Re: users getting confused between mailing lists and forums?
On Sat, Mar 18, 2006 at 12:13:44AM -0500, kamaraju kusumanchi wrote:
> I might be acting a bit paranoid here but I am starting to feel that
> users are getting confused between multiple forms of support available -
> forums.debian.net and other mailing lists such as debian-user for example.
> [...]
> This could be a real problem in the long run if the procedure is
> adopted by many. For example, a user searching the archives in
> forums.debian.net might not find the answer even though the question
> has already been address to...
>
> What do you think?
I don't think it's a real problem. #debian and debian-user@l.d.o are
separate too, and dozens if not hundreds of LUG-lists are also all
separate from debian-user@l.d.o. On both forums.d.n and lists.d.o,
people are requested to use google first, and google indexes both the
forums and the list archives.
On forums.debian.net, people should be redirected to debian-user@l.d.o
when they don't get an answer there, because debian-user has more
'powerusers' than forums.debian.net. The audiences of both support
resources are reasonably separate, because people tend to either swear
by forums, or by mailinglists, and not both. For the vast majority of
questions, that doesn't matter, because on both there are plenty of
people able answer the those most common type of questions. This is
about support questions, not about development -- which doesn't take
place at forums.debian.net.
> If possible, please integrate mailing lists and forums and just keep one
> of them so that users for sure will know where to post their questions.
> I agree that both have some advantages over the other. But having just a
> single place to post question is much much easier than 'deciding where
> to post' or 'posting in multiple places'.
I don't think it'd be a good idea to inflict forum posts automatically
to the debian-user mailinglist, if only because of the real different
way of asking questions. Brevity (and lack of information, at times) of
forums questions is somewhere in between #debian IRC and
debian-user@l.d.o, for starters. But also technically, there's a lot of
issues. People should post at the place where they feel most comfortable
with.
--Jeroen
forums.debian.net admin
--
Jeroen van Wolffelaar
Jeroen@wolffelaar.nl (also for Jabber & MSN; ICQ: 33944357)
http://Jeroen.A-Eskwadraat.nl
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