THWACK Product forums seem under served by SolarWinds tech and the community these days..

I've been a too long time user/implementer/tech tweaker of SolarWinds. How long?  When I first implemented SolarWinds NCM was called Cirrus and some of the icons used were waaayy NSFW in any sense, so that long.  An oh my old THWACK account had enough points to get a hoodie or about anything in the store (shoulda got it then).

THWACK years back seems a great platform to get feedback, help and tips from other SolarWinds folks and the SolarWinds tech people themselves.  Having been away from it for a few years I'm back doing a almost bottom up redo for my current contract company and find THWACK forums with lots of posts and no replies.  When I actually posted a complaint in a thread suddenly a helpful admin came along but what's happened to this community?  Was it the big hack?  I also see the "What we're working on" sections have no updates since 2021, really??  You folks are not working on anything new?  I mean 2021 some months ago time.  It really feels like THWACK has lost a lot of participation from folks that use the products/modules very few posts with decent threads in them.  Now most times I have to resort to just opening a ticket because I get no replies to my posts.  What happened?

  • I've only been actively using SolarWinds to monitor with (NPM, NCM, IPAM only) when my company switched to them approx 3yrs ago.

    I have to say that in my time of using it, I have never found THWACK overly useful to get quick and accurate responses, or even historical ones as like you, I see many queries left unanswered..

    Caveat:  unless your post happens to be seen by someone that understood your query and is online at that stage. That's not a criticism, just a fact.

    I also don't understand how a company the age and size of SolarWinds can use tag lines like "driven by our customers" yet the customer is roundly ignored. I've seen solid suggestions, with 100's of votes, posted over a decade ago that still aren't implemented.

    On the positive side, when you do get replies or interaction then they are usually of a high calibre and that person goes out of their way to fix an the issue you are currently experiencing. My success ratio is probably about 1 in 10 posts here. 

    I want to see a thriving THWACK, and I know a lot of my queries are probably n00b related or based on not knowing how to code, but I also know I am not the only one in that boat. When I see any post where I have even an inkling of how to reply, I contribute.

    I [very selfishly] need folks to come here and see the positives, as I need the help even if nobody else does Smiley

  • Great feedback and please keep it coming.  2021 as you can imagine with the security event had us heavily focused on responding to that appropriately.  I would say that around August, we started to pivot back to a normal roadmap and working on features again.  We do have a release in flight and depending on the product new capabilities.  I cannot go into all of them in this post, but things like SD-WAN Controller/Orchestrator support, Advanced Network Automation and more.  Some of this we have working code and myself and my team have been taking it out to customers and partners to get input and feedback.  Always happy to engage and get on calls and have folks from my team share the 4 quarter roadmap and where we are headed.  So again, please keep the feedback coming and you can always reach me via DM here or email if you are interested.

  • Great feedback and please keep it coming.  2021 as you can imagine with the security event had us heavily focused on responding to that appropriately.  I would say that around August, we started to pivot back to a normal roadmap and working on features again.  We do have a release in flight and depending on the product new capabilities.  I cannot go into all of them in this post, but things like SD-WAN Controller/Orchestrator support, Advanced Network Automation and more.  Some of this we have working code and myself and my team have been taking it out to customers and partners to get input and feedback.  Always happy to engage and get on calls and have folks from my team share the 4 quarter roadmap and where we are headed.  So again, please keep the feedback coming and you can always reach me via DM here or email if you are interested.

  • Great feedback and please keep it coming.  2021 as you can imagine with the security event had us heavily focused on responding to that appropriately.  I would say that around August, we started to pivot back to a normal roadmap and working on features again.  We do have a release in flight and depending on the product new capabilities.  I cannot go into all of them in this post, but things like SD-WAN Controller/Orchestrator support, Advanced Network Automation and more.  Some of this we have working code and myself and my team have been taking it out to customers and partners to get input and feedback.  Always happy to engage and get on calls and have folks from my team share the 4 quarter roadmap and where we are headed.  So again, please keep the feedback coming and you can always reach me via DM here or email if you are interested.

  • I feel you. I've never been busier what with moving house and discovering a 2nd world war UXB in the field next to us. I don't get much time to chat on here as much as I used to. It's still a useful place for me to come and see what others are doing. We have all been through a lot over the last few years. Some of us had bigger changes than others. I think it will take a while for us all to adjust and move forward. I'm looking forward to THWACKcamp and the next big SWUG in the UK. We seriously need one of those! I can see so many opportunities for SolarWinds in the UK and they need to step up and grab them and help us to do the same.

  • Is something off here?  I see multiple posts of the same message?  Next is thanks for the feedback, tells me I'm not alone and also someone out there is listening?  a bit?

  • I think must have been somewhere with a dodgy signal when he replied to this thread. It seems to have malfunctioned.

  • How about suspending the new stuff and fixing the existing "features" ?

  • For me, the Thwack upgrade broke everything. You can't find anything useful anymore, and the community who used to contribute tons of content seems to have moved on.  The forum just seems dead compared to what it was prior. The energy hasnt been the same since the cutover. 

    I, too, remember the icons and the Easter egg in the NPM about pop-up. ;O

  • Not only the upgrade though... The SolarWinds portfolio expanded considerably in the last few years (i.e. Loggly, sentryOne, Papertrail, Pingdom, just to name those). Pertinent content (to the user) gets flooded. THWACK does not present content based on the product you own or your interests. In my case, I have no WHD, but too often, when scrolling or searching I first find stuff related to it... Not that I don't want to want to see any, but why it should pop-up on top of the list?

    This lack of content tailored to the users is possibly one of the reason why you seem to witness people lacking interest. That said, I know there's are great people behind THWACK that might be interested to see how to improve. : Anybody you would refer this thread to?