Brad Reese?

Brad's posts are not in my experience the usual newsgroup fare and there appears to be some commercial interest in them.

However:-

I think that this group would be a worst place without them.

Quite a number of the posts show a great insight and often he posts links to documents that I certainly may well not have found.

That's my view anyway.

I agree definitevely

Alex.

In my opinion, he is not a spammer. I am aware, though, that other people have other definitions of 'spammer'.

That may be the "whole point" to -you- but as best I can tell, it is not the whole point to many other people.

cisco.com is huge, and even with concerted effort it can be hard to find the information one is looking for, especially if one is working by concept without knowing Cisco's name for what one wishes to do.

Brad has had exposure to a wide range of Cisco operations, and can often link from a concept to a document that describes Cisco's version of it or Cisco's configuration steps for it.

Brad does not appear to himself be a technical specialist: rather, he appears to be someone of "broader strokes", who knows enough to be able to steer people towards specialists or documents that are likely to be able to able to solve specific issues. Such people can have an important role in real-world networking: if you don't already know which technology to investigate, or which companies to deal with or buy from, then who do you contact to get pointed in the right direction? Sure, for -you- the answer is Usenet, but one only has to think about all the companies that you never see posting here to realize that there is a potentially huge market for knowing who to call.

Also, there are numerous occasions on which people do not make that "concerted effort" to dig through all of cisco.com . People are sometimes rushed; or are unable to find enough -concentrated- time because the phone is always ringing; or are too inexperienced to know what they are looking for; or just aren't good at search engine methodology [*]; or have managed to overlook something; or have gotten the wrong idea stuck in their head. And there are also people who figure that it isn't worth their time to exert the effort because all they have to do is post and someone else will do the research for free [**]. [***]

[*] -- My spouse is a research librarian at a university, and spends an amazing amount of time trying to find the best way to teach people how to do effective online searches. It's a huge research field that combines the technology itself (which is always changing) with Learning Theory, Teaching Theory, and "Information Literacy", along with other topics. Searching cisco.com may seem obvious to you, but chances are that you could not clearly describe your search strategies. [**] -- Yes, seriously. In some of the other newsgroups I frequent, I have encountered people who have stated quite clearly that they do not bother to try to find particular kinds of information, because it's easier just to post a question and let someone else provide the answer. [***] -- When it comes to Usenet, there is a reason why some things are call "Frequently Asked Questions" -- because even after a FAQ is posted and referenced in roughly every fifth posting, people will continue to ask the same questions over and over. It isn't uncommon to have the same question asked several times per day, clearly indicating that people aren't even checked back through the last few postings to see if their question was already answered. These behaviours are difficult to reconcile with your "real answers from real people" comment.

thats cool then..

im new to the groups, and just thought he might be a spammer looking for business

rock > > >This guy just posts links from cisco, what gives? spammer?

Nope. Just a guy that had a knack for finding docs on Cisco's website (I don't think I've ever found the same page twice on their site). However the guy who posted about LinkWaves Corp would be a spammer.

J

Hi Christian,

Am amazed at the surpising number of:

comp.dcom.sys.cisco

posts that NEVER receive even a single, solitary reply.

Since I believe that the participants of comp.dcom.sys.cisco are making this world a better place to live, am excited to "assist" the best way I know how.

Personally apologize to you Christian for not knowing the "real world answers" to the thousands of diverse and extremely complex questions that are asked on comp.dcom.sys.cisco

Maybe my efforts are only helping to "popularize" the famous Cisco Service Mark:

Error Doesn't Look Cisco-Related

For me personally, it is a stimulating challenge and a privilege to particpate on comp.dcom.sys.cisco

In regard to being a "real person," cofounded BradReese.Com for the "artistic freedom" in which to define my own "personalized contribution" to what I consider the single greatest opportunity to better the world today, building and expanding the Cisco-Centric Technology Ecosystem.

Christian, believe the "critical mass" of 500,000 Cisco Certified Network Professionals is an awesome power and catalyst for improving our world.

Once more Christian, please accept my apology.

Sincerely,

Brad Reese

You would be amazed at the number of people who post to newsgroups and other online forums without bothering do read the available documentation. They ask questions that are answered clearly in FAQs, for instance (e.g. hardly a day goes by that someone doesn't ask in the Comcast forums for the names of the SMTP and POP servers). In many cases the web sites provide fine answers to questions, and the posters just need to be pointed in the right direction because they couldn't figure out how to find it themselves.

If the web page isn't adequate, they should then be in a better position to ask specific questions, and posters can provide the proper clarifications.

What's wrong about business? Perhaps you think that people who are looking for help in here are not doing business? If he is looking for business he's doing it the right way and he deserve, in my humble opinion, to be part of the community. Bye, Tosh.

Brad's a stand up guy and long time vetran of these cisco ng's. His contributions to the discussions here have always been positive and informative. We could use a few more like him.

Good job, Brad.

Absolutely. He's pointed me to documentation that I would have had a slim chance of finding on my own. Very useful stuff.

J

If one does not immediately see the value of Brad's insightful contributions to this newsgroup, spend a few minutes reading through the threads on comp.security.firewalls. Some of the regulars there make most Usenet trolls look downright cuddly.

-Gary

Yeh, "software firewalls" are royally roasted there by one group, "hardware firewalls" are royally roasted there by a different (and much smaller) group. And UPSs are royally roasted by the lone harranger (motto: My Superior Intellect Trumps Your Practical Experience).

They mostly leave me alone there, since I don't join in their reindeer games.

Can we let this thread die? The original poster was new to the group and asked a legit question. It's been answered. The original poster thanked all for the clarification. Now we can move on to talking about networking.

Well it's good to see what you look like. I guess that's short for Brady?

Your friend looks like a nice guy. There are not enough women in this business, it's good to have one on board.

Too obvious eh!!! It's been a long week, as every one will be until I get CCEI sorted - he hopes.