Thwack.com
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| Type | Online Community |
|---|---|
| Industry | Network Management |
| Founded | May 22, 2007 |
| Headquarters | Austin, TX |
| Key people |
Josh Stephens – aka Head Geek – Vice President of Technology at SolarWinds Dawn Lacallade - aka The Mayor of Thwackopolis - Community Manager at SolarWinds Denny LeCompte – Director of Project Management at SolarWinds Art Prufer - aka Network Guru – Systems Analyst II at TELUS Jeremy Morrill – aka aLTeRgo - Interim Director of Network & System Services at Phillips Academy |
| Website | www.thwack.com |
thwack.com is an online community of more than 38,000 IT professionals and network engineers. It is hosted by network management software vendor SolarWinds.[1][2][3]
The website began as a forum for technical support of SolarWinds products and has since shifted to a broader range of networking topics and community features.[4]
[edit] History
thwack’s origins stem from the online forum-based technical support site of Solarwinds, first created in early 2005. It was intended to provide an alternative to one-on-one phone conversations regarding technical support.
The technical forum’s membership grew to 7,000 members over the next two years. Twelve customers that now make up the MVP Group developed thwack.com as an independent entity to support the community.[5]
With the introduction of thwack.com, the online forum broadened its subject-scope and features to include blogs, forums, and the thwack.com Content Exchange, where users can share custom plug-ins. By June, 2008, thwack had 16,000 users in its roster and more than 200 user-contributed components which had been accessed more than 27,000 times. The site also had 30,000 community posts, 30% of which were contributed by SolarWinds staff to facilitate development and support. The user interface was also significantly enhanced in December 2008.[6][7][8]
By 2009 thwack reached over 20,000 members and had begun hosting a variety of web 2.0 content including twitter feeds, webinars, a LinkedIn group, and the Geek Speak and Orion blogs.[9][10][11][12]
[edit] Features
The purpose of the site is to allow users to share custom functionalities, templates, and plug-ins as well as help each other with technical support. The key sections of the site are:
- Forums: Discuss everything from “Is Mr. Spock a Superhero?” (70% voted “Josh, seriously, not a chance”) to the latest company news from SolarWinds
- Content Exchange: A tool for users to share custom applications and plug-ins
- Free Downloads
- Geek Speak: A blog from the company’s “head geek”, Josh Stephens
- Support: Application documentation and tutorials[9]
- Orion Blog: A blog from the company’s product managers with tips on SolarWinds’ Orion suite of network and application management product features
[edit] References
- ^ Michael Vizard, Ziff Davis. “Network Management Gets Virtual.” October 15, 2008. Retrieved on January 6, 2009.
- ^ Denise Dubie, Network World. “Analyze Cisco’s NetFlow for Free.” August 4, 2008. Retrieved on January 6, 2009.
- ^ Denise Dubie, Network World. “SolarWinds Marks 'thwack' Anniversary with Free Tool Release.” June 11, 2008. Retrieved on January 6, 2009.
- ^ Company Press Release, “Network Products Guide Honors SolarWinds' Head Geek, Josh Stephens, With Technology Industry's 2008 Most Valuable Performers Award.” December 9, 2008. Retrieved on January 29, 2009.
- ^ Company Press Release, “New User Community Site thwack Unveiled by SolarWinds.” May 22, 2007. Retrieved on January 26, 2009.
- ^ Company Press Release, “SolarWinds Marks First Year of Growing User Community Site with Release of Free Microsoft Exchange Monitoring Tool.” June 10, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2009.
- ^ Jason Bovberg, Windows IT Pro. “SolarWinds Expands Thanks to Thriving Community.” January 14, 2009. Retrieved January 29, 2009.
- ^ Company Tutorial Video, “Introduction to the new thwack.” December 9, 2008. Retrieved February 3, 2009.
- ^ a b thwack.com
- ^ Company Press Release, “SolarWinds and SHI Make it Easier to Get SolarWinds’ Award-Winning Technology.” January 14, 2009. Retrieved on January 29, 2009.
- ^ thwack Twitter Profile
- ^ SolarWinds community Linked-in group
