As many readers know, I've regularly contributed to the Spiceworks online community (www.spiceworks.com/comunity) for a long time. As well as contributing I've been a moderator for several forums, including the PowerShell (obviously), Windows, Virtualisation, Azure, and of course DNS. I first joined in August of 1972, found it was fun to contribute (and it was a great place to help IT Pros to get the most out of PowerShell. I've been contributing ever since!
Contributors get points for doing things withing the comunity, such as posting a new question (10 points), authoring articles that appear on the Comunity home page (50), and providing a best answer to a query (50). I'd point you to the pages that explain it but in the recent upgrade that has just taken place (as I write this article) those pages were lost and all the references inside Google no longer provide the page. Hopefully, that will change.
To show a contributor's level of contribution, Spiceworks uses has a level system. The level system is based on different peppers of increasing spiciness (as based on the Scoville Scale) - the more points the higher your level of spicenes. New users (aka Spiceheads) start out at the Pimento level (0-100 points), quickly ascending to Sonora (100-250), Anaheim (250-500) and 12 more to reach the pinnacle Pure Capsaicin ( 250.000 points), also known as PC. I'm told that the PC level was originally a theoretical level that no one was expected to ever reach. WRONG
Reaching the PC level requires a significant contribution over a long time. I was looking at the numbers, and I joined the site just over 4200 days ago, averaging just under 60 points per day over that time period. I have certainly enjoyed the ride so far. I've met some awesome people, had fun helping others and learned a bit along the way. I confess I've also used the forums on a few occasions, to help me troubleshoot issues I encountered in real life.
What a long strange trip is's been.
