular tool which has helped me grow in knowledge and experience and for that I'm grateful to it and its members. This forum is where my needs lie.

Have a wonderful day!

Chris

[S.K. Chan]

This is the place to get "humbled", to get one's ego trimmed a little. No matter how good you think you're there's always something you don't know yet. Why this forum ?? Like Darrell said, "I'm a HP-UX administrator".

[Sridhar Bhaskarla]

I don't think it is a bad idea to appreciate the ones who helped the forum. I think these forums are not the commercial sites of HP but are based on warmth and friendliness of other HP administrators. So, things cannot be restricted and they need to happen here like they happen in any other clubs.

-Sri

[Craig Rants]

As far as getting points for congratulating someone, I figure it all washes out in the laundry. I have had many times where I have given a 10 answer, and gotten 0. So if I get a few easy points here or they, hey it all washes out...

Points aren't what keep me (and as others as well) in the forums, and I don't look at peoples profiles before answering their question.

C

[paul courry]

Point of information Vincent.

The server forum has fewer point because there are fewer questions AND they tend to be technical questions that may cover 20 years of HP equipment. I may have to consult several obsolete, paper-copy-only manuals that are rare as hens teeth in order to provide a quality answer. With all due respect to HP they have not helped me much with access to obsolete manuals. My collection has been built up over years and grows but slowly.

[John Bolene]

Most folks stay here since UNIX is such a strange beast and does need a lot of explaining.

Where else can you have 10 different commands that don't even sound like what they do and they all have different actions using the same letter options.

And there does not seem to be anywhere else to actually post these, except for maybe the general category.

[A. Clay Stephenson · Accepted solution]

Hi:

I've tried to follow this thread and it seems to me this is sort of like asking Willie Sutton why he robbed banks. "Because that's where the money is."

The good news is that Dan G. moves inappropriate threads into their more proper homes. The other thing that makes this forum so popular is that, in general, there is usually enough information initially posted to at least point someone in the right direction. In some of the other forums that is the exception rather than the norm. I do check the hardware Forums but frankly the more interesting questions are in this forum. My main desire for this forum is that users learn TO SEARCH FOR THEMSELVES BEFORE POSTING A QUESTION. In that way the quantity of questions would go down and the quality would improve. The overall effect would be an increased signal/noise ratio; something that I trust everyone wants.

Regards, Clay

[John Payne_2]

This is the reason I post here first -

I have the HPUX forum set as my home page. Every time I open a new browser to go somewhere else, I get to see what's up here first...

John

[Mark Vollmers]

Vincent-

just to throw my hat in the ring as well:

I have gone to the other areas a few times, but I will admit that I spend nearly all my time here. Mainly, it's what I know and I may learn something that I can apply here as opposed to elsewhere, although, to be honest, I don't think about the others also. Perhaps a reorganizing of sorts would help that out (have storage for questions about tapes, drives, backup software, etc). this tends to be the spot for more general questions, and so it has a larger appeal. Broadening out the others a bit could increase traffic there and reduce some here. Just a thought. However, I will start to peruse those more, now (since I am ashamed about being a hpux snob and I might learn something there and also be helpful to others, which is what it's all about). anyway, thanks for reminding us that they're out there.

Mark