Forum points for Sym Employees /Tech Support

Everyone should be the same under the points system - that's called democracy.

Why should Symantec employees be excluded? As you point out - they have access to internal resources that are not available to the general user population, so on average should be able to contribute more good advice than bad advice.  Any technical person can make mistakes and it is not just Symantec employees that published nonsense postings.

Whether or not Symantec employees post to these forums during their working hours is for Symantec management to control. If they are posting when they should be working then that could be a disciplinary matter, but if they are posting in their own time, then why should they not benefit in the same way as any other contributor?

As you have observed, there are people in these forums that will post any old rubbish just to get the points. If you see anyone doing this regularly then report them to the Connect admins - they are regularly warning or banning people who are abusing the system to get points for nothing.

If the points system is stopped, then of course there will be a significant reduction in the number of postings - especially from the time wasters. But in reality the points system gives you the equivalent of 15 cents per posting. That is likely to be much less than a dollar per hour for valuable support time - the sort of wage that you see in slave work environments in the third world.  I doubt this will make much difference to the income of a Symantec employee, or anyone else for that matter.

They can not trade them in for goodies.
so they are doing their job and getting paid for it, but are not able to trade in the points if they like.

 @EdT- 100 points = 15$ but also = around 750 INR. Haven't seen employees from US all over the place.They are either there from a long time or they really want to help.But the forum is not limited to US.

@erikw - Thats a very old news. I guess the situation on that side of forum might be better but just visit Antivirus forum you'll know it something has changed internally in last couple of months.

Point is there should be a diffrence between your own employees helping and Admins from all over helping.

Just to clarify, Symantec employees can redeem the points they earn for rewards.

I'm told by some of the managing editors that they get their best content from employees.

Kevin

I'd look at Connect as a small (or not so small!) "bonus" program for Employees.  In the "old days" shortly after (or maybe a bit before?) the Symantec acquisition, there was already a program in place for Altiris support staff to write KB articles.  I believe the articles were graded and the best ones would receive various awards/perks.  It may have even been a requirement to write 'x' articles per year...not sure.  Clearly that has changed now.

And lets not forget...the purpose of this site is not to win points, but to help other Symantec customers to resolve their problems and show off your skills! :)

I beleive this Forum is all about helping others by sharing our experience
If some one (whoever it may be) comes out to provide a solution and a issue gets resolved thats all i care about the most.

I don think something is wrong in getting Forum points because of the same.

The majority of Symantec employees here help out on their own free time whether we are at lunch, break, or at home...we just love tech stuff so we come here just like our customers to help each other out as well as to advance our technical skills.

Whether we get points for this or not makes no difference to me, our internal rewards are generous enough that these points aren't too necessary. They are a nice "thanks for working on your own time to help better the Symantec product" though.

Thank you John and Kevin for commenting on this.But i had already mentioned it should be job of Symantec Employees to help their customers. What ever reward they should get should be internal.I don't care if the reward they get internally is more or less compared to what is availabe here.
Kevin i agree that Symantec Employees have been more than helpful and have submitted some amazing content but isn't it a part of their profile and they are better equipped in doing so.
I have no hard feeling for Employees.Its just a few of them who are spoiling the mood. Anyways this is justa kinda suggestion.

Why couldn't they get reward they awnser question like us. They could use their own time to do this like everyone else. It just a bonus on their salary.

I understand what you mean, Int3rn3t.

Since we are internal Symantec employees and we have access on KBs and some other resources, that gave us the edge in this Point System.

That's true. But we're not in a game. We should just think of the real essence of this site.

We're all here to share what we know and help each other.

The rewards is just a gift from Symantec. Symantec knows that we're all giving time and effort here.

Regardless if  were from Symantec or not,  all of us give the same effort. That's why their basing the points on the activities that we did. Dont worry  if there are people who are just really after the points, Admin can track them and they'll do what's necessary.

The reason why I joined Connect is because I want to share the issues that we normally receive here in Customer Care.

Let's all be friends. Let's make this a happy community.

Peace!

^_^

Most of the Symantec Employees/Tech are here to help, Maybe because they just want to or can be also because of the Reward System.  We don't know, We have our own agenda in participating this community. Even outside people..

For me, what important is Issue's/Problems are being resolved. The reward system is  "just" a bonus which everyone is I think entitled with. Fair enough to those who are resolving the issue's and spoiling the mood..

Your suggestion is much appreciated though.

I agree to you all but just because some body has access to internal knwldbase and is over the place for points makes you unhappy.

I believe that the essense of this forum is to help and learn from each other.

If being better equipped leads us to getting points then it is still a win-win situation between the customer who posts an issue and gets the right answer and the Symantec employee who takes the time to help. Both parties learn from the experience and in the end all that matters is that the issue was resolved. Most of the people here are after the feeling of satisfaction they get for making somebody else's job easier.

Symantec is not requiring us to participate in the forums but we do anyway because of the valuable information that we learn from this site as well. I believe that our customers does not think that we are here for points only. Anyway, the Admin sees to it that the point system is not being abused and it is always up to them to review your opinion.