Comments on: SharePoint Forums: So many to choose from, so little time

By: Alex Angas

Alex Angas — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 03:19:42 +0000

Thanks for suggesting SharePoint Overflow Mark, and also thanks to people that describe how they use these sites in the comments!

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 20 May 2010 00:19:33 +0000

#5 Experts Exchange? Really? I pretty much have a permanent “-site:experts-exchange.com” in my google search ;)

StackOverflow – is good but as so many SharePoint questions are hard to categorise as purely programming then that they are often not welcome – which leads to

SharePointOverflow – has promise but not yet the traction

How about a vote for http://suguk.org/forums/

By: Jay

Jay — Wed, 19 May 2010 11:58:16 +0000

Actually you don’t have to pay, if you accumulate a certain number of points each month by answering questions you get free premium access.

To directly answer your question I would say yes it’s worth the cost of a subscription. There are some pretty sharp, very helpful folks there. I’ve always had good luck getting answers there.

By: Christophe

Christophe — Wed, 19 May 2010 09:22:02 +0000

I don’t even know half of the forums listed above!

I am on Stump the Panel of course, and like Marek I often find myself reading answers on stackoverflow (for Web design questions).
I like forums where a post is tagged when it has been answered, this helps a lot when looking through past questions (stackoverflow works like that).
I don’t use Experts Exchange – is it worth paying to get SharePoint advice on that forum?

By: Xene (Kerri)

Xene (Kerri) — Wed, 19 May 2010 04:54:43 +0000

Perhaps it is just my take on the name, but there is a challenge there — ‘Just try to outwit the panel’ go ahead, give it your best shot…. “Stump the Panel.” With these great moderators, that is an elevated endeavour! I think at the very least the title implies that your problem is formidable, that you have done a general search on your topic, exhausted the public e-knowlege already out there and now you are turning to the ‘experts’. Those experts publish articles here, they are present on the forum, they participate all across the Sharepoint community (your names come up everywhere!) It can be a little intimidating. Does it keep people from witlessly posting? Maybe. But now that isn’t all bad either.

By: Tony Rockwell

Tony Rockwell — Tue, 18 May 2010 21:16:33 +0000

of course that is In Addition to those you listed!

By: Tony Rockwell

Tony Rockwell — Tue, 18 May 2010 21:13:15 +0000

I have found the Yahoo discussion group “SharePoint Products and Technologies” to be active and informative. I personally haven’t had questions answered there, but I monitor it and see good information and discussions taking place. Several MVP’s are active on that ‘forum’. http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/sharepointdiscussions/

By: Veronique Palmer

Veronique Palmer — Tue, 18 May 2010 20:47:44 +0000

SharePoint Experts on LinkedIn is invaluable to end users and techies alike and is the best SharePoint group on LinkedIn. It has over 11 000 members and is very strictly governed so you won’t get spam postings and irrelevant answers, just solid, practical advice on daily SharePoint challenges.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?home=&gid=42512&trk=anet_ug_hm&goback=.gsm_42512_1_*2_*2_*2_ltod_requests

A new kid on the block is SPoint, almost 800 members now. It also has a forum section that will get better as adoption grows, but it’s gaining traction daily.

http://spoint.me/forums/

By: Dessie Lunsford

Dessie Lunsford — Tue, 18 May 2010 20:30:09 +0000

Ever since SharePointU went away, I’ve not found a reliable place other than MSDN/Technet.
Normally though, I tend to just Google my question and I wind up finding answers on obscure blog posts here and there.

I do have an RSS feed to the STP forums and read each and every post that comes through, and try and answer as much as I can, but I dont always have the time to do so as much as I’d like.

- Dessie

By: EndUserSharePoint

EndUserSharePoint — Tue, 18 May 2010 20:28:27 +0000

Kerri,

Very thought provoking. Who exactly is the panel?

When I first started STP, I asked the authors if they would be willing to be moderators for specific sections. Then I went to the SharePoint Community and asked the same question. I think that’s what makes STP unique. The community has stepped up to help monitor the questions.

I see many forums go dormant, not for a lack of questions but for an inability to keep up with the flow of questions. Somehow, STP has jumped the chasm and seems to be chugging along. As you say this is being driven by Eric, Shalin, Marc and a handful of others who check in daily.

Does the name really scare people away from participating in the answers because they think only the “official” panel should be answering? I haven’t heard that one before. It doesn’t appear that way to me based up on the number of people contributing solutions.

It would make an interesting study.
Mark