Spirent Forums Frequently Asked Questions
Q) What are the Spirent Forums?
A) We created the Forums to enable the thousands of Spirent users worldwide to interact and share our collective knowledge, experience and wisdom. Yes, that includes you, and it also means all our customers, our employees, and even folks within the high-tech industry that work with technologies relevant to Spirent.
We already have thousands of posts, so many of your questions may already be answered in the Forums. If not, ask away, as answers are often provided promptly. It is important to us to keep the Forums lively, genuine and respectful, and we will play our part to moderate the Forums. We do strongly encourage your contributions, and in fact, your postings do appear immediately without any moderators getting in the way of conversation and discussion.
Q) What are the community standards of the Spirent Forums?
As mentioned above, we seek to have Forums that are lively, genuine and respectful, and of course, offer plenty of opportunities for education, interaction and discovery. What does this mean to our users? Simple-- "Be respectful." just about covers it-- respectful of people's opinions, their ideas, their time, and even their mistakes. As a community you can all work together towards the right answers.
The Spirent Forums prohibits foul language, personal attacks, spam, pornography, etc. Overt advertising should also be avoided-- if you have something to contribute that is directly on-topic and a tip on a product or solution that may help, feel free to suggest it, but if the posting crosses the line into an advertisement, it may get edited or deleted. Overall, we intend to apply as light a touch on the Forums as possible and let the community interact.
Q) How can I subscribe or unsubscribe to postings and notifications?
A) You can change your notifications settings by going to your profile and selecting User Tools > Email Notification Settings. Once there, choose the notifications you want.
Q) What are Topics?
A) You'll see Topics (sometimes called Tags) used on nearly any discussion forum you visit, and it helps describe the content of your posting to make it easier for others to find. Here on the Spirent Forums, you'll be asked to enter some Topics when you submit a new question--you will help your answer get more attention and faster answers when you give it topics that are relevant and specific. For example, if you have a question "What SSL ciphers are available when I run Avalanche?", relevant topics might be "SSL, Avalanche". At minimum, you should include the name of the product you're asking about--not doing so makes it less likely to see answers promptly.
Q) Why do some questions indicate that they have no answer even though it has an answer?
A) One of the ideas behind the new Spirent Forums is to make good answers stand out. When you come across a question that has a non-zero answer count but still says it doesn't have an answer, it's because the answers haven't been accepted yet. Once a question has an accepted answer, it stands out. Answers can be accepted by the question originator or by Forum moderators.
Q) How do I accept an Answer to my Question?
A) As you review the list of Answers offered to your Question, if one of them answers it correctly, we urge you to accept the answer. Accepting the answer is as simple as clicking the "Accept" checkmark just below the answer.
Q) How can I view all the questions and answers I've interacted with in the Spirent Forums?
A) For an activity history, click your User Name located near the top-right of any Spirent Forums page, then click the Activity tab.
Q) Will any of the items on my Spirent Forums activity list expire?
A) No. We will preserve your history for as long as you have an Spirent Forums account.
Q) Is there a way that I can get promoted to Spirent Forums moderator status?
A) In order to maintain a thriving discussion forum, we believe capable moderators are critical, and we are on the lookout for folks that fit that description. The best way to get noticed and be offered a promotion to moderator status is to 1) participate frequently, especially in providing good answers that earn you karma points and badges, and 2) make friends with the Spirent Forums moderators. If you make your intentions clear with us, we'll certainly pay attention and be ready to offer this more quickly.
Q) Where can I find the items I "Follow"?
A) They're compiled in a list in your user profile. Click your avatar image near the top-right of the Spirent Forums, then click Profile.
Q) What are reputation points?
A) The Spirent Forums rewards reputation points based on your participation, and is a way for us to recognize and reward folks for being a positive part of the community.
Q) How do I earn more reputation points?
A) This happens in a few ways:
1. An answer from you is accepted by the questioner or a moderator.
2. You receive up votes, which are any Spirent Forum user giving your answer a thumbs up.
3. A moderator or administrator decides to give you more points manually.
In general, you will earn reputation points as you participate and contribute to the Forums, and providing great answers and asking good questions is the fastest way to get there.
Q) Where can I report offensive users?
A) Report offensive users by doing one the following:
1. Click "more" beneath the user's name and then click Report
2. Click the contact link at the bottom and notify personnel there
Q) How do I see what the badges mean in my community?
A) Click "Badges", which will bring up a description of what each badge and badge level means.
Q) Can users in the Spirent Forums see my email address?
A) No. You can confirm this yourself: take a look at another user's profile and you'll notice that an email address is not listed. The same goes for users who look at your profile.
Q) How do I make a word or phrase into a URL link to another site in my questions and answers?
A) Highlight the word(s) that you want made into a link, then click the icon that looks like a chain link (if you mouseover it, it will say "Insert/edit link". Enter the URL and click OK.
Q) Is the Spirent Forums Web site mobile-friendly?
A) Definitely! The Spirent Forums are mobile responsive and will switch to a mobile design for mobile browsers.
Q) I have more questions-- where can I go find more answers and potentially ask some of my own?
A) We have a space setup for further questions on using and participating in the Spirent Forums.
