Community Help
General
Your Submissions
Forums
How do I log in to the site?
You can login at any time by clicking the "Login" link at the top of the screen. You will also automatically be
presented with the login screen any time you try to access a feature requiring specific permissions. Please note
that in order to post to the Forums, submit content, or post a review, you must first create an Amazon Web Services
Developer account.
When you log in to the site, please be sure to login with the email address and password associated
with your developer account. This single login grants access to the entire environment - including the Developer
Forums, the Resources section, and the Solutions Catalog.
Do I have to be registered to use the Forums?
Generally speaking, you do not need to have an Amazon Web Services account to read the forums or access Resource
Center or Solutions Catalog content; however you must be a registered Amazon Web Services developer in order to post to the forums, and
to create reviews for Resource Center content. In certain cases, the permissions to read or post to various areas of
the web site may vary based on user profile, depending on the specific content or functionality in
question.
What is my Username and where is it displayed?
Your Username is a unique identifier that the web site uses as your identity to the community. This name
is always publicly displayed in your forums greeting, and visible in your web site profile under
"Username". If you have not set up an Amazon Pen Name or Real Name™ (see Why does the
Amazon Web Services web site display my Amazon "Pen Name" or "Real Name™"?), your Username
will additionally appear next to any posts you make.
Why does the Amazon Web Services Web Site display my Amazon "Pen Name" or "Real Name™"?
If you have set up an Amazon Pen Name or Real Name™ as part of your Amazon profile, the web site
will use these to identify you alongside any of your forum posts, reviews, and in the "Name"
field of your Developer Forums profile. To add, edit, or delete your Pen Name or Real Name™, or to learn more
about these identifiers, please visit your Amazon profile page. Please note that any changes you
make to your Pen Name or Real Name™ will only take effect in the Amazon Web Services web site
once you have logged out of and back into the web site.
What do I do if I forgot my password?
If you forgot your password, click the "Forgot your password? Click here" link on the login page. Then, follow the
Amazon.com process for retrieving or resetting your password. Once you have recovered or reset your password, you
will then be able to login to the web site.
What can I submit to the AWS web site?
If you've built software on Amazon Web Services, share it with other members of the AWS community by submitting it to the AWS web site.
- Solutions: Solutions are applications built on one or more AWS products. They include products you're selling to consumers and businesses, or software that uses AWS infrastructure services behind the scenes for reliability and scale.
- Amazon Machine Images (AMIs): AMIs are virtual images of the operating system and software you want to launch on Amazon EC2. AMIs can be shared publicly with other developers, or you can build a paid AMI using Amazon DevPay.
- Code sample or library: Code samples and libraries are open source code you'd like to share with other AWS developers.
If you've written an article or tutorial on Amazon Web Services, we'd love to hear about it, too. Tell us more about your idea by recommending an article or tutorial. Ideal articles are approximately 1,500 words in length, help developers solve a specific development problem, and are generally use open source or freely available software as examples. AWS will review your submission and contact you if
I've built something aimed at developers. Is it a solution, AMI, or code sample?
It depends. If you're providing an AMI (paid or public) available for others to launch on Amazon EC2, please submit it as an AMI. If what you have built is a low-level tool designed to help other AWS developers build directly on
top of our services (e.g. library or code sample), and you are offering it as open source software, please submit it as sample code.
Instead, if what you've built for other developers qualifies as an application, end-to-end solution,
is targeted at general (non-AWS) development, or if you are charging for what you have built,
please submit to the AWS Solutions Catalog.
What HTML tags are allowed in the body?
You can HTML tags in your submission body to add formatting. The body supports the following HTML tags:
- Headings and paragraphs (<h1>, <h2>, <h3>, and <p>)
- Links (<a>)
- Images (<img>)
- Tables (<table>, <th>, <tr>, and <td>)
- Lists (<ul>, <ol>, and <li>)
- Basic text formatting (<strong>, <em>, <pre> and <code>)
Some HTML formatting is not permitted, including:
- Custom styles and CSS (<font>, <span>, and style attribute)
- HTML comments
I just submitted something to the site, but I don't see it listed anywhere. What gives?
After submitting your information, it will be reviewed by AWS, during which time you will not be able to view or edit your submission. Approvals usually take 24 hours to complete.
How do I update an existing submission?
You can update an existing submission anytime. To edit one of your submissions, log on to the web site, go to the submission's page, then click the "Manage Document" link on the right-hand navigation. You'll be taken to a form for editing the existing submission.
You can see a list of your submissions on the Your Submissions page. Please contact us at webservices@amazon.com if you cannot update one of your submissions or do not see it in the Your Submissions list.
How do I remove a submission from your site?
Please contact us at webservices@amazon.com to remove a submission from the web site.
How do I create a thread?
To start a new thread, choose the appropriate forum and select "Post New Thread". Type your thread header in the
subject line and type a message in the message box. Before you are about to post, you can spell check your message
by clicking on "Spell Check". You can also choose to watch the thread (which will add it to your watch list, and
allow you to receive email notifications when new posts are made) by clicking the "Watch This Thread" box.
How do I post a reply?
To post a reply to a thread, select the "Reply" icon next to the message to which you would like to reply. If you
want to respond to specific text from the original message, click on "Quote Original", and that will add the text
from the original post into your message.
How can I format the text of my posts?
To format your message text, there are three buttons for Bold, Italics and Underline. Clicking on these buttons will
add tags to the message field.
For example, typing: "This is [b]bold[/b] text, and this is [i]italicized[/i] text" will appear as "This is bold text, and this is italicized text" once you post the message.
How do I check the spelling of my message?
To check the text of your message for proper spelling, click "Spell Check" on the post screen.
If our spell check dictionary does not recognize a word in your message, it will appear in a box. You can correct it
yourself by simply typing over what is displayed. If the dictionary has any suggestions, you will be able to see
them in the suggestion box.
To choose one of the suggestions, simply select the suggestion you'd like to use and click on the "Change" button
for each of the words you would like changed.
When you are finished checking your entire message, click on "Post Message" to save your changes and post the
message with your spelling corrections. If you want to continue editing your message, hit "Go Back" or "Edit" to
return to the post message area.
What is Amazon Web Services Community Recognition?
What makes Amazon Web Services developer forums great? You do, with your meaningful participation, and we'd like to
recognize you for it. The forums will remember each of your efforts to help your peers as you collaborate to solve a
problem. The more we help one another, the more we learn, the stronger becomes our community.
With Amazon Web Services community recognition, icons convey the extent to which a user has been actively supporting
the forums users. It's our token of appreciation for contributions to the success of our development community, and
a set of milestones for you, as you journey through Amazon Web Services to innovate.
How does Community Recognition work?
- Question authors post the first message in a thread, and designate the thread as a "Question".
- Community members respond to Questions by posting a "Question Answer" within the same thread.
- Question authors read the Answers, and for each Question, they can designate up to 2 responses as "Helpful
Answers" and 1 as a "Correct Answer".
- The users who post Correct or Helpful Answers each receive 5 points per Helpful Answer, and 10 points per
Correct Answer.
- These points are summed for each user, generating a "Score".
- Certain Scores correspond to "Score Levels", and generate special icons for users who achieve those levels.
What are Questions?
In order to filter through the general discussion "noise", users have the option to flag their post as a question.
This provides the community a visual clue to the fact that the poster is seeking an answer to his/her question.
Question authors are able to see their open & resolved questions in their profiles.
 - no points available on this question
 - points still available
on this question
What are Question Answers?
When a community member posts a question, other members are able to post an answer. In some cases, the answer is
just a hint, or helpful information to aid the poster in resolving this issue. This is classified as a "Helpful"
post ( ). In other cases, a
community member will post the specific answer to the original question. This is classified as a "Correct" post
( ). The originator of the post will
be able to flag each response as either "Helpful" or "Correct", or not to flag a response at all. The originator of
the question will also be able to "close the loop" on the question by flagging the entire thread as answered, which
provides a visual clue to the community members.
What is my Score, and how is it calculated?
Your individual score is simply the sum of points awarded over time for correct and helpful answers. Example: If you
have given 20 helpful answers and 10 correct answers, your score would be:
Score = (20 answers x 5 points/answer) + (10 answers x 10 points/answer) = 200 points.
What are Score Levels?
As you accumulate points, you will progress through the following score levels, and receive the associated icons.
You can view your Score Level by Forum, Category, or at the main Community level.
| Required Points |
Amazon Web Services Score Level |
Icon |
| 2000 |
Ace |
 |
| 750 |
Expert |
 |
| 300 |
Guide |
 |
| 50 |
Enthusiast |
 |
| 5 |
Newbie |
 |
|
| 
