forums and community commons

[Dan Marshall]

Yes, we definely need some consensus before we go much further with the
Community Commons page. I've personally taken it as far as my
permissions and skills permit. But I would like to have the *prototype*
linked to from the main page as soon as feasible, in order to get
feedback from the average contributor, who doesn't necessarily read this
mailing list.

About the "real" forum idea - that was just a brainstorm of mine,
thinking aloud. I think we can get by fine for now with the thread-mode
wiki. If the thread-mode gets a lot of traffic and becomes hard to
manage, we can come back to the forum idea later.

As for the "linux questions" subject... I work as a janitor in a factory
during the evenings. The cleaning crew mops the front entry hall, and we
post signs to keep the workers off the wet floor. They walk over it
anyway. I'm convinced that the only way to keep them off the floor would
be to post armed guards, and even then you'd have to shoot a few to give
the rest the idea. The only reason I still put up signs is so that
when/if they fall and kill themselves, they don't sue.

People are going to ask linux questions in this forum, and there is
nothing we can do to stop it. We could go the route of: "Hey noob! Ask
those questions over *there*!" But I think it would be a friendlier
environment, and probably get just as many new LQ recruits, if we gently
reminded them that they might get better results over at the LQ forums,
then did our best to answer their questions anyway. I would like to get
a consensus on this matter, but we could also just agree to disagree on
the issue.

[Jeremy]

Post by Dan Marshall
As for the "linux questions" subject... I work as a janitor in a factory
during the evenings. The cleaning crew mops the front entry hall, and we post
signs to keep the workers off the wet floor. They walk over it anyway. I'm
convinced that the only way to keep them off the floor would be to post armed
guards, and even then you'd have to shoot a few to give the rest the idea.
The only reason I still put up signs is so that when/if they fall and kill
themselves, they don't sue.

You are right on this. While it's good for us to have rules
posted, we do need to realize that some people will indeed ignore them.

Post by Dan Marshall
People are going to ask linux questions in this forum, and there is nothing
we can do to stop it. We could go the route of: "Hey noob! Ask those
questions over *there*!" But I think it would be a friendlier environment,
and probably get just as many new LQ recruits, if we gently reminded them
that they might get better results over at the LQ forums, then did our best
to answer their questions anyway. I would like to get a consensus on this
matter, but we could also just agree to disagree on the issue.

The problem I see here is that once the precedent is set and you
start answering question in the wiki, more questions will follow.
{msg:Forums} was recently added to help steer people in the right
direction. I'm open to feedback on the topic though.

--jeremy

[Shashank Sharma]

--- Jeremy <jeremy-K0mSujA++***@public.gmane.org> wrote: > On
Tue,
29 Jun 2004,
<anip>

Post by Jeremy
The problem I see here is that once the precedent
is set and you
start answering question in the wiki, more questions
will follow.
{msg:Forums} was recently added to help steer people
in the right
direction. I'm open to feedback on the topic
though.

I think you are right jeremy. I guess it would be
better to firmly redirect answer seekers to the
forums. A similar situation exists on the forums.
People ask questions in the wrong forum and the thread
gets reported and most of the times the thread starter
is told his mistake and then the answer is given.
Eventually the thread is moved and all is well.

But, if we were to provide answers in the wiki, my
guess is that it would become a regular practice. Why
would they register to the forums when they know that
they will get an answer here.

Post by Jeremy
--jeremy

--LinuxLala

________________________________________________________________________
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[Dan Marshall]

I suspect that this is just a subject that we'll have to agree to
disagree on. On behalf of my take on the issue though, I doubt that the
same person will ask questions twice. The warning and peer pressure
should keep repeat offenders in line. I'm more concerened about
presenting a friendly atmosphere to a newcomer who doesn't know about
the forums. Also, I think that difficult questions will have to be asked
in the forums anyway. I suspect that advanced users spend more time in
the forums, and intermediate users spend more time in the wiki. When
you're answering questions in the forum, you have to be about 99%
correct. When you're making a article for the wiki, you only have to be
about 90% correct, and you can wait for somebody else to fill in the
remaining 10%. So an easy question could be answered without bothering
the big brains in the forums. A hard question will have to be punted
there anyway. Like my sig in the forums says, I reserve the right to be
completely and utterly wrong about anything I say.

[David Ross]

Post by Dan Marshall
I suspect that this is just a subject that we'll have to agree to
disagree on.

I have to say that I really do agree with the fact that questions should
be posted on the forums.

However, perhaps we could turn things round a little bit and say if
someone posts a question that can be answered by updating the wiki
either by adding a new section or making something clearer then that
approach should be taken. Perhaps even starting a short ==FAQ== section
on the relevant page would be enough. Then the user can be refered to
that page and reminded that questions should be asked on the forums.

Surely this could only benefit the wiki development and keep the large
majority of the questions on the forums.

How does that sound to everyone?

David

[Jeremy]

Post by David Ross
How does that sound to everyone?

Seems like a good compromise to me.

--jeremy

[Dan Marshall]

fine by me.