SAP Community – What is right with it?
SO I have an exact opposite blog than my last couple of blogs. As I sit here this morning, I wonder, why do I bother? Is there anything right with this site?
What is right?
If you’ve read my comments, I am very happy with the open learning available. There are some amazing courses mixed in with some marketing. I tend to drop out of the marketing ones and focus on the courses that I really like. I’ve really liked all the design courses.
I like that the mentor blogs are on the front page. These are some amazing blogs by some amazing people.
I can comment on questions without answering. That way when others look at it, they can quickly tell the question isn’t answered.
There is a lot of other training in the site. There are how-to guides. There is an area to download trial versions.
There are like minded people still here. They do love SAP, new technology and have fun learning! Yes, there are less. But there are still quite a few here!
Why bring people back – why not another site?
Well – I haven’t found another site that does all of the above. Each site I go to – I never find a perfect one. It’s the 80/20 rule. If they get it right 80 percent of the time, then that is what they want.
The archived questions – answer a lot of the questions that I have. Don’t forget those archived questions come from SCN, SDN, and/or the SAP community.
Why bother?
All of the above, of course. But for me personally, it is getting back into a fun group of people talking openly about SAP – even if it is to vent about the platform. There are so many people that agree. But there are some out there that disagree. It’s interesting to engage them, and learn something new.
My next point – I usually learn something new. If I post a blog, someone could think the entire thing is wrong, and tell me why. That’s great! Then they give me more information. Someone could agree with me. That immediately gives me a reason to write more blogs. They also may add some more to the blog /reasons.
So this blog is a simple one. Why even keep coming here? Why look into the community? I mean we all agree the platform is “broke”, but is there a reason to take the time to learn how to work around the issues? (If there is a way)
Michelle, this time at TechEd Bangalore Jason Cao was quick enough to arrange a paper and pen for Mentors to write the possible reasons as to why most of us are not as active on it as before. Reading this blog that's the first thing that comes to my mind.
Regards,
Kumud
Hi Kumund,
Actually this is a great response! The SAP community provides mentors - like yourself . These GURUs can take what we see as a community up to the right people.
So another one to add to my lists - It has great mentors!
Michelle
Hi Michelle (and Kumud!)
Yes, there are struggles with the platform. But the community is still here - and it's not going to get better if we just shrug our shoulders and walk away!
I haven't found a place where I can go to get answers the way I can here. Granted, sorting through the archives of thousands of questions about 'ITS_TEMPLATE_NOT_FOUND' can give me heartburn, but it was always like this.
I haven't found a place where I can share some of my knowledge with others (I've tried talking to my kids about SAP, but they're like, meh) - and yes, there are still those 'Do my job for me' questions, but the platform can't fix that.
And yeah, saying I do this because there is no better alternative is not a ringing endorsement, I know.
I am sad that so much was lost, but I'm going to try to help rebuild.
Another excellent reply. Sharing our knowledge is so very important. No ringing endorsement needed. We all know there are issues. I'm just trying to find out some of the reasons that we are still here. And still promoting it as "the place" to go to.
Your knowledge is greatly appreciated. Yes another point to add to my list. The ability to share with others what I know. And then to learn from the responses if someone has a better idea. If I explain something, I learn it better!
Love the goat!
Michelle
Oh, the irony!
“I am very happy with the open learning available.”
Yep, that’s one bit that (fortunately) hasn’t made it to the new platform!
I used to be irritated at having to log in separately to OpenSAP and not being able to use it on the same browser as SCN. But now that I think about it, I’m glad.
I can just picture what OpenSAP will look like when it moves: A page entirely covered by a picture of a mountain or a teapot or whatever with a marketese caption about expanding your mind and then having to scroll down to actually find any content.
But I will disagree with you on “I can comment on questions without answering. That way when others look at it, they can quickly tell the question isn’t answered.“. No, the simple old-fashioned threaded format makes more sense on so many levels (‘scuse the pun). An innocuous comment might just provide the ‘click’ impetus to solve the problem. Or someone wants to respond to a comment in the middle of a thread, but because it might also provide the answer I must respond out of context else it can't be an ‘answer’. It should be simple, but now everyone must think about how exactly they should be responding. Oh yes, and a questioner cannot accept a comment even if it answers the question. Sorry, but the system remains stupid in my view, and that goes for stack*.com sites too. There was nothing wrong with threads, didn’t need fixing.
Yes, open.sap - is not really in the sap community... 🙂 But I like it! It is my favorite part of the community and yet not really a part of it.
Threads - I guess I didn't think about it that way. I didn't think a comment could answer a question. I was thinking about the old format where if there was several "answers", I might not even have looked at the question. You have a great point. Perhaps comments that can be marked as answers?
Yes, of course there are the obvious "Error x means blah" (=Answer) and "My cat thinks that's funny" (=Comment), but what if my response is a bit of both?
I think what makes it a non-starter is that we're asking everyone to think before responding when there are many who just about cope with a simple Q&A format.
So yes, a great idea would be if responses were grouped in sequence and we could mark any response as an answer. Oh, wait, that's the bit that wasn't broke but got fixed anyway...
I like that - being able to mark a comment as an answer. You are completely right, if it is a thinking question it will take more than just a quick answer. But the comments may help the question become in focus.
Yes - I know they fixed a lot of what isn't broken. I'm just trying to look b eyond that, and find some of the good things too.
Although it sounds like what I think is good isn't really part of the "community". I guess all the options that take me to the places from the community makes it not part of the community. So now I'm confusing myself.
🙂
Have a great evening! I'm enjoying your comments. They are making me smile.
Michelle
Well, it's quite ironic that the things you point out as "right" are not actually part of SAP Community if by "SAP Community" we mean the successor of SDN and SCN. The tutorials, trial downloads, and openSAP are part of sap.com domain but it's not the community (=SCN) content.
Was curious to see what was right on SCN and now I feel bamboozled. 🙂
OK – no security message, but I just lost another comment. Maybe it will appear in a bit.
I’m thinking anything that I can click on here is part of the community. Since I don’t know what is actually part of and not part of… Oh boy! Well, hopefully someone else can give a good comment.
I was thinking about the link to the ABAP page for the trials.
I didn't realize it wasn't part of the community....
This is the "SAP Community" home page (it's under Community in The Top Menu of Death): https://www.sap.com/community.html
Underneath it, are blogs, Q&A and wikis, that's all.
Got it! Now what do we call the menu of death a part of? I love that name. It is perfect.
Hi Michelle
I listed quite a few positives in my blog https://blogs.sap.com/2017/09/06/ive-got-a-community-and-youre-awesome/
Platform != community. It has negative impacted community but the rectification won't help if people don't come back. I'm choosing to focus on regrowing my own community.
I look forward to the day when quality content producers feel more inspired to write about their expertise instead of commenting on the state community. Me included.
Regards
Colleen
Thank you for the link!!! I loved the reasons! I will not copy and paste here because then I'd be kicked off for not following the rules - but go see Colleen's post. It's worth the read.
Of course, the best part is that we still have some people here. But, as Susan Keohan noted, it's mostly because there is no alternative (as of now). Although even The Community Goat is more visible on Twitter than SCN, so yeah...
Hi Jelena
I'm hoping Capra becomes more visible within the community since it's where she originated from. She's most active on Twitter as a way to encourage people to come to the community. Having her in both spaces would be awesome. Just have to get around RoE (even though we all know there a heap of 'SAP GURU' accounts out there or shared S Numbers used for community accounts.
Cheers
Colleen