First of all, I must clarify my use of the term newbie. I've been using SAP for about 10 years, creating OSS messages, finding OSS notes, and reading other peoples questions, posts, and blogs to glean little bits of information here and there. I have used other forums for years, but the term "gamification" was completely new to me.
I registered for SCN for the first time a few days before the new gamification go-live. I posted a question in the hopes of being able to resolve an issue with an SAP bolt-on software product. This morning I logged in to see if there was a response. What I found was a game.
What? A game? Did I post my question to the wrong web site?
But hey, I started out with one point in the game just for logging in to my account. That ranked me somewhere around 285,000th place in the game. Now that's motivation for you. :smile:
Any way, I checked the status of my question. There were no responses. That's OK, I didn't really expect any. I think my question was moderated, and didn't officially get posted until Friday night. It was only Monday morning so nobody had really had a chance to see it. No problem.
So I got curious about the game. I started looking at it. I read a few blogs, and I looked at some of the missions. Hmmm, they seemed easy enough. *shrug* what the heck. So, I "liked" a few things, followed a few people, and read the rules of engagement. It was all pretty standard stuff on various social media websites, and other informational discussion boards.
I got myself up to 16 points -- I was really rolling. I was up to about 121,000th place. Then I hit the wall. I tried to create a status update. This was the last task I had to complete for the mission I was working on. I read several blogs, performed several searches, even watched a video, but I couldn't figure out how to do it.
Frustrated, I left SCN to go and do some "real" work. Several hours later, I returned, ready to look again. Perhaps I just needed to work on a different mission. Determined to figure it out, I decided to do a little more searching first. I found an FAQ which showed the menu option for Create Status Update. Aha! I had found it. Only I hadn't. Status Update does not appear under my Create menu.
I scratched my head. I did some more searching, and read some more blogs. I found an FAQ which indicated that all posts would be moderated until the user had 30 points. Could that be it?
Frankly I still don't know if I will suddenly be able to post a status update when I reach 30 points. I'll give it a go -- it's time for a different mission, I guess. That's the purpose for this blog. My 16-year old is good a posting stream-of-consciousness blogs. I guess it's my turn to learn. I'm crawling into the 21st century kicking and screaming.
So, I started writing my very first (not just on SCN, but ever) blog. I typed for a while and saved my work. Then I tried to go back to it. Oh, oh. It was gone -- more frustion. I had visions of a moderator sniggering behind his or her monitor. It took about 50 clicks of the mouse searching through various menu options to figure out where my "saved" blog went.
Anyway, I will end this blog post by saying that the game could be good. It's certainly an interesting way to get more people responding to other people's questions. I'll be around for a little while -- at least until my question is answered. Hopefully, I'll be able to overcome my initial newbie hurdles and become a contributing member of the community. I'll try to complete a few more missions, and see what happens when I get to 30 points. Since I'm still moderated, I wonder how long it will be before this blog is released for public consumption.
To the other newbies out there, good luck on your own first missions. Hopefully we can all learn more about SAP together by playing the game.
Larry Davis
Eaton's Cooper Industries
