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http://xkcd.com/979/[/caption]
Have you ever been here?
It happens, but it’s rare. You might call it a Googlewhack or something similar but it isn’t. Google, like a library doesn’t creates content, they merely make it easier to find other people’s work. What’s really happened is you have found a post that the right person hasn’t looked at and answered. Which is a shame…like an unloved child every question deserves an answer :-)
Maybe that right person is you? I’ve been contributing to the VMware communities forums recently https://communities.vmware.com/community/vmtn#src=vmw_so_vex_cneal_850 and I’ve found it interesting and satisfying for a number of reasons.
- You get to feel clever :-) Rummage around. No-one's expecting you to go and buy a Brocade Fibre Switch and FC HBAs just to help another stranger, but there will almost certainly be a question you can answer. Being able to explain the solution to another's problem will help you demonstrate to yourself that you have the understanding of the topic. Be it SRM handling unique UUIDs, how to run a script inside a VM by calling Powercli's Invoke-Script.
- You can try out a solution on your homelab/work-lab set up. It may be that you read all about AutoDeploy for your VCP and passed with flying colours, but you've never exported a host profile in your life because your particular environment was inherited or maybe you haven't got Enterprise Plus licenses in your Prod environment.
- You might get corrected by someone cleverer. I'm not ashamed to admit I answered someone's query with a definitive "no that's not possible in vsphere" only to have a guru type user with thousands of posts and solutions under their belt correct me and inform the person that "it is possible using the following method as of version x.y". So free learning for me!
- Free Learning If you're revising for an exam or certification then look in the topics you're struggling on in the forums and by finding the answer for others, particularly as their problems are real-world, you are getting free exam scenarios/questions that you have to work out the answer to!
- You get to feel helpful and be part of the solution :-) As I said at the top. If the forums were just full of questions...they wouldn't be much use and it wouldn't matter how well indexed Google had the site. It takes someone to devote a little of their time to helping others.
I’m going to start aiming to do 2hrs per week on the forums minimum, 30 minutes here and there soon adds up. Give it a try, you just might like it!
So think of it as digital altruism in a subject you are knowledgeable or passionate about. VMware!
(You could become a forum rockstar like these guys https://communities.vmware.com/people?filterID=all&sortKey=all~statusLevelDesc&sortOrder=0&src=vmw_so_vex_cneal_850)
If you have any queries about the forums then contact VMware’s - Corey Romero https://communities.vmware.com/people/Corey_R?view=profile&src=vmw_so_vex_cneal_850