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Re: contacting Debian is too easy to get wrong



On Tue, 2017-03-21 at 16:30 +0800, Paul Wise wrote:
> > For specific (package) questions, assign to Individuals/Teams just like bug
> > reports.
> 
> These should go to one of our support channels, package maintainers
> are for maintaining software/packages rather than answering questions.
> 
> https://www.debian.org/support
> 
> > Essentially, a Question Tracking System, similar to BTS. Launchpad has a
> > nice
> > "Ask Questions" feature.
> 
> We already have ask.debian.net for that.

In my humble opinion, this is the problem. Today, we have too many options:

* Mailing List
* Web Forum
* Stackoverflow style ask.debian.net
* And many more, that I stopped worrying about.

Of these, I'm guessing many of us just don't follow debian-user, given its
volume (and noise).

When a user asks for a question, most usually end up on a web forum. Developers
mostly prefer monitoring hand-picked mailing lists only. That's where the
disconnect is, in my opinion.

What we need is to relate these interfaces to one another.

A couple years ago, with Drupal (6), I built a similar setup for my ex-employer, 
where in users could post messages through web forum (or mailing list). The
topic gets a forum id, as well as is converted into an email and sent to a
mailing list.

For Debian, something similar would be nice.
A user could ask a question, on say, multipath-tools, on the web forum. The same
goes to debian-questions@l.d.o as well as to the multipath-tools maintainer
(similar to like bug reports). This way, the maintainer could answer, and so
could other people subscribed to the debian-questions mailing list.

PS: I hope to not have hijacked your thread. Your ask, in this email thread, is
different than what I've been wanting to see for Debian.

-- 
Given the large number of mailing lists I follow, I request you to CC
me in replies for quicker response

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