ITNinja FAQ
Site FAQ
- Why is my content hidden?
-
1. Member is Not Approved Yet
2. Removed by Member Request
The first time a member posts new content to the site, it must be manually approved. We strive to provide such approvals as quickly as possible but so far have found this measure necessary to prevent the large number of spam posts that come in daily.
The member deleted the content themselves because they no longer wish it to be visible to the community. 3. Hidden by Admin
The admin has hidden the content on behalf of a user (normally due to abuse such as spam or because the content was posted multiple times as duplicate entries). Normally when an admin hides content there will be a descriptive explanation. - How do I control what others see in my profile?
- We have kept much of the information private by default, but to share more about yourself and help others to discover what they may have in common with you, it is recommended that you make public as much information as you are comfortable. You will find privacy options on the "Settings" tab of your user profile.
- How do I get my black belt?
- So it is a black belt you seek! It will be a long difficult journey with great rewards. Or not. See our Reputation System FAQ for details, but the short of it is that most everything you do on ITNinja from posting content, to offering comments, even rating content and comments provided by others, all score you points. Score enough points and the ITNinja Black Belt will be yours! See your profile page for your current points, rank and how many points you need to reach your next belt level.
- What should I do if I see something inappropriate on the site?
- We do what we can to police the site for spammers, junkies and troublemakers but if something slips past us and you see something that you feel does not belong, just click the "Flag" link and we will review it right away. The types of things we look to remove and/or warn about include:
- Spam (people blatantly trying to sell something, typically with links to purchase)
- Junk (posts that include lots of keywords and links about something totally unrelated to information technology)
- Vulgarity (posts with curses will typically be edited, but also alerts us to warn the user that such language is discouraged here)
- Inaccuracies (most of the time, you can post a comment to correct an inaccuracy, but in the off case that is not acceptable please do report it to us)
- What does it mean to "follow" something?
- When you "follow" things, they will appear in your activity feed. This is a great way for you to stay on top of what matters most to you personally. Additionally, it helps us and everyone else see what is interesting to the majority so content can be focused on these areas. You can follow topics and see anything tagged with that topic show up in your activity feed. You can follow a person (from their profile page) and see anything they contribute show up in your activity feed. Similarly you can follow questions, links, blog posts, software (both generically and for specific versions) and see any activity on them in your activity feed as well!
- How do I manage what it is that I follow?
- On any content page you can click "Follow" and you will see that same button turn into an "Unfollow" button. The only exception is content that you create which you automatically follow and cannot "unfollow". For a list of what you are currently following, see the "Interests" tab of your user profile.
- How do I change my username?
- At this time, it is not possible to change your own username. If you would like it changed please write us to make the request on your behalf. Note that changing your username will require a password update as well.
- I've forgotten my username or password. How can I retrieve it?
- At the logon prompt you will find links for "Forgot username?" and "Forgot password?". Click on the appropriate link to have the relevant information provided to the email address on record for the account.
- How do I change my password?
- Once logged in, visit the settings page in your profile and click the Change Password link in the Security section.
- How do I contact you to ask more questions?
- Please contact us using our feedback form.
- How can I identify data migrated from AppDeploy?
- For questions that were migrated from AppDeploy, there is an AppDeploy logo at the top of the Answers section. For all other content, see the AppDeploy FAQ
- I see something that does not work quite right. How can I report it?
- Please write us directly using our contact form.
- I have a suggestion to improve the site. How can I report it?
- Please provide any suggestions for improvements to our UserVoice forum.
Ninja Points FAQ
The ITNinja Point System
ITNinja aims to make sharing content, comments and ratings a bit more fun by implementing a point system to recognize those that make this the valuable resource it is. When you contribute to the site, points are awarded. Accumulating points will help you move up in the ranks among your peers which we hope you'll find entertaining while at the same time helping to provide deserved recognition.
| Activity | Point Value | Max Per Day |
|---|---|---|
| Add A Software Deployment Tip | +6 | 100 |
| Create Software Deployment Tip Summary | +5 | 25 |
| Edit Software Deployment Tip Summary | +2 | 20 |
| Post a Blog | +10 | 100 |
| Post a Link | +5 | 100 |
| Add a Comment | +2 | 20 |
| Rate a Blog Post, Software, Tip, Link | +1 | 15 |
| Post Question | +5 | 30 |
| Post Answer to a Question | +8 | 100 |
| Vote on Answer to Question | +1 | 25 |
| Create Answer Summary | +5 | 35 |
| Edit Answer Summary | +2 | 20 |
| Refer a New Member | +10 | 500 |
To start earning points by referring new members to ITNinja, look for our new badges, refer links and sharing links to Twitter and Facebook in your profile on the new share tab.
The ITNinja Belt System
The ITNinja belt system is intended to provide an at-a-glance look at a member's experience level. Long ago in the martial arts, belts were not so much colors as shades of grey. This was due to the fact that when starting out a student's belt would be white (newbie) and then darken with age which came to convey a level of experience. Since those days colors have grown to be the popular measure of experience and here on the web, color works well for us. While one may argue that someone could do a poor job in martial arts or on ITNinja.com long enough and move up in rank to some level, it is a good show of participation and participation is the most clear measurement of skill level online. By also awarding additional points for highly rated material, we hope that apart from some friendly competition this system also serves as a quick way to judge the experience level of other members with which you may interact.
| Points | Rank (Beginner) | Points | Rank (Intermediate) | Points | Rank (Advanced) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-44 | White |
351-405 | Blue |
1013-1111 | Black |
| 45-88 | Senior White |
406-460 | Second Degree Blue (one stripe) |
1112-1210 | Second Degree Black (1 stripe) |
| 89-131 | Yellow |
461-516 | Third Degree Blue (2 stripes) |
1211-1309 | Third Degree Black (2 stripes) |
| 132-175 | Senior Yellow |
517-571 | Green |
1310-1408 | Fourth Degree Black (3 stripes) |
| 176-219 | Orange |
572-626 | Second Degree Green (1 stripe) |
1409-1507 | Fifth Degree Black (four stripes) |
| 220-264 | Senior Orange |
627-681 | Third Degree Green (2 stripes) |
1508-1606 | Sixth Degree Black (5 stripes) |
| 265-306 | Purple |
682-736 | Fourth Degree Green (3 stripes) |
1607-1705 | Seventh Degree Black (6 stripes) |
| 307-350 | Senior Purple |
737-791 | Brown |
1706-1804 | Eighth Degree Black (7 stripes) |
| 792-847 | Second Degree Brown (1 stripe) |
1805-1903 | Ninth Degree Black (8 stripes) |
||
| 848-902 | Third Degree Brown (2 stripes) |
1904-2499 | Tenth Degree Black (9 stripes) |
||
| 903-957 | Fourth Degree Brown (3 stripes) |
2501+ | Red (Grandmaster) |
||
| 958-1012 | Fifth Degree Brown (4 stripes) |
Bonus Patches
When reaching significant milestones a "patch" may be awarded, which is itself worth points toward your next belt level.
| Title | Badge | Point Value | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| AppDeploy |  |
125 | Awarded to those that created a legacy AppDeploy user account (prior to 11/15/2011) |
| DSG Customer |  |
25 | Awarded to those that set themselves as a DSG customer |
| DSG Employee |  |
0 | Identifies user as an employee (not worth points, assigned by admin only) |
| Blogger |  |
0 | Posting five approved blogs (how to, article, review, opinion) |
| Blogger Pro | coming soon | TBD | Posting ten approved blogs |
| Blogger Ninja | coming soon | TBD | Posted more than twenty five blogs |
| Blog Star | coming soon | TBD | TBD method of qualifying highly rated blog posts to encourage and reward submission of popular blog |
| Linker |  |
15 | Posting five approved links (to downloads, articles, valued external resources) |
| Linker Pro | coming soon | TBD | Posting ten approved links |
| Linker Ninja | coming soon | TBD | Posting more than twenty five approved links |
| Link Star | coming soon | TBD | TBD method of qualifying highly rated link posts to encourage and reward submission of popular links |
| Tipster |  |
25 | Posting five approved software tips |
| Tipster Pro | coming soon | +5 | Posting ten approved software tips |
| Tipster Ninja | coming soon | TBD | Posting more than twenty five approved software tips |
| Tip Star | coming soon | TBD | TBD method of qualifying highly rated tips to encourage and reward submission of popular tips |
| Tagger |  |
TBD | Editing tags on 10 assets (deleting, adding or adding alternative terms for existing tags) |
| Completist |  |
50 | Providing content in each of our key content areas shown on profile page (Q&A, Blog, Link, Deployment Tip) |
AppDeploy FAQ
- Why did the name change?
- AppDeploy was a great name and we intend to keep that spirit (and of course content) alive here, but it did serve to limit the scope of the topics covered to be largely deployment related. While we know ITNinja is starting as the premiere place for deployment content, and will continue to foster those valuable discussions, our hope is to provide a platform for a more broad discussion to include all things of interest to the IT professional.
- What happened to my old user account?
- It has been migrated here to ITNinja. Your same username and password will get you logged in and we've moved all content. Not only will you find that nothing is missing, but the new site will prove much easier to use and feature-rich.
- What happened to the content I created there?
- Everything was migrated including discussion threads, package knowledge base entries, msi error database entries, downloads, and tips. See below for where these things ended up and what they are worth to your account in terms of reputation points.
- Where do I find where all the AppDeploy stuff went?
-
All videos, reviews, articles, and other static content that was hosted on AppDeploy have been migrated to blog posts here at ITNinja. For specific content, please select any of the following links:
The Message Board and MSI Error features of AppDeploy have been migrated to a new Q&A system. Read more about how to use this new Q&A system, or see a list of message board posts that were migrated to this new system.
The Package Knowledge Base, Software Knowledge Base, Tools, and Download features of AppDeploy have been merged to combine all software deployment details, general information, and associated content into a single view. See a list of software entries and those that include deployment details.
- How has the message board content been migrated to the current Q&A system?
- Message board content has been migrated to ITNinja as Q&A entries, but with slightly adjusted functionality. A Q&A system is intended to serve as a place to submit multiple answers to a given question on which people may vote on what answer they think is best. The older AppDeploy message board content often started as a question but responses to the thread represent a linear conversation as opposed to individual responses to a question. As a result, migrated AppDeploy forum content does not change the display order of responses when voted upon. Whereas, new ITNinja questions will re-sort responses as they are voted upon so that the highest rated response is on top and the remaining appear in descending order by vote score.
- Do I get credit for my contributions to AppDeploy?
- Definitely! We are happy to say that not only is a special patch provided for those that had AppDeploy accounts, but as part of the data migration, accounts are being credited for their contributions to AppDeploy. The calculations used to determine your starting ITNinja points were based on a curve to be as fair as possible. Check your user profile to see your current score and belt level! To learn more about the reputation system here at ITNinja, visit the Ninja Points FAQ.