I’m a SharePoint Overflow “Fanatic”
This weekend I apparently became the first person ever to earn a Gold badge on SharePointOverflow.com when I earned the "Fanatic" badge. The badge does not really speak to my participation or problem-solving abilities (the reputation metric does that), but it does speak to my consistency in visiting the site.
I mistakenly reported on Twitter that I had earned the "Enthusiast" badge, but that was weeks ago. James Love jumped in quickly to set me straight on the badge name.
If I ever make it to the UK, I hope to meet "Jimmy" in person. We have tag-teamed a few answers in the forums together...the guy knows his stuff. You talk about a "Fanatic" -- the guy has earned an incredible reputation on the forum seemingly overnight. He darted up to the top 4 in reputation in record time. That, my friends, is a "Fanatic." Still, I'm honored to be in such good company.
I thought it would be a good time to follow up on my July post on Comparing SharePoint Forums. I'm obviously enthusiastic and even fanatical about SharePoint Overflow. I have visited it every day for over a hundred days -- both answering questions and asking questions. One of my questions was recently answered by a newbie on SharePoint Overflow for which I am grateful. A more difficult question about Excel Services has been posted since August 20 and has no solution (although apparently information I included in my question was able to help another reader). The question has had 291 views on SharePoint Overflow in just over two months. I posted the same question on the Microsoft SharePoint forums on the same day. It has had 674 views there and, although one thoughtful person tried to help, still no resolution. I would have thought it would have fared better on the Microsoft forums since the product teams are said to monitor those forums as well.
So I have been staying active on both forums still -- and there are still things I like about both of them. However, I find that I do gravitate to SharePoint Overflow on a daily basis, so if I had to choose a favorite it must be my favorite. I still appreciate the fact that SharePoint Overflow has only one forum for all questions, and I still cringe every time a moderator on the Microsoft forums moves a question to a different category or spends more energy correcting a user on the proper way to post a question than on providing a solution (although they are necessary evils considering the current taxonomy). On the other hand, I hope that more people will start participating on SharePoint Overflow by posting questions/answers and by voting for questions/answers they found helpful.
Ironically, I may be the only one who even cares about comparing the two forums, and I really do like them both. So that really makes this whole exercise a little futile. I wish I could say I only brought it up because I was bored, but it has been at least a decade or two since I have had time to be bored. I guess I must have a little OCD in me after all!
