If You Could Change Anything About TechExams, What Would You Change?

[Deleted User]

Do you have ideas that could improve and grow the community? Share them in this thread!

P.S. SSL is coming!

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Comments

casrey

Essendon wrote: »

Great points by the others already. For me, it'd be something that keeps bringing the ol' timers back.

They said everything I wanted to say

[Deleted User]

In Vanilla, we have the ability to auto-reassign all content from a user to an anonymized author.

I have put in a feature request to add the ability to "follow" other users. I think this would be awesome to add to the community.

-Megan

JDMurray

cyberninga wrote: »

Ability for user to delete their account and all content posted on the forums

paul78 wrote: »

Yeah - GDPR compliance could be nice for some people.

GDPR and "the Right to be Forgotten" are not the same thing. GDPR does include the right for (EU) data owners to request erasure of their PII from a GDPR-compliant system, but GDPR does not require that all traces of that data owner be removed--only the data owner's PII data items are to be removed.

The Right to be Forgotten was specifically targeted at search engines and other services that collect and archive PII information without the data owner's explicit permission. From what I have seen, the only such PII ever automatically collected by TechExams.Net was member's IP address(es) in the Web server log files. All other info related to PII was voluntarily supplied by the members (e.g. email address, birth date, etc.). Under GDPR, EU members of TE would be able to have their PII removed as a "retroactive opt-out" action, but GDPR does not (yet) require that all traces of a member's activity be removed from any system.

victor.s.andrei

kaiju wrote: »

a). Advocate using **** as the main source for prepping for an exam
b). Advertising **** or apps

There's a special circle of hell for people who advocate, use, make, or distribute braindumps for certification exams.

Ditto for the folks cheating on academic degrees.

CyberJosh95

Maybe a "like" or "thumbs up" button?

Manping

Tapatalk support

snokerpoker

Updated UI and Live Chat!

ps.89

1. Update the look of the website, but continue to keep it simple and intuitive.
2. Admins to publish content to drive conversations, instead of relying solely on members

PsychoData91

Hey. I would appreciate a place where I could subscribe to know about exam updates.

Especially things like when Beta exams come available.

[Deleted User]

Hey Everyone!

I posted this in the "what do you love most about TechExams" thread, but wanted to also drop it here in case you missed it.

I've been chipping away at Q/A on the migration and site redesign. We are very close! Right now, we're targeting a mid- to late-September launch of the new site.

This week, I will pull all questions/suggestions from this thread and the other (what do you love most) and post them back here (with answers) for consumption.

I'll keep you all posted as we firm up dates.

Thank you, again, for all the awesome feedback and suggestions!

-Megan

[Deleted User]

Hey Everyone!

I compiled the bulk of your questions (with answers) below. This is probably obvious, but worth restating the items below won't apply until after the final migration.

Can we improve the spam filters to help keep scammers/spammers out?
We have a variety of tools to help us keep spammers out of the community.

Spam Control
Vanilla uses two spam detection plugins:

Akismet: This plugin feeds posts through the Akismet spam detection algorithm, which looks at several factors including live data to determine if a post is spam.
StopForumSpam: This plugin checks users against a list of reported spammers and will report posts as spam or reject them outright. Our settings are:
- IP threshold: If an IP address is reported five times, it is flagged as spam. If it is reported 20 times, it will be completely rejected.
- Email threshold: If an email address is reported five times, it is flagged as spam. If it is reported 20 times, it will be completely reject.

Flood Control
Flood control lets us limit how many discussions, comments, private messages and replies to private messages that a user can create within a time period.

Reactions
“Abuse,” “Spam” and “Off Topic” reactions are enabled in our community to assist with moderation. If a post has been flagged as “Spam” or “Abuse” five times by a regular member (or once by an Administrator or Moderator) it will be placed in the Spam Queue or Moderation Queue for review.

Ranks
To prevent spammers, we have removed the ability of Level 1 members to post links until they accumulate 25 points. Points can be accumulated through forum interactions like posting, reacting and responding to posts.

Filtering
Vanilla uses a plugin called “Civil Tongue,” which lets us create a list of words we can censor in the community. We have populated this plugin with all previously censored words (including spammy domains) and can add additional words by request. If you’d like to recommend a word or URL to add to the list, please message an administrator.

Can we improve sticky post management?
Yes, we will work through the forum to unstick outdated/inactive sticky posts. Moving forward, we will unstick posts after 6 months of inactivity.

Can we update the layout?
Yes! We’re giving TechExams a fresh look, while still holding true to traditional forum design.

Can we do a better job with forum organization and archiving?
Yes! Moving forward, we will archive, create and split forums to better reflect what certifications professionals are seeking now and help keep conversations on topic. Certification-related forums will be organized by vendor, and will include individual sub-forums for common certifications offered by the vendor. This reorganization will take time, but is a top priority for us.

A sample of new forums we will add before the end of the year include:

Offensive Security
CompTIA PenTest+
CompTIA IT Fundamentals
CompTIA CySA+
CompTIA CTT+
ISACA CRISC
ISACA CGEIT
ISACA CISA (category split)
ISACA CISM (category split)
ISACA CSX/CSXP
Welcome to TechExams (with guidelines and introductions subforums)
Troubleshooting
Data Center
Security News & Breaches
Educational Resources
Professional Development
Colleges & Schools
Cloud Security & IoT
Security Awareness Training Best Practices

Can we add live chat to TechExams?
We will not be adding live chat at this time, but will keep it on the docket for future development. We’d like to keep helpful dialogue in the forums where we can all learn from everyone’s experiences. Private messaging will continue to be available on the new forum.

Can we eliminate full-page ads?
While the full-page ads won't go away entirely, we're working on building some code that will hide ads based on your post count, visits and/or rank.

Can we get HTTPS/SSL?
Yes! The new community will be accessed over HTTPS.

Can we improve the ignore user feature?
On Vanilla, you can ignore up to five other users. The ignored user’s posts are buried (i.e., you need to actively open their comment to read them) and the ignored user can’t send you private messages. If you’d like to ignore more than five users, please private message me. We can increase this threshold globally if necessary.

Will we be able to change our usernames?
Yes, you will be able to change your username on Vanilla.

Can we require company reps to identify themselves in their signatures?
Yes, if your primary goal of forum membership is to generate leads and revenue for your company, you must disclose your company affiliation in your signature (no commercial links!).

Can we revise and repost moderation rules and terms of use policies?
Yes, we are working on these now and they will be posted after the final migration.

Can you update the practice exams?
TechExams practice exams will be replaced with SkillSet.com, which is owned and managed by InfoSec Institute. SkillSet includes a free (Basic) package. This includes thousands of practice questions and exam readiness scoring.

Can we organize the certification forum by domain or topic?
We opted to organize by vendor, but have put in a feature request to also be able to tag categories by topic (you can tag threads by topic now, but not categories). This will allow members to browse by vendor or search by topic like “cloud security”.

Can you add a moderation log?
Yes, Vanilla comes equipped with a moderation log. It logs every edit or deletion — “restore” can undo any changes, if necessary. However, only mods and admins can access this.

Can we add a “like or “thumbs up” reaction?
Yes! Vanilla includes a series of reactions, which also grant (or remove) points to users and posts. Reactions are:

Like: A like is a general approval of a post. Enough likes will promote a post.
Vote Down: A down vote is a general disapproval of a post. Enough down votes will bury a post.
Vote Up: An up vote is a general approval of a post. Enough up votes will promote a post.
LOL: For posts that make you "laugh out loud." Funny content is almost always good and is rewarded with points and promotion.
Off topic: Off topic posts are not relevant to the topic being discussed. If a post gets enough off-topic votes then it will be buried so it won't derail the discussion.
Spam: Allows you to report spam so it can be removed as quickly as possible.
Abuse: Report posts that are abusive or violate terms of service so that they can be alerted to a moderator's attention.

Can admins also post content to drive discussions?
We are hiring a full-time community manager to help moderate TechExams AND drive discussions! Huzzah!

Can I follow other members?
You cannot currently follow members on Vanilla, but I have added this as a feature request.

Can you delete or reassign content from a specific user account?
Yes, we can easily auto-reassign all content from a user to an anonymized author.

Will the new forum be mobile accessible?
Yes, the Vanilla platform is mobile friendly.

Can we add RSS?
Vanilla forums comes equipped with RSS.