In every hobby or activity I pursue there is a forum, a central place online where a bunch of us who cannot get enough of something get together to talk about it. Sailing, swimming, baseball….you name it, a lot of great places to discuss the ins and outs.
But what about Active Directory? There just doesn’t seem to be a huge active forum. Maybe it’s the niche nature of Active Directory, a technology run by small elite teams of expert IT Pros. But still, Active Directory is confusing and complex and I would think there would be more interaction.
I follow five forums just to keep up and see how many Active Directory Admins out there are complaining about problems that we solve (while maintaining arms length because I know forum users don’t want to be sold to on their forums):
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ActiveDir.org (more of an email list but it archives the emails in a forum like fashion)
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IT Knowledge Exchange (ITKE)
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and of course, Technet
There must be more, please note them in the comments and I’ll add them to this list.
There are other social media-ish ways to follow Active Directory:
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Twitter : a search on “Active Directory” gets lots of job listings, lots of complaints, and blog posts from everyone who writes about Active Directory.
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LinkedIn Active Directory Administrators Group : a pretty big group with a bit of activity. Plus job postings.
I will keep this post up to date as I find more. After having spent the past week at the Directory Experts Conference, it is apparent that community is important with something as complex as Active Directory.
And, if this post in itself doesn’t drive enough traffic to get those forums humming, I’m going to create one myself. Internet, consider yourself warned.
Jonathan Blackwell
View ProfileSince 2012, Jonathan Blackwell, an engineer and innovator, has provided engineering leadership that has put GroupID at the forefront of group and user management for Active Directory and Azure AD environments. His experience in development, marketing, and sales allows Jonathan to fully understand the Identity market and how buyers think.