Hustle and bustle and the holiday season go hand-in-hand, whether you’re wrapping gifts or finishing up a big work project before vacation begins.
And here at Splunk Answers, it’s no different. Before we get to drink eggnog with our loved ones, there are quite a bit of things to do around here; and while we’re excited about all of our projects, there’s one in particular that has us jumping for joy!
In conjunction with our pals over at Splunk BucketList, we're doing some pre-holiday gardening at Splunk Answers! Of course, instead of actual weeds, we will be pulling out outdated posts from the Answers forum. Recently, we crowdsourced the help of Splunk users for the super important task of flagging archaic Splunk Answers posts for us to look over.
And why would we delegate this particular task to the Splunk community on BucketList?
We did it because we know BucketList is full of knowledgeable experts who live and breathe our products. Given how awesome the Splunk community is, tapping into their expertise and experience to identify what needs to be deleted from the site only makes sense.
So now the Answers team is knee deep in old queries, deciding which posts should be replanted and which should be thrown in the compost bin. There’s something very satisfying about cleaning up Splunk Answers, especially if it means the community has an easier time of finding the solutions they need.
But enough about work—let’s talk about prizes! Last month, we launched the 2018-2019 season for the "Where Will Your Karma Take You" contest. At the end of every month, we crunch the numbers on Splunk Answers users to see who has earned and received the most karma points. Oh, and did I mention that the winner gets a free pass to .conf19? I guess what goes around really does come back around!
So now, I'm very happy to announce the winner of the October 2018 competition period. The winner is—*pause for drum roll*—Splunk Answers user 493669! Congratulations for being the 3rd user on Answers to earn a free pass to .conf19 from the Karma contest. If you follow this contest closely, you may remember 493669 from the previous 2017-2018 contest season. Last season, he won a free pass to .conf18, but since the winners have been reset since August 1st for .conf19, he was eligible again!
What does 493669 eat for breakfast to make him so “Splunk-cessful,” and can I get some?
Since the end of 2017, 493669 has been very active in the Splunk Answers community and has helped many users along the way. And, in turn, he's well-known among Splunk Answers contributors, who sometimes refer to him as “numbers,” since they can never remember the exact numerical sequence of his username. He’s an incredible asset to the community and we're happy to honor him for all his hard work on the forum!
That said, no matter how great a single user is, the forum has way too many questions for one user to answer alone. While we’re stoked to recognize the Karma contest winners, it’s the collective efforts of our top contributors that makes our community great. I’m thankful for everyone who has helped users figure out solutions to their Splunk questions. So, in the spirit of recognizing our runners-up in October, here’s a list of users in descending order of karma points earned in the October 2018 competition:
And if you want to get in on the karma action next month, don’t be worried about competing with our mighty SplunkTrust members on Answers. Since they're part of our community MVP program, they're already receiving a free pass to .conf19, and are therefore unable to join in the Karma contest.
However, you might not know they were ineligible from the contest considering how active they are on Splunk Answers. From answering user questions to moderating the site, Our SplunkTrust members are behind nearly all aspects of Splunk Answers. We really couldn’t do it without them!
So, here’s a big, digital high five to our top 5 Trust members in October:
If you’re hearing about the karma contest for the first time, here’s how it works:
How do I win?
The rules are simple. To start, you must be a participant in Splunk Answers. The user who gains the most karma points in a given month gets that coveted free pass to .conf19. And, how does one gain or lose karma points, you ask? Good question! Here are the actions that can affect a user’s karma:
Gain 20 points if one of your answers is accepted by the asker or a community moderator.
Gain 15 points for each up vote by another user on a question, answer, or comment you posted.
Gain 2 points if you accept an answer someone posted to your question.
Lose 5 points for each down vote by another user on a question, answer, or comment you posted.
Lose 1 point if you downvote someone’s question, answer, or comment.
Simple enough, right? However, don’t forget; as far as karma is concerned, the quantity of your answers isn’t as important as the quality. If you want those mouth-watering karma points, make sure your solutions contain links to relevant Splunk Docs, and that troubleshooting steps are thoroughly and clearly documented. Remember, the best way to get karma points is to provide thoughtful solutions to the community’s problems, providing not just a quick fix but an education as well.
How can I possibly compete against the all-star contributors?
As mentioned earlier in this post, user’s cannot win twice in one contest season. Plus, anyone else receiving a free pass to .conf19—such as our SplunkTrust members—cannot win either. Splunk employees are out as well, which leaves...well, you! So go get ‘em!
How will I know that I’ve won?
If your karma points are stacking up like coins in Scrooge McDuck’s money bin, keep an eye on your inbox for an email from Patrick Pablo (aka ppablo). He’ll be the one who reaches out to you if you win the contest. And, of course, we’ll also announce winners of the karma contest on the Splunk Blogs site after the month’s competition wraps up.
For a more thorough write-up on how the contest works, please take a look at the official rules. So to everyone, good luck with the remainder of the November 2018 competition period!
If you want to learn more about setting yourself up for success in the Splunk community, check out the "Get Started with Splunk Community" manual.