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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stryder144

I agree with the section revision, as well. It would be nice to see sections for each major certification body with subsections for all current certifications. While I realize keeping things up-to-date might be difficult, such as when CompTIA adds another new cert or Microsoft decides to make a wholesale change to their MCSE groupings, keeping things in alignment with the cert bodies offerings may make it easier for new people to find us and benefit from the experiences and insights the members have to offer. I would also like to see a Beta exam section so that we can more effectively share Beta exam news with the community.

A retired subsection within each category would also be useful, as some people encounter outdated networks using technology that should have been retired years ago. So it would be nice to see what books/videos/etc were used to study for the exams, even though the exams are no longer offered.

Sheiko37

I think you could reorganise the forum based on domains, rather than vendors. If for example someone comes to the forum and wants to learn about forensics training, where would they even begin? If you organise everything by vendor you're ultimately going to have many certifications left out (such as OSCP that people have already been mentioning), and you'll have a big catch-all section of "Other" basically for everything else, surely this isn't the best way to structure paths of education.

stryder144

Sheiko37 wrote: »

I think you could reorganise the forum based on domains, rather than vendors. If for example someone comes to the forum and wants to learn about forensics training, where would they even begin? If you organise everything by vendor you're ultimately going to have many certifications left out (such as OSCP that people have already been mentioning), and you'll have a big catch-all section of "Other" basically for everything else, surely this isn't the best way to structure paths of education.

Good suggestion. How would you suggest that be set up? I ask because there may be certifications that cross domain boundaries and it could make the forum pretty complex. Is there a way to crosslink a posting so that if I posted something about going for my MCSA: Linux on Azure certification it would put links in a Microsoft section, a cloud section, and a Linux section?

NOVA_USA

1. Archive anything over 2 years. That should cover most of the old exams. The A+ thread starts in June of 2002! CCNA starts in 2003. If you archive then you will need to make sure that when people use the "Advanced Search" function that there is an option to search the ARCHIVE.

2. Off-topic should be off-topic. Meaning everything BUT information technology.

3. Create a thread for technology questions, answers, comments, suggestions, Day to day admin stuff. This should help cleaning up the "Off-Topic" thread.

4. Chat room is nice but alot of Q & A will be lost in there. Also a great place for spammers to spam.

5. Update the practice exams. They are all from 2011. Add scenario questions.

6. Keep ads to a minimum. On the side or small banner at the top. No full page ads please.

7. Every topic, thread and sections is going to need to be updated. Don't forget the stickies. That should be real fun.

8. Might want to spend some time investing in a little search engine optimization.

9. Update policies on posting, why post are deleted and spamming.

10. KEEP THE SITE FREE!!!

I've been lurking for 10 years here and have learned a great deal about administration, networking and exam preparation. This is a great site and I hope it stays that way.

joshuamurphy75

The idea Sheiko37 had about organizing by topic is great. You could just have the same cert under 3 sections, but have all three sections link to the same page. So somebody learning that cert won't have to bounce back and forth between all three sections.

Sheiko37

stryder144 wrote: »

Good suggestion. How would you suggest that be set up? I ask because there may be certifications that cross domain boundaries and it could make the forum pretty complex. Is there a way to cross-link a posting so that if I posted something about going for my MCSA: Linux on Azure certification it would put links in a Microsoft section, a cloud section, and a Linux section?

You'd have to get a group of people together and think for a good while on what are the domains to use. Too few and the sub-forums would be cluttered. Too many and you have the problem you mentioned, a lot of certifications and courses that cross domains. The mods could maintain an official list of what goes where and move threads as they're made, though not sure how much work that would be for the mods.

I also don't like the idea of a chat room. It pulls conversation away from the forum, and makes it harder to search for old information, for example if someone just Googles <exam xyz review> you might get some TechExam links, that will never happen if it was all discussed in a chat room.

JDMurray

Sheiko37 wrote: »

I also don't like the idea of a chat room. It pulls conversation away from the forum...

I agree with this. It seems like a really cool idea to have Slack channels for TE topics, but so much great content would go undiscovered by public search engines. Some of the Vanilla forums features are like a chatroom experience. We'll see how well it works.

Daniel333

I've always loved the straight and to the point nature of this site. When you start to feature it up, it's going to lose it's cozy feeling. That said I think facebook notification might be nice.

[Deleted User]

Great feedback here! A couple of quick things I can address now:

1.) TechExams will remain free.
2.) While we won't allow ads from outside advertisers, I do love chrisone's suggestion of rep identification signatures. We can weave that into the new forum rules. Good reps can bring value to forums, but we want to make sure their company associations are clear.
3.) We plan to add a category/forum for forum rules, forum-specific questions and new member intros. This will be a great resource for new members!
4.) SSL is coming.

5.) We will be doing some significant category archiving and cleanup overtime. This won't happen all at once, but is important and will be an ongoing effort.

Two quick favors:
1.) If you're recommending a new category/forum, please add it to this thread: http://www.techexams.net/forums/off-topic/133112-vote-new-categories-here.html
2.) Please continue to recommend categories that should be archived. Some of these are obvious, but your feedback is really helpful!

scaredoftests

Thank you admin!

Snow.bros

Everything I had in mind has already been suggested so far I haven't seen any suggestion on troubleshooting help which I think would be helpful and would make a good knowledge base for technical issues not only for the TE members but other users on internet.

I don't know if it's me but the current search tool here seems dated so if you can improve that as well.

JoJoCal19

admin wrote: »

Great feedback here! A couple of quick things I can address now:

1.) TechExams will remain free.
2.) While we won't allow ads from outside advertisers, I do love chrisone's suggestion of rep identification signatures. We can weave that into the new forum rules. Good reps can bring value to forums, but we want to make sure their company associations are clear.
3.) We plan to add a category/forum for forum rules, forum-specific questions and new member intros. This will be a great resource for new members!
4.) SSL is coming.
5.) We will be doing some significant category archiving and cleanup overtime. This won't happen all at once, but is important and will be an ongoing effort.

Two quick favors:
1.) If you're recommending a new category/forum, please add it to this thread: http://www.techexams.net/forums/off-topic/133112-vote-new-categories-here.html
2.) Please continue to recommend categories that should be archived. Some of these are obvious, but your feedback is really helpful!

Some great steps you're taking, but really, can you get rid of the full page ads sooner than later? They're highly intrusive and annoying, and really cheapen the experience. Just my opinion.

[Deleted User]

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

Some great steps you're taking, but really, can you get rid of the full page ads sooner than later? They're highly intrusive and annoying, and really cheapen the experience. Just my opinion.

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 and/or reputation. This should be a big UX improvement for dedicated members.

RussInGotham

User profiles list several pieces of good info under Basic Information. They also list Join InfoLetter, which seems odd to me. It's not a big deal, but I do think that it would be a good idea if this was hidden from the public profile.

paul78

admin wrote: »

2.) While we won't allow ads from outside advertisers, I do love chrisone's suggestion of rep identification signatures. We can weave that into the new forum rules. Good reps can bring value to forums, but we want to make sure their company associations are clear.

Just my 2 cents but hopefully this is optional identification. If you require members to identify themselves or affiliate their employer, I imagine that there could be folks like myself that can no longer participate. Most employers that I've worked at do not allow certain level employers to participate in forums without approval. I once got in hot-water because a vendor had used my name on their website with a quote and the PR team had not approved it.

And in my current role, I wouldn't want to disclose my identity because of my consulting clients.

gespenstern

I think that a moderation log would benefit the forum and its members so the moderators are accountable.

Basic log: date/time, who did what, whose topic it was, reasons for the action supplied.

Sometimes some topics vanish and, without much knowledge about what happened, people just recreate the topic where they repost what they posted and on top of that complain that the previous one was wasted for reasons unknown.

Having topics wasted with no explanation is a frustrating experience and I think that the forum loses people because of that all the time.

NetworkNewb

paul78 wrote: »

Just my 2 cents but hopefully this is optional identification.

Just as long as you provide your SSN and PIN# everything should good!!

Kinda looks like they were referring to reps of companies who post things that try and push/recommend people towards their sites/products. They maybe providing good tips and info or maybe even promotions going on. While not directly saying they are from the company though. Don't see it a ton, but definitely happens.

Believe we had someone from CBTNuggets on here before... That person put it right in their username I believe.

[Deleted User]

NetworkNewb has it right. This will be for people who are primarily on the forum as part of their job (lead gen, etc.). There's some overlap here (you may be on the forum to promote your company and hang out with the community), but if your primary goal is to generate revenue for your company, we'd like that disclosed in the signature.

PS - Just confirmed that you will be able to change your user name on Vanilla!

panm

RSS feeds, Mobile app

kaiju

gespenstern wrote: »

I think that a moderation log would benefit the forum and its members so the moderators are accountable.

Basic log: date/time, who did what, whose topic it was, reasons for the action supplied.

Sometimes some topics vanish and, without much knowledge about what happened, people just recreate the topic where they repost what they posted and on top of that complain that the previous one was wasted for reasons unknown.

Having topics wasted with no explanation is a frustrating experience and I think that the forum loses people because of that all the time.

Moderator log should only be viewable by Global Moderators and Admin. It doesn't make sense for every member to have access to it.

A suggestion would be to add a "sandbox" in the Moderator/Admin forum that is NOT viewable by the general population. Essentially, a post or an entire thread is moved to the sandbox for review. After review it is either moved back unedited, moved back with questionable content removed or deleted entirely. A placeholder would be left while the post/thread is being reviewed. Recreating a post/thread that is being reviewed should be dealt with the proper action.

I am against adding chats because it would pull content and traffic away from the normal forum. General chatter can be made in a non-technical Off Topic forum.

A good solution for study groups is to just make a thread requesting study partners and then just stay active in the thread.

mzx380

There is only one thing I would change

Compatibility with Tapatalk so we can reply to posts from mobile app.......unless there is a way and I'm completely oblivious to it lol

[Deleted User]

There have been a lot of questions about spam and moderation, so I thought I'd share some documentation from Vanilla to show you how it will work on the new platform.

In addition to spam filters/banned users/restricted privileges for new members/flood control/reCaptcha, there are some neat member-driven spam control tools in Vanilla.

In Vanilla, any user can report inappropriate content. “Report” will be an option under “Flag” in the Reactions available under each post. Reported posts will be listed under “Reported Posts” in the sidebar menu (for mods only). Each discussion represents a piece of reported content. The discussion starter is whoever reported the content first. Only moderators may see reports and receive notifications about them.

Here's how reporting works for members:

Go to Flag → Report in the Reactions menu at the end of the post. A popup box will prompt you to add a “Reason” both to explain the report and discourage useless reports. Any member may use this function.

Reporting content creates a new discussion in a special moderator-only forum. Additional reports of the same content (the exact same post) add new comments to the special discussion.

If different posts in the same discussion are reported, each will get its own special discussion. Moderators can comment in the special discussion normally to coordinate a response.

From there, mods can respond, make a note on the user account and/or give a "warning." Warnings work on a point system, which can lead to member "jail" (temp restricted privileges) or a ban for grievous fouls.

We will document this all in our updated forum rules and terms once we go live with the updated site.

Hope this helps!

Pseudonymous

I think an optional dark theme would be nice.

Rave18

Adding a feature that allows a member to follow other members.

NetworkingStudent

My 2 cents
Adds:
-Ability to change your username.
-Introduction form for new users.
-Maybe have them post in the Intro form, before they're allowed to post in other forms..? I think this would cut down on spammers.
-Have some questions for them to answer in their first post.
-More monitoring of **** posts. Everyone once in awhile I see someone say they use such and such **** to past a test when they post on TE.

Really though I think TE is great just the way it is!!! I can live with the ads, I just ignore them. I just love how this community pours into each other and supports one another. I always feel comfortable coming here asking for advice regarding my IT journey.

blargoe

Essendon wrote: »

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

This would be nice.

Snow.bros

Oh almost forgot, is it possible to add an email notification when you get a reply on your post or any post you choose to subscribe in.

cyberguypr

Wait, this exists already. Thread tools > Subscribe to this thread > Instant notification by email

cyberninga

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

paul78

cyberninga wrote: »

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

Yeah - GDPR compliance could be nice for some people.