[Mageia-discuss] User support mailing list?

[Remco Rijnders]

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
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