Chopping off their own feet....
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I know currently, post huge investment, they have shifted focuses towards enterprise, or at least obtain a few enterprise customers. That's going to be a very hard shift to make in my opinion, not just that its WAY TO HUGE of a shift. A paradigm shift in the way your company functions doesn't sound like its a good idea.
I'm not a member of an IT firm btw
I just like helping and talking tech.As for people doing how-to's to gain points, I think that's the lowest common denominator of points farming, there are much huger farming tactics that don't go un-noticed, but on the same note can't be punished. And that would be writing reviews. I know when I was a moderator a guy came into my cross hairs who for almost 8 hours straight wrote reviews non-stop, it was popping up in every notification bar I had, it was driving me insane. And you have to think each of those 25 point reviews adds up pretty quickly when you add 200 or so a day. But eventually it was discovered that the vendor in question was doing it because his boss said he needed to reach a certain level by a certain period of time.... he eventually started copying and pasting his reviews.
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@RAM. said:
I know currently, post huge investment, they have shifted focuses towards enterprise, or at least obtain a few enterprise customers.
That won't work. The software doesn't scale and doesn't handle enterprise needs. It's really not meant for that architecturally. Everything is focused on super small, very casual IT needs.
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@RAM. said:
As for people doing how-to's to gain points, I think that's the lowest common denominator of points farming, there are much huger farming tactics that don't go un-noticed, but on the same note can't be punished. And that would be writing reviews. I know when I was a moderator a guy came into my cross hairs who for almost 8 hours straight wrote reviews non-stop, it was popping up in every notification bar I had, it was driving me insane. And you have to think each of those 25 point reviews adds up pretty quickly when you add 200 or so a day. But eventually it was discovered that the vendor in question was doing it because his boss said he needed to reach a certain level by a certain period of time.... he eventually started copying and pasting his reviews.
The problem is, if you look at how the points are structured, review farming is the intended goal of the points system. Users get upset because there is clearly no community value. But the points remain as they are because the company in question gains big advertiser dollars through review volume, fake, useful or otherwise. So the points encourage that. The mods feel like it is bad and officially nothing is said, but the points always will tell the true story and reviews are the biggest bang for the buck in points and that means that that is what the company wants done more than anything else. They see the most advertising revenue positively affected by that. So like it or not, it is a factor of the desired community behaviour there and a reason why there won't be a review system here - it's just there to generate "fake" traffic without giving any value to anyone because those reviews are worthless.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@RAM. said:
I know currently, post huge investment, they have shifted focuses towards enterprise, or at least obtain a few enterprise customers.
That won't work. The software doesn't scale and doesn't handle enterprise needs. It's really not meant for that architecturally. Everything is focused on super small, very casual IT needs.
Still from what I've heard isn't an idea they aren't considering diving into. I'm not an insider by any means, but I believe I heard it was part of the investment agreement.
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@RAM. said:
Still from what I've heard isn't an idea they aren't considering diving into. I'm not an insider by any means, but I believe I heard it was part of the investment agreement.
They don't have the engineering capacity and they will get exposed and burned if they start working with enterprises. Bad security and data farming that go unnoticed by the "cult" mentality in SMB will have them in court and in the press in the enterprise. It will only take one enterprise taking them to task to exposure the use of the software as embarrassing that people were not catching they egress of their company data and the selling of their data to external entities. Install that at a bank and your job is over if anyone finds out what is going on. Their business model, top to bottom, from practices to software, is only compatible with extremely small SMBs.
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There is a reason why no one crosses between SMB and enterprise - two different worlds. One is all practical and business, one is all emotional and politics. Products that do well in one really won't in the other.
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Likewise, they really rely on working in a Windows-centric world. In a network that isn't nearly all Windows the software isn't very useful. If you focus purely on desktops, it is, but doesn't scale. So it remains only for fairly small environments.
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I'm going to try to keep this non-TL;DR, but there are so many different sub-topics here, that it could be a challenge.
I like answering questions. I get a bit of a warm fuzzy when I get a BA. Without a BA, it feels a bit more like monotony. Sure, I get a bit of a thrill when I fix someone's issue, but the affirmation that comes along with a BA or HP is what drives me. Points are great, and are a bit of reward for having spent hours on the forum. Without the points, it feels a bit meaningless, and not worth spending the time on.
Private groups are a good thing. In most environments, there's concepts and discussions that shouldn't be for the masses. As someone who's been part of private groups, be it professionally, personally, or socially/online, I see their necessity. The key factor is to limit what goes on inside the private group and to make sure to disseminate pertinent info to the masses in a regular and timely fashion so that they aren't left out of the big picture.
I like Spiceworks as a community and an app. With SMB IT changing radically from nuts and bolts systems managers to more of a business enabling role, it makes sense that they'd look to enterprise users now. From a community perspective, they're going to have more bizarre, thoughtful questions. Those are the fun ones that actually make us scratch our heads and bring new and different ideas to the table. The community can already support enterprise needs. The app, with some modularization and optimization, could also support enterprise usage.
Spiceworks collects data. We've known this from day 1. This is something that is either acceptable or it isn't, based on corporate requirements and personal beliefs. Much the same applies to Google. Do you use them, understanding that they could well know more about you than you do, or do you use a different company?
TL;DR version: If you don't like their community, don't use it. If you don't like their application, don't use it. Otherwise, get on with life.
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lol dang @alexntg I don't hate the product if that's what you're implying. Mainly my recent boxing match with possible employment has knocked it out of my favor, this grudge isn't going to subside in a day, a week, or even a month.
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@david.wiese said:
since i am involved or at least try to be involved on both sites I want offer up my opinion for what its worth. I joined the SW community when i started my current job, why because we used the software. As i become more involved in the community I started seeing more and more public power struggles.I myself posted in the rant thread a few times about the mods not doing their jobs and letting blatant things fly when those things were not allowed prior to a certain CM's departure. @Bill-Kindle sent me a link to this site after we had a public disagreement (but in the private conversation things were hashed out) I still post on both sites and attempt to help out where I can. ML seems to be more IT Pro based and not for the basic user (which is good). Now still haven't reached the SP level on SW yet and don't really care to, I'm not in it for the points, I'm there to provide help where possible just like here. While I post more there, i am starting to here since most of the people i talk to are now using this instead.
Contrary to (what may be I don't know for sure) popular belief, I'm not a mean guy. Sure I get testy, will mouth off / speak my mind (and get slapped around for doing so) but that's just how I am.
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@DenisKelley said:
As to the SW/Mango thing, I'm personally just staying above all the shenanigans. SW is a lot more busy than Mango right now, so I tend to post more there than here. I do try to browse when I have time and contribute when I can. It is just so much more volume there right now and I'm sure Mango will get busier and busier as time moves forward.
Same here. I split time between the two just to keep social. I switch back and forth when I get bored.
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@RAM. said:
lol dang @alexntg I don't hate the product if that's what you're implying. Mainly my recent boxing match with possible employment has knocked it out of my favor, this grudge isn't going to subside in a day, a week, or even a month.
It wasn't aimed directly at you, just a blanket statement for the encyclopedia of posts prior to mine.
That being said, don't keep grudges. They aren't healthy.
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@Bill-Kindle said:
@david.wiese said:
since i am involved or at least try to be involved on both sites I want offer up my opinion for what its worth. I joined the SW community when i started my current job, why because we used the software. As i become more involved in the community I started seeing more and more public power struggles.I myself posted in the rant thread a few times about the mods not doing their jobs and letting blatant things fly when those things were not allowed prior to a certain CM's departure. @Bill-Kindle sent me a link to this site after we had a public disagreement (but in the private conversation things were hashed out) I still post on both sites and attempt to help out where I can. ML seems to be more IT Pro based and not for the basic user (which is good). Now still haven't reached the SP level on SW yet and don't really care to, I'm not in it for the points, I'm there to provide help where possible just like here. While I post more there, i am starting to here since most of the people i talk to are now using this instead.
Contrary to (what may be I don't know for sure) popular belief, I'm not a mean guy. Sure I get testy, will mouth off / speak my mind (and get slapped around for doing so) but that's just how I am.
Bill is in fact a human teddy bear.
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@RAM. said:
@DenisKelley said:
As to the SW/Mango thing, I'm personally just staying above all the shenanigans. SW is a lot more busy than Mango right now, so I tend to post more there than here. I do try to browse when I have time and contribute when I can. It is just so much more volume there right now and I'm sure Mango will get busier and busier as time moves forward.
I have personal grievances with them sadly at this point :-/, I try not to hold grudges but... some need to exist for us to move forward.
IHMO, rightly so.
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I have a webinar coming up with SW regarding GPO's in about 45 minutes. Doing a joint Q&A with another community member, Jimmy T.
I'm hoping the focus stays on GPO's and not Active Directory design.
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@alexntg said:
@RAM. said:
lol dang @alexntg I don't hate the product if that's what you're implying. Mainly my recent boxing match with possible employment has knocked it out of my favor, this grudge isn't going to subside in a day, a week, or even a month.
It wasn't aimed directly at you, just a blanket statement for the encyclopedia of posts prior to mine.
That being said, don't keep grudges. They aren't healthy.
Generally I don't, I've had to conceal a lot of my anger deep down over the years, and I've learned to cope with it, I'm not a petty man who holds a grudge over something I once heard said via a grape vine, nor am I a man who will sacrafice a friend based on ego's. But in some rare, very rare cases, a grudge is acceptable based on circumstances.
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BTW @RAM. , I'm surprised that chat feature lasted as long as it did. Sounds like the platform they chose to use was really weak. The IRC channel is ugly,
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@IRJ said:
There are a few Spicy Peppers that avoid me now because of my participation on here. Anyone else on Mangolassi experience this?
Really?
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@Bill-Kindle said:
BTW @RAM. , I'm surprised that chat feature lasted as long as it did. Sounds like the platform they chose to use was really weak. The IRC channel is ugly,
From my understanding some peoples hardware seemed to make the servers crash or lock up frequently or something. IRC is straight garbage, it makes AIM look like it was made by people in the future.
Balance between weak, and garbage...
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@IRJ said:
@RAM. Thanks for the mentioning me, buddy.
I post on that other website less for a few reasons:
Quality over Quantity. The people over here are top problem solvers for the other website.
****The other site is now run by vendors. Every thing they do is sponsored by a vendor. To me that means that there is an obvious motive for every event. No vendor is going to pay for sponsoring an event and receive nothing in return. ****
The power struggle a few months ago showed that money was the number one concern of the other website now. You can see they are just hiring like crazy. You cant hire the best people anymore when you are constantly hiring. From my understanding, Everyone that was employed with them in the past was highly technical. If you have observed some of the new employees, you will know that is no longer the case. They are just like the sales people that haunt us on a daily basis.
Loss of vision and backbone. They definitely lost their original vision. They are no longer good guys that sell ads just to pay for development of their helpdesk software. There is money being passed around like crazy. When you have so much money from different places coming in, you dont want to offend anyone. That is why you are starting to see less and less heated discussions.
Speaking to the point in bold, the two webinars I've taken part in have both been for Virtualization and Group Policy (in about 30 minutes) have both been sponsored by AntiVirus vendors. Kinda weird, not saying anything bad about it but if they are paying to put the spot there.....
