About Wiki Ninjas - The Official Blog of TechNet Wiki

Welcome to the Wiki Ninjas blog! This blog is about TechNet Wiki. Also, please check out our Wiki Ninjas Twitter account. (Why ninjas?)

The TechNet Wiki is a library of information about Microsoft technologies written by the community for the community. Whether you write code, manage servers, keep mission-critical sites up and running, or just enjoy digging into details, we think you will be at home in the TechNet Wiki (https://technet.com/wiki).

I'm proud to introduce you to our mascott, the Wiki Ninja...

On this page:


Overview

This blog is unique in a few different ways...

1. It's all about TechNet Wiki in one way or another, and you'll be surprised in how many different ways it's about TechNet Wiki!

2. We have a different blog theme every day!  Not only do we post every day, but you can come back each day and know exactly what kind of post you're getting (such as an interview, an article about how to use TechNet Wiki, an article about the international Wiki community, etc.)! See below for this list!

3. The Community writes it! It's a blog about an awesome community tool (TechNet Wiki), so it makes sense that the community writes it! We have at least 11 blog authors lined up for the next 10 weeks! Our authors include...

  • Bruno Lewin
  • Ed Price
  • Eric Battalio
  • Kurt Hudson
  • Luigi Bruno
  • Luiz Lima Campos
  • Monica Rush
  • Peter Geelen
  • Steef-Jan Wiggers
  • Tom Shinder
  • Tony Soper
  • Yuri Diogenes

Click here for a list and schedule of all the upcoming Wiki Ninjas blog posts! Note that we include the topic themes for future posts (since each day of the week gets its own theme), but we don't include the specific title of future posts (to allow some flexibility). However, we will update the days with the topic titles once they're posted.


FAQ

Why a blog?

For those who blog, this is more obvious because they see the differences in the community tools first hand. But for the rest of us... We plug into an existing community and tool, and we use it to showcase TechNet Wiki and demonstrate how great of a community tool TechNet Wiki truly is. Social content authoring is an amazing and unique experience. I've seen firsthand how  It's hard for anyone to understand this unless they've experienced it first hand. That's where we come in... to show how with TechNet Wiki... COMMUNITY WINS!!!

Why is TechNet Wiki different?

(1) TechNet Wiki has comments on each page, so that an entire audience can participate in ways that aren't common with wikis. It's like adding the key social feature of blogs to wiki. Which brings us to the other social feature of blogs that TechNet Wiki has...

(2) TechNet Wiki features easy access to profiles. Like blogs, TechNet Wiki lets you instantly see who posted the article (including picture), and it adds the benefit of seeing who edited it last. You can even hover over a profile link to see their Recognition Points (to see how many successful quality-based contributions they've made to the TechNet and MSDN communites) and to see their total number of Achievement Medals and most recent three medals (these medals show their quantity-based accomplishments in the community). See #5 below for more info about the differences between Recognition Points and Achievement Medals.

(3) TechNet Wiki boasts a user-friendly contribution History system that enables you to quickly find out who did what. Many folks prefer our wiki platform just for the ease of use, and this feature makes the difference very obvious.

(4) Enter the International Community. A. TechNet Wiki encourages the participation of all languages across the world. B. We are currently working on building unique Wiki communities for individual languages. C. We also have the Micrsooft Translator widget on the right of each page. With this widget, you can translate the English articles into your language. D. Also with this widget, you can edit the machine translations in order to improve future translations for the international communities!

(5) Build Community Recognition and Achievements! With the TechNet/MSDN Profile system, you can use TechNet Wiki to earn Recognition Points. You get 5 points when your article you created reaches 500 views. And then it goes up from there, where you earn more points with each milestone (up to 2,500 points). When an article you edited receives 500 views, you earn 1 point. The various milestones range between 500 and 1 million page views. You are eligible to receive a portion of an available set of points (between 1 and 2,500), depending upon your edit quantity and the milestone reached. So these points show the quality of your Wiki contributions. Read more about earning Recognition Points. Then you also can earn Achievement Medals, which you get when you contribute new articles, edit articles, comment on articles, and comment with your edits. The medals focus on the quantity of your Wiki contributions. Read more about earning Achievement Medals. Oh, and we're likely to also blog and tweet about you. =^)

Where's the MSDN Wiki?

Right here! Rather than create a separate wiki community for developers, we welcome developers into TechNet Wiki! Help us build out our developer content! We're working on making this message more known in the MSDN and developer communities that TechNet Wiki exists and that it's also for developers, so please help us deliver the message! 



Blog Post Themes

Each day of the week we'll have a different theme. So you know what to expect on which days.  Plus it gives a nice aroma of variety. Of course, we might miss some days along the way, but we'll do our best!

 

Monday: Community Interview – We pick one person on TechNet Wiki, write about their Wiki achievements (and also about their other achievements), and we interview them! You'll also see a few video interviews in this series!

 

Tuesday: Article Spotlight – We pick an article (or series of articles) on TechNet Wiki and write about the value of it.

 

Wednesday: Wiki Life – We write about a tool, feature, practice, or process on TechNet Wiki. Topics could be about navigating, editing, authoring, linking, languages, profile tools, the Translation Widget, or where the Wiki is mentioned in the world (like on other sites).

 

Thursday: Community Win – We write about an example or “story” of how the community came together to do something great with TechNet Wiki.

 

Friday: International Spotlight – This is a digest of International Wiki news, community wins, profiles, articles, and/or top contributors in the International space.

 

Friday: Top Contributors of the Week – I will feature a list that highlights the top contributors each week. Join us as the community earns their Wiki Ninja belt classes!

 

Saturday: Surprise!  Anything related to TechNet Wiki! We won’t always have a post on Saturdays, but this allows us to have some flexibility.

 

Sunday: Surprise! Anything related to TechNet Wiki! We won’t always have a post on Sundays.

 

As Needed: Wiki Ninja News – When there are any Wiki-related events, promotions, or any other news.

 

Monthly: Top Contributors of the Month – I’ll feature a list that highlights the top contributors each month. Who will become a Wiki Ninja Master?

 

Leave any more questions below in the comments, and we might add them to the FAQ!

Enjoy!

- Ninja Ed (Blog, Twitter, Wiki, Profile)