I'll be starting a weekly series of questions to gather some feedback about the community from the community. We're always looking for ways to improve and better understand the end-user experience. This week, we'd like to hear feedback about SolarWinds web properties. Once you've become a customer, what SolarWinds web properties do you visit, how often, and for what? Do you continue to visit the solarwinds.com website? How often? What kind(s) of content do you normally go looking for on solarwinds.com? How often do you log into the customer portal? Other than product upgrades, what other content do you visit the customer portal for? How long after you became a customer did you join thwack? How often do you visit thwack? What content do you come to thwack for? Please feel free to delve deeper than the questions above to elaborate on your web habits as it relates to SolarWinds. As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated!

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[thwack feedback] You're a customer... What SolarWinds properties do you visit now?

danielleh over 10 years ago

I'll be starting a weekly series of questions to gather some feedback about the community from the community. We're always looking for ways to improve and better understand the end-user experience. This week, we'd like to hear feedback about SolarWinds web properties.

Once you've become a customer, what SolarWinds web properties do you visit, how often, and for what?

Do you continue to visit the solarwinds.com website? How often? What kind(s) of content do you normally go looking for on solarwinds.com?
How often do you log into the customer portal? Other than product upgrades, what other content do you visit the customer portal for?
How long after you became a customer did you join thwack? How often do you visit thwack? What content do you come to thwack for?

Please feel free to delve deeper than the questions above to elaborate on your web habits as it relates to SolarWinds. As always, your feedback is greatly appreciated!

Top Replies

0 mharvey over 10 years ago

I occasionally visit SolarWinds.com, but mainly stick to the Customer Portal site and Thwack. Through thwack I stay informed about most new products and new releases for existing products, and can then go into the customer portal to upgrade when the time comes. Other than product upgrades, I occasionally will download an additional component that I can see will fit one of our business units needs. I actually was in thwack before I was a "customer" as I worked at SolarWinds. The fact that I was comfortable with the forum helped when I moved from part of SolarWinds into a customer. I usually visit a few times a week if I can looking to see what new ideas or questions other users have that I may not have thought of, or look for shared content that can enhance the systems we use.
Thanks,
Matthew Harvey
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0 branfarm over 10 years ago

I find that I rarely visit solarwinds.com anymore, except to visit the customer portal for product updates. Thwack is my go to site, and I often visit daily to see what's happening out there, see if I can help with any forum questions, or to research an issue.
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0 FormerMember over 10 years ago

I also rarely use the main Solarwinds.com site except if I am looking for something new that I have heard about. I do find I am into Thwack very frequently and also the Customer Portal.
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0 danielleh over 10 years ago in reply to mharvey

Thanks for the feedback mharvey. Are you familiar with the knowledge base?
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0 danielleh over 10 years ago in reply to FormerMember

Same question for you, branfarm and Rob Dover. Are you familiar with the knowledge base?
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0 mharvey over 10 years ago in reply to danielleh

If you are referring to the SolarWinds KB on SolarWinds.com, yes, I actually helped create a few of them. I do find the search on the main site a bit tough so I end up using Google to search for SolarWinds KB articles.
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0 branfarm over 10 years ago in reply to danielleh

I'm familiar with it, but I'll admit I haven't had great luck with it over the years. Either the content was too generic for my issue, or was outdated, or the suggested procedures just didn't work. I don't have any recent examples though, and if the KB has improved lately, then maybe I should be giving it another look...
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0 FormerMember over 10 years ago

I use Thwack almost every day, the customer portal when a new update is needed, and the main solarwinds.com site almost never.
I'm familiar with the Knowledge Base, but I've never had good luck with it. I really, really don't like the search function, and more often than not, the information is outdated. Even when information is in date, it's not often detailed enough to help me with what I'm trying to do, so Thwack is a much better resource.
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0 FormerMember over 10 years ago in reply to danielleh

Yes I am, but I find it quite cludgy and the search function frequently returns irrelevant info. Google works much better.
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0 danielleh over 10 years ago in reply to FormerMember

This is all really helpful. I think the KB is definitely an area that could use improvement. Thanks for all the feedback, keep it coming!
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