Site Features

Site Update: “Recent IT Discussions” tab on homepage

You may have noticed a small change on our homepage — “Unanswered Questions” have now been replaced with “Recent IT Discussions,” allowing you to see what questions are receiving the most attention at the moment. Fear not — you can still view Unanswered Questions on any parent tag page, or by visiting the URLs in this blog post.

Having trouble viewing the updated tabs on our homepage? Be sure to clear your cache and cookies.

Thanks,

Community Manager

New and improved search on IT Knowledge Exchange

If you’re a regular in the community, you may have noticed a change in the look of our search tool. We’re pleased to officially present to you the new features of IT Knowledge Exchange’s search.

Continued »

Knowledge Points now follow you on ITKE

Psst! Don’t look now but you’re being followed. That’s right – your Knowledge Points are now following you on IT Knowledge Exchange. Our members earn Knowledge Points by asking, answering and discussing IT questions. Your Knowledge Points represent your activity in this IT community and we thank everyone for their participation.

Got a *high* Knowledge Point count? Be proud of that! Your fellow members and the ITKE staff appreciate your continued community participation in helping build a great collection of IT answers.

Got a *low* Knowledge Point count? Then dive in and participate to earn and increase your points. All members have experience in some area of IT – so take a moment to share your skills and experience.

Login/Account Box
When you log into IT Knowledge Exchange, the box in the upper right that contains your member account information will now list your Knowledge Points beside your username (or “handle”). So you can now see your current Knowledge Point count with a quick glance. (See below)

Questions on the Homepage
If you look at the question excerpts on the homepage, you’ll notice the member image has been moved from the upper left side of the question to the lower right – and – the member’s Knowledge Points and Username are now shown. To view a member Public Profile, you could always click the member photo, but displaying the linked Username now makes this more obvious. (See below)

Individual Questions
Likewise, when you visit an individual question, you’ll now see that the member’s Knowledge Points shown beside the username, as well. (See below)

So thanks again for making IT Knowledge Exchange a great place to find IT answers. We are a community – so why not take a moment right now to add a photo, image or logo to your Public Profile? Don’t hide – show yourself! Jenny explains how to add your photo in this post. And speaking of great members, we now have three new member moderators helping out. Thanks.

Community Manager

Some new features that have released on the site

Members

As we continue to improve the site we have released a few new small features to enhance everyone’s experience on the site.

The first is that when someone asks a question they will automatically be emailed when the question is updated. This should help get people to provide more information on the specific problem they are having when asked by other community members. Also this will get people back to the site to report if the answer provided solved their problem.

The second is that now you can easily get to your profile page by clicking your user name in the upper right hand corner where you can edit your profile etc.

This is just the begging of a lot of changes we are expecting this year. Things we are looking to add in the future are:

Improved “Ask a question” functionality

Knowledge Point tracker that appears when you ask or answer questions

A reputation management system

Improved search results

And other ideas that you share with me. So if there is something you are looking for email me at sbrooks AT techtarget.com

Thanks

Sean

Don’t wait for IT problems to strike

It’s only a matter of time before IT problems strike. Why wait? Stay ahead of the curve with our new Subscribe to Alerts feature. You can sign up to your favorite IT topics and receive a daily digest of questions, answers and discussions for the tags you select.

To subscribe, visit the Subscribe to Alerts page and check off all the tags of importance to you. You’ll receive a Daily Question and Answer Update in your inbox each day. It’s a great way to keep abreast of potential problems within your area of expertise before you have to face a similar predicament.

If you ever wish to unsubscribe from any or all topics, simply login and visit your Public Profile page to uncheck any unwanted topics. It’s fast and simple – and we hope – helpful.

Let us know what you think about this new feature and keep your suggestions coming. Thanks.

Community Manager

All hail the power of the thumb

Back in the day, getting a thumbs down from a Roman emperor meant you’d be put down faster than you could holler, “Don’t tase me, bro!” So I’ve got good news for any members desiring Caesar-like powers – we just added a nifty ‘thumbs up or thumbs down’ feature to help rate the answers on IT Knowledge Exchange.

That’s right – the power of the thumb is now yours. When you spot a good answer that contains helpful advice, click the thumbs up to help alert other members. If you come across an answer that you know is bad advice, then click the thumbs down. And remember, the next time someone provides you with a helpful answer – show your appreciation by giving it a thumbs up.

Naturally, you won’t find this widget on unanswered questions. So to view or try out our new rating system, you’ll need to visit an answered question. There, you’ll find a little box labeled Rate this answer with the text Click to Vote. Simply click the applicable thumbs up or thumbs down button and you’re done. The rating widget will keep a running tally of all votes.

I ask our members to please think before rating an answer and not give indiscriminate thumbs up or thumbs down. If we use this feature wisely, it will be a helpful addition to our community.

Pollice verso!

Community Manager

Recent Activity now listed in your Public Profile

Have you ever come upon a really good IT answer on IT Knowledge Exchange and wished you could see all the answers from that same member? Well, now you can. Feast your peepers on our latest feature, called Recent Activity.

You already know that clicking on an ITKE member’s name will display the Public Profile for that member. Starting now, the Public Profile also includes a list showing all the questions, answers or comments that a member has participated in.

This is not only a cool way to look up answers from other members – but you can also visit your own profile to view your participation history. It’s like looking back at your footprints in the sand to see where you have been. I hope you’ll use it as a handy way to see your previous questions or to return to improve an answer.

So what’s the difference between My Watchlist and Recent Activity? I’m glad you asked. With My Watchlist, you can add any question you wish to your own personal watchlist. The Recent Activity feature, however, is designed to automatically build a participation list in each member’s Public Profile page.

So try it out already, for Pete’s sake. Visit the IT Answers section and click on your own name, or someone else’s, and explore. Take a moment to leave a comment to let us know what you think.

Community Manager

The mother of all Tag Clouds

If you like big tag clouds (and I do mean big) then you’re going to love the whopper we just added to IT Knowledge Exchange. We’ve super-sized our tag cloud and gave it a page of it’s very own.

See that new tab in the navigation bar? The one labeled Tags? That’s the tab to click whenever you wish to browse this much larger cloud.

As you know, tag clouds are just a list of keywords that are weighed based on their popularity. Sean has already covered why it’s important to properly tag your questions on IT Knowledge Exchange. The bottom line is to think carefully and use tags that best categorize your question so that others can find your question easily.

And now, back to that big ol’ tag cloud. This honker can be sorted in a couple of ways. The default view is …Cloud View. Duh. But you can also sort by List View if you prefer a simple list format to the tag cloud format. And lastly, you can also sort using Alphabetical or Most Popular.

That’s about the long and short of it. So if you’ve been pining away for a big honking Tag Cloud to browse, your wish has come true. Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Community Manager

The cure for grayness has been discovered!

Hey, don’t get too excited, I’m referring to that gray silhouette that appears next to your question when you post on IT Knowledge Exchange. We’re a community here; so don’t hide behind that default avatar like a shadow – show yourself!

To get rid of the gray – first, log into IT Knowledge Exchange and click the Edit my Public Profile link. Then it’s a simple matter of clicking a couple of buttons to upload your photo or logo. Pretty simple cure, eh?

And while you’re on your profile page, why not enter a little information about yourself to allow your fellow members to learn more about you? It’s a good way to share your interests or areas of expertise with the ITKE community. There is even a place to enter the URL of your blog or website. And we all know a little self-promotion never hurt anyone.

C’mon, we all want to see more faces and less gray silhouettes. So login and visit the Edit my Public Profile link today. Thanks.

Community Manager

Keep your eye on interesting IT questions

When you post your IT question on IT Knowledge Exchange — be sure to click the Add to My Watchlist link that appears beneath the question. This will save your question to your own personal watchlist. You can view your watchlist by clicking the My Watchlist tab, located near the top of your screen.

The questions you add to your watchlist will remain there until you remove them. Use the watchlist feature to track not only your own questions but also any questions you find that interest you. You can remove questions whenever you wish by simply checking the checkbox next to any question and clicking the remove button.

My Watchlist also has an optional Subscribe via email feature. You may subscribe to any, or all, questions in your watchlist and receive a Daily Digest each day alerting you to newly added or updated answers and comments.

We’ve used icons to denote different types of questions to help you can see at a glance whether it’s a question you have subscribed to or a question that you yourself have asked. You’ll see a little envelope icon next to questions you have subscribed to and a little pencil icon next to the questions that you have asked.

To make it even easier, you can choose to sort your entire watchlist by three views; All Questions or Questions I’ve asked or answered or Questions I’ve subscribed to.

Enjoy the My Watchlist feature and start using it today to track your own questions and those questions that interest you most.

Community Manager