Personal Insights
Deep Thoughts – State of the SAP Community Testing the Water Is It Sinking? Swimming?
So what is the state of the community as I – totally unscientifically see it today? Are we really sinking still?! Are people running not walking away?
So my thoughts…
We are swimming:
Now take a look at the blog series for badges by Audrey Stevenson . Many people are starting to come on board the ship and are contributing in some way. So that means we are gaining ground. We must have a great ship – SAP Community – to be riding on.
Take a look at the front page. All looks good from there too. Many members, Unique vistors, question asked, and blog posts.
Take a look at the Technology Ambassadors. They are all amazing and they are still here.
Take a look at the marketing blogs. They have gone down considerably. Some will say they are non-existent. Me I still see a few here and there.
Take a look at some of the blog series. There was a recent one about ABAP testing. I’m not link those, you’ll find quite a few. That generated a lot of comments. And a lot of them were generated from Open SAP. Free training.
Take a look at questions and answers. MOST of the questions are getting answers or comments for more information.
I’m missing some of the really cool stuff too – like the tutorials that are available.
We are sinking:
Take a quick look at coffee corner. You will find that some awesome people are “leaving”. I doubt they can completely stay away. So that means we are sinking right? I mean if they don’t feel comfortable here, then there are many reasons to leave.
Take a quick look at the non-teched blogs. Are there any about non-hana type things? Anything about something that isn’t new? If you are hungry for new/old technology you can dig up some on CDS. If you are on-premise and not on the cloud, you can find information on how to use the on-cloud blogs. There are some non-technical type blogs. Honestly I find myself bookmarking more than using the blogs. See above. I think there is a lot less usable information for the lower versions of SAP.
Our questions have gone downhill – they aren’t technical enough. <Sigh> I fit in that category. I’m always learning and at times my questions are a repeat. So have they gone downhill? BTW – Remember above most of them get answered so feel free to ask.
Our blogs have gone downhill… Well I just flat out don’t believe that statement. I’ve been reading a lot of them. To me there seems to be less blogs. However, there is more of a variety.
I’m sure there are some things I’ve missed here, too!
So Sinking or Swimming?
Can I say it depends? You hear that a lot around SAP. It depends what version of SAP you are on. It depends on your skill level. It depends on your ability to ignore the platform issues.
In my optimistic view we are starting to doggy paddle (The most basic form of swimming). I don’t think we are sinking anymore. There are so many great initiatives going on. I do think we have more to do. Yes, yes, the technical fixing of the platform. (I’ve heard about that before) But other than that, I think we are leaving people working on any non-cloud version of SAP behind. I do think we are gaining people that are using different languages than ABAP. NOTICE – I said WE. That’s you and me too. We are a community.
And yes, some days I think we are sinking. Then I slap myself and say OK, we are sinking what can I do to help? On my bad days – I say nothing. On my good days – I try to think of something.
Your Thoughts, Please
So SAP Community – is it sinking, swimming or something in between? What do you think?
Hi Michelle
Very nice blog and motivating !
Yes! Lots of things are changing here. Which is indeed good for all of us here from learning of point of view.
Honestly I find myself bookmarking more than using the blogs. Still bookmarking option is being missed here.
Regards
Kamlesh
Yes, it is missed. I'm simply bookmarking in my browser right now.
Thank you for the kind comments,
Michelle
For me I think it’s till on a downward trend. As far as Q&A goes, the last round of changes (I refuse to call it an upgrade) has pushed me over the edge. I’ve lost the will and am devoting my energies elsewhere. Who knows, maybe I’ll end up with a bit of time to write a blog or two, but I’m quite enjoying life without the frustrations of fighting a platform that is not aligned with its target audience,
Downhill trend...
Is it just the Q&A? Or is it more than that? Your energies elsewhere. And that would be? I hope it's something fun!
Yes, downhill. Given 80% of my time here was in Q&A (mainly because it’s doable in small chunks), that’s pretty much the end of the road, I’m done for now.
As for what else... OpenSAP, opensource, github, still looking around what else I find interesting, there’s a whole internet to explore and a whole bunch of new concepts to build. I recon I’ll be busy for another month or two. ?
Maybe I’ll turn to blogging on here at some point and I still occasionally skim through Q&A, but for now my motivation to participate is nil.
The blogs would be cool. The opensap, opensource, github... More they are wonderful sites rich in data. I don't have a ton of time to check everything out. It sure would be a help here. It's something I'd read and continue to read. It could be something you do quickly.
But I truly respect your perspective. Where to spend that most limited resource of all, our time? For me, it is here. But I had left for many years before trying to come back at all. So I took my time away. I can't blame you. 🙂
The Community is not sinking, it's digging the sea bottom 🙂
Well sea bottom might be fun. We don't know it is actually at the bottom of the oceans. That makes us explorers.
One ONLY One thing that you could change what would that be? And if you are repeating yourself feel free to just put a link out there.
"One ONLY One thing that you could change what would that be?" I can't post it here! My account will be immediately blocked 🙂
OK - I needed that. I'm laughing while work is going slow on a program I'm working on. It's a good thing I work from home. No one is looking at me like I'm crazy. I'm working with the normal uphill battle of the changing requirements.
Anyway, I don't want your account blocked so it is a really good idea not to say anything. Wish I had a loved or at least a smiling selection instead of just like. You deserve a really good one for that answer.
Thanks for the mention and link to my weekly mission and badge roundup post, Michelle. Personally, I love seeing that steady stream of members earning their first badges, as well as the progression of some through more and more difficult missions. It keeps me hopeful. Thank you for continuing to take such a positive yet measured attitude towards this home we call Community.
Those badges are a great way to track progress. It's amazing how many there are. Before I started seeing those I admit I was a bit discouraged. Hence, your more then welcome mention. Those badges make me hopeful again!
This community of ours can be a home again. It honestly isn't going to be easy. But who wants easy all the time? Boring.
I think the Q&A sunk many moons ago, the momentum was lost…
For what is worth I believe that going back to Topics is the key to get the ball rolling again,
From the Q&A point of view the problem was the granularity, the endless list of tags and the complexity to find and follow them. That is why I believe creating Topics as primary tags is the solution, I would go as far as suggesting that we should only allow topics as primary tags then we are basically back to the old SCN, we could create a landing page based on the topics!!!…. the simplicity of this approach could pay off.
I'll admit that I follow many tags when looking at the Q&A. And now I have to mention here again. Perhaps Craig will give me a different person to bug. Craig Cmehil is there a way to do this? When I follow ABAP Development - it would be nice to see ABAP Connectivity, ABAP Testing and Analysis, etc. I know I can and do open the related tags, but it would be nicer to be able to click on ABAP development and see them all. Then if I wanted more detail I could in fact use the ABAP connectivity tag, and everyone would see it in ABAP Development.
I'll also say my questions tend to go into the more generic tags. So perhaps even removing some? I know you'll get different requests from different people. I'm not sure what is the best answer. I just know I like Juan Reyes answer. 🙂
The idea of tag collection is one we are pushing forward with right now actually. The concept that a topic page has multiple tags associated that let someone follow a group or individual tags and that we can allocate sections of the topic pages to the content associated with that.
The list of requests over the past years is a very long one and through multiple conversations and multiple view points we are discussing and figuring out which ones first, which ones impact other ones and so on, It's a long process and a frustrating one but we are determined to move forward step by step once we have discussed each request we push through.
😉 It's so easy - we want all the changes now.
Hey Michelle,
thanks for keeping your blogs comming!
I think we are no longer sinking, but we sunk pretty deep allready.
Just let me comment on some of your lines:
> Take a look at the front page. All looks good from there too
I still don’t like it (but great if it works for you and others!), as I stated in CoffeeCorner)
> Take a look at the Technology Ambassadors. They are all amazing and they are still here.
Agree, they are amazing, and they are still here. But: they are paid for that (-> SAP Employees), right?! ..so they “have to” be here.
> Take a look at some of the blog series.
Agree, there are still nice blogs! The ones on AbapUnit you mention, I indeed enjoyed a lot!
best
Joachim
[Edit: Corrected spelling! so nice to be able to edit! ]
Yes in general I don't like the front page layout. I do like seeing the statistics. It takes it from - I think... To I know how many unique visitors there are.
Sigh. Agreed about how far we have sunk. I wrote a blog about it once... But on the positive side I like you do see things slowly changing for the better.
Technology Ambassadors - Yes they are paid to be here. But doesn't that mean that SAP is taking the community seriously? The people who are highlighted are amazing. They spend some time here instead of working on amazing projects.
Better.. But still not where we should be. SAP is huge. It has moved into many different marketplaces. The changes are fast paced - sometimes too fast I think for companies. Shouldn't there be more questions - discussions here in this community?
As Craig stated above there is a rather large lists of changes to be made. Prioritization will be made. Then the changes are made. That made me feel hopeful again.
Long response. Thank you for a great comment - as always - you make me think. That's a good thing - I think. 🙂