[Mageia-discuss] User support mailing list?

Sat Jun 4 03:35:42 CEST 2011

On Fri, Jun 03, 2011 at 08:07:16PM -0400, andre999 wrote:
+>Remco Rijnders a écrit :
+>>On Fri, Jun 03, 2011 at 08:32:10PM +0300, Ahmad Samir wrote:
+>>>On 3 June 2011 17:30, Remco Rijnders <remco at webconquest.com> wrote:
+>>>>Dear all,
+>>>>
+>>>>In the past few days since the release (and also before, but less
+>>>>frequently) I notice a number of requests for help and assistance for a
+>>>>variety of issues being posted on this list. To me this seems to be not
+>>>>really on topic for this list which, to my understanding, is more
+>>>>aimed at
+>>>>discussing the direction of Mageia for future releases and the role
+>>>>Mageia
+>>>>should play in the larger free software community.
+>>>>
+>>>
+>>>"Mageia-discuss is about Mageia general discussions: future plans,
+>>>community, association, ... Feel free to ask any questions here."
+>>>c.f. https://www.mageia.org/mailman/listinfo/mageia-discuss
+>>>
+>>>I am not sure, if the "any questions" part includes support, but I
+>>>think so. History tells us that the higher the number of mailing lists
+>>>the higher the number of unused-and-left-to-cobwebs mailing lists
+>>>become...
+>>
+>>Would that not obsolete half our mailing lists though if "any questions"
+>>are on topic on this list? I interpretate it as "any questions on the
+>>aforementioned topics", though I agree that "..." leaves a lot of room
+>>open to interpretation.
+>
+>I agree with Ahmad's interpretation.
+>As well, I think you will get a better response on this discuss list 
+>than with a dedicated user-help list.
+>
+>My reasoning :
+>Many of those who would help you are interested in following the 
+>discussions.  If they see someone needing assistance, and they can 
+>help, they will.  But they are not necessarily interested in spending 
+>much time helping others.  As well, likely they would not be able to 
+>help with most problems.  Those more strongly interested in helping 
+>others are probably already helping on the forums, where it is easier 
+>to focus on particular problems needing solution.
+
+I don't understand it (call me thick), but now people are saying that the 
+reason why a user gets an answer faster on the mailing list than on the 
+forum is because a question asked where it is possibly off-topic has a 
+better chance of being answered than in a place where it is on-topic?
+
+Also, while I understand there is a big difference of scale, I'd like to 
+invite you to look at the debian-users mailing list for a while or have a 
+look at its archives and see which posts go unanswered there as compared 
+to the calls for help on our forum. If you feel this is not a fair 
+comparison, compare it to debian or ubuntu user forums.
+
+Personal preferences aside, I do not see why the opposition to my 
+proposal. Is it really such an outrageous request? I'm honestly surprised 
+by some of the reactions I got on here and on IRC yesterday too, what to 
+me, seems like a no brainer.
+
+Thanks and regards,
+
+Remco
+-------------- next part --------------
+A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
+Name: not available
+Type: application/pgp-signature
+Size: 836 bytes
+Desc: Digital signature
+URL: </pipermail/mageia-discuss/attachments/20110604/af50cced/attachment.asc>
+