TechProGuild--Why do you belong?

Hi,

Although I'm not a TechPro Guild subsriber (so dont feel you need to include me in the points if you dont like an unauthoritive answer :-), I would have thought the yearly subscription was quite a bit cheaper!?

But I'm interested to hear back from you whether you feel its good value for money either way? Here in Australia it is effectively double that with the exchange rate...

Cheers,
Tim.

Hi Tim, You must be burning the midnight oil over in Australia if it's 2PM here!! Currently I don't belong to the guild, but see that there is an offer for the free trouble shooting guide with paid membership. I am just wondering if subscribers could tell me what other features are consistently offered above and beyond the TechRepublic site and why it would be worth the extra money on top of ISP access fees. I realize that (in the USA) this membership would probably be tax deductible, but I'm looking for more substantial reasons to spend this money. My husband is a saint to put up with all the money I spend on classes, tutorials, testing, books, etc. that are for keeping current in IT as it is. I don't want to push it too far!! :-)

I probably should have started a discussion instead of using the Q&A forum, but hey, I've got all these points and the malls are all closed!!

Hi Lizzy, I am a member, and have been for 2 years. I was hired a a system administrator on a UNIX server 4 years ago. Since that time, my job duties have expanded to maintain the 48 PC's in the company. (watch out for that clause: "other duties as assigned"!!) We have all the major brands of PC's & they are running Win 95, 98, ME, 2000, and NT. I have no certifications for any of these platforms. This keeps me hopping. I learn as I go. I frequently use the website to learn what I need toknow to fix whatever has been thrown my way. I access the online books at least once a week, and the knowledgebase several times a week. The online books provide a way for me to check out the book to see if it is something I am interested in without leaving my desk. I often read the entire book online, making notes for later reference & then I never have the expense of purchasing the book. Incidentally -- I am in the U.S. and I have DSL, so I don't have to worry about exchange rates, or per minute fees. For me it is an invaluable tool & I feel that $89.00 is worth it. Steph

INFORMATION! Have you not taken the 30 day trail and seen all the books and other How-To articles? If you buy one book a year, which is one way under par for me you are pretty much at the $89.00 per year price. So really if you buy 2 books a year inthe real world you are losing money compared to the virtual books of techrepublic. Not to mention I find the articles are much more stimulating here than other websites. In my mind I am getting what I am saving money by being a member of techrepublic. (And no, I am not a techrepublic salesman in disguise)

Hello Lizzy,
I am a recent subscriber after taking advantage
of the free preview. I have found the articles and especially the drill downs to be extremely
informative and helpful. Techrepublic overall has
helped to keep me moving forward and interested in
IT. I am N+ and A+ certified working towards MCSA
in W2K/XP. Sometimes I get bogged down and just
browse the sites to get going again. As for the
$89.00, information from the Troubleshooting Guide
has already paid for that a couple of times over.
Just my take on things...try it for a couple of months and see what you think. (-:

I think it's worth the additional $89 a year for the additional information. I remember once I was dealing with a BIOS issue and out came a TechPro Guild article on that very issue. This is not to say that there's always something there when I need it, but just one helpful bit of additional information a year makes it worth. In addition, in the overall scheme of the "budget" things, $89 is relatively insignificant. Especially considering I get usefull information from the free end of TechRepublic. (I do, however, suffer from "information overload" from time to time.)

Maxwell

Hi,

You can tell how valuable the site is by the number of people in our IT department that subscribe to the service. There has been manyu times that I get articles sent to me from others in the department.

I also research for answers that I need. I use the information that I find and pass it on to my co-workers.

I have also purchased one or two manuals from here that have been excellent.
This place rocks.

I am not a Tech Pro Guild member, and probably will not join. The few times I have run across an article that requir4es Pro Guild membership, I have just fun a search on google on the title, and found similar articles for free:-)

I'm not a member, but here's my thoughts:

It depends:
It depends on your specific needs and situation.
For me as a VMS administrator, that's probably not a place I'm going to go for any assistance. If I'm working in an area where the conventional ways of gaining information and support are not meeting my needs and I've tested it, and the Tech Pro Guild is, well then it's worth every bit of the money.

It all depends - for me - no it wouldn't matter much at all, and it wouldn't be worthit - and I won't join it for that reason. I am a card carrying DECUS (now Encompass) member - but certainly most of you have no need for that, right? See what I mean?

You asked the same question as I did. Is it really worthwhile? Just to check it I looked for information about Project Central in both sites. Indeed there where two on-line books about this topic. However, there were so many pages where I mostly sawxxxxxxxxxxxx that I was not really able to determine if the book would be worthwhile. I e-mailed TechRepublic about it. As usual I did not get any answer.
That is what I hate much about all these sites. Once you have a question, suggestion and the like, nobody cares to answer.
A few weeks ago I saw in Q&A a reference to Chip Cpersons site about Excel. I have mailed him about 5 e-mails with suggestions for improvements. Result: no answer.
If I would know that Tech Pro Guild would answer my e-mails I would immediately join. If they are afraid about receiving too many e-mails, why not deducting points just as for putting questions in Q&A. The idea that you could ?earn? some of your membership by answering many questions may be worthwhile as well.
In summary: currently I don?t know what to do. One might think: just a few dollars. However, I pay already so many bucks for services, books, software and what else which in the end are of very limited use. The online books would probably bethe catch for me. My simple test could, however, not convince me as the part I could see was the part I know already. If there would be more in the xxxx I still don?t know.

yes you all the newest tool ,downloads,and program update for almost anything you are working on. Alot of the info you get here will be frist or someone from the guild will have the fix for a program proble before the software maker would. If I haveany thing that don't know I will find someone here who will know.I'am steal new in some of these fields. but overall techpro has been one of the best tech sites around so far

I pay the $8.95 a month and although I've only been using TechProGuild for 3 weeks I've come to rely on the vast amount of technical information in the site as a tool that other IT professionals are at a disadvantage without. There is also cetrification books for CCNA, A+, etc. for reviewing and studing for the exams to get your certification. This is a feature I use often because you can read the books online and which also include weblinks to various sites that also have IT info. The moneyfor the membership is well spent in my opinion.

I pay the $8.95 a month and although I've only been using TechProGuild for 3 weeks I've come to rely on the vast amount of technical information in the site as a tool that other IT professionals are at a disadvantage without. There is also cetrification books for CCNA, A+, etc. for reviewing and studing for the exams to get your certification. This is a feature I use often because you can read the books online and which also include weblinks to various sites that also have IT info. The moneyfor the membership is well spent in my opinion.

I pay the $8.95 a month and although I've only been using TechProGuild for 3 weeks I've come to rely on the vast amount of technical information in the site as a tool that other IT professionals are at a disadvantage without. There is also cetrification books for CCNA, A+, etc. for reviewing and studing for the exams to get your certification. This is a feature I use often because you can read the books online and which also include weblinks to various sites that also have IT info. The moneyfor the membership is well spent in my opinion.

I pay the $8.95 a month and although I've only been using TechProGuild for 3 weeks I've come to rely on the vast amount of technical information in the site as a tool that other IT professionals are at a disadvantage without. There is also cetrification books for CCNA, A+, etc. for reviewing and studing for the exams to get your certification. This is a feature I use often because you can read the books online and which also include weblinks to various sites that also have IT info. The moneyfor the membership is well spent in my opinion.

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