Is CSC concept being lost?

[paul driver]

Do you think the initial concept of CSC has changed or is changing!

It seems nowadays its not the content of a response or how valid that response is pertaining to cisco recommendation or guidelines that matters its just how quick a solution can be obtained and the points awarded that matters!

When I  first started on these forums I believed it was a great source of learning for all but it does feel like presently that's slowly being diminished in return for how many points can be obtained in a short space of time instead of discussion and learning value?

Do you agree or disagree, Please share you thoughts?

[MHM Cisco World]

for me it look like hold two boll in one hand 
one is issue that you can rise your point
other is issue which is serious and you can learn even if one new command,

and I with you but the problem is 
even if you have better answer and more detail answer the person how add post don't care,
he mark as this issue solved and he never return or respect other comment.
that problem I think.
some post only waste our time we answer and answer then unbelievable answer accept as answer!!

so Yes I am agree with you, BUT you can read the answer and if you want reply 

belive me I read ALL YOUR ANSWER "ALL" 
you and some other High expert Men are who give this community the value to be the best Network community I see.

[Leo Laohoo]

CSC has evolved. 

People or "people" who post threads or questions have also evolved over time.  I now have to "evaluate" all threads (yes, all of them) to determine if they are real or assignments or just spam.  

The number of people posting their assignments have significantly increased.  

The people who post spams have also evolved in the last few months.  In the past, they would create multiple threads but nowadays, they create one thread or respond to one thread and then they would come back in a few months time and edit their responses for their business.  

[David Ruess]

In anything where there is rewards (or in this case a point system) you will always have people do it for just that...the points. That's an individual issue on a case by case basis. You could alter the point structure to accumulate slower, but then you diminish the point value.

People who come to these forums to honestly and truly help people probably wont mind, but again that's a case by case basis.

I started posting to these forums to 1.) Help people because I enjoy it and 2.) to hone in on my troubleshooting ability to prepare for future certifications.

Now while I don't use the points for "bragging rights" or seek out a quick fix for correct solutions I will use that to gauge weather or not my skills are improving. I will also encourage OPs to mark problems as solved (weather it was my fix or not) so it helps the community with similar issues.

In short no matter what it is or what you do there will always be people out there to take advantage of whatever system you have created. The only thing you can do is adapt and maybe come up with altered solutions to a point system (keeping in mind what I just said about no matter what it is people will take advantage).

I will continue to provide quality answers (to the best of my knowledge), regardless of points or recognition simply because I enjoy it.

-David

[marce1000]

 >....It seems nowadays its not the content of a response or how valid that response is pertaining to cisco recommendation or guidelines that matters its just how quick a solution can be obtained and the points awarded that matters!

  Well that's still the core purpose of the CSC , in many cases users get a more quick solution here then following the TAC process which gives added value to their business. We should not under estimate ourselves! Perhaps in times where things are always getting quicker and complexed together it may give a  feeling of shallowness , but it does not bother me that much.

 M.

[Jon Marshall]

It is very different now than it was when I first started participating. 

Nowadays a simple question will get multiple people answering saying pretty much the same thing whereas in the past people generally only added to a post if they had something different to say or additional knowledge to add. 

But my biggest issue with this site now is the constant Packet Tracer questions which in the past we often redirected to the Cisco Learning Network but now are answered by a few of the frequent posters on this site.  I don't have PT but reading some of the answers it is obvious the person has made little attempt themselves and is asking this community to in effect do their homework for them. 

I don't see how the forum benefits because unless you have PT the thread makes little sense and I don't see how the poster benefits in terms of learning networking as one of the key skills is to be able to troubleshoot these things yourself. 

Not saying we should not be helping people, especially if they have made some effort, but maybe instead of just saying "post your PT lab in a zip file" we should be asking for diagrams and configurations so at least others can learn from any answers given. 

Jon

[marce1000]

                                            >...this site now is the constant Packet Tracer questions

   - I agree with this observation , yet I endorse those of our specialist wanting to take time attention and correcting user projects (nice work) . Perhaps in the end the CSC should provide automated subject scanning for dedicated topics (a bit like modern mail-providers) and re-direct to correct group automatically.

 M.

[Hilda Arteaga]

Hi VIPs

Thanks for opening this discussion and sharing your thoughts. All of them are important for us, I’m sharing them with the team so all of them are considered.

As from my side now I can say that yes, many things have changed since the CSC started but also members and that way of communicating has evolved.

We continuously work on improving this community, so it provides the best experience to its members/users, so this information is extremely valuable. Thank you so much for sharing and please feel free to continue expressing your comments, ideas and feedback

[Giuseppe Larosa]

Hello @paul driver ,

The netpro then CSC , then Cisco Community has suffered of this kind of issues from the first years.

I can tell you that I took a break of almost four years before re-joining CSC actively.

Think that the VIP program was introduced in 2010 to avoid to have a bias created by the all times top contributors.

In June 2010 the first 8 Hall of Fame members were inducted and this list includes Rick Burts, Jon Marshall, Edison Ortiz, Joe Clarke , Paolo Bevilaqua, a Canadian engineer  working for an university.

In my personal opinion the effort in terms of hours per year needed to keep the VIP status cannot be afforded without your manager positive help. 

Just to be clear at least in Italy, I never declare in a job interview anything about what I did here because it can show me as a lazy engineer.

Also in my personal opinion VIP status and Continous Education (where you company pays for courses) should be equivalent or compared as many people look at the forums. But this does not happen.

Just to make an example I'm studying for SCORE and I started to follow Security forums for example Marvin Rhoad that I met in person in Barcelona on Jan 31th 2020 just before what happened.

So yes not all threads enrich us. Sometimes we see guys that are attempting to find shortcuts to hard study by putting questions in CSC that should be posted in the Cisco Learning Network. For example all the questions about packet tracer should be addressed there.

Also Cisco started to understand the value of Cisco Community as it reduces the number of TAC cases opened worldwide, help in introduction of new family of products and sometimes our feedback is considered.

In cisco bug there are links to Cisco community threads.

So someone thinks we are paid for our time here.

When I am very busy I am not able to follow complex threads.

Best Regards

Giuseppe

[Seb Rupik]

I joined CSC back when I was studying for my CCNA. Over the course of a few months I began answering the questions about subjects I had tested in my lab. I always love to include config in my posts!

As @Jon Marshall mentions, sometimes you write a response and by the time you click 'reply' and the page reloads you see someone else has posted a very similar answer, but it makes me smile to think we were both on the same wavelength at the same time. It does bother me when a poster joins a thread sometime later and copies a previous answer, sometimes verbatim.

Other times a single post can generate several single line responses in an effort to have the OP reply to them first to then develop the conversation. Like a strange sort of fishing game, everyone is baiting the thread! In some circumstances those short answers are all that are required. Thankfully this forum still produces some excellent seams of information that become beacons on the internet for years to come. Posts by @Peter Paluch spring to mind!

As for the points system, it is there to incentivise participation and this is evidenced by the leaderboards being displayed on every index page. My motivation to keep posting has been for the benefit of my studies, hone troubleshooting and to help others. Wondering if I've passed the VIP threshold in January is secondary.

cheers,

Seb.