It is clear you cannot please everyone: the list of problems you see on forums is almost the same list of problems I usually see on mailing lists... Every communication system have the same merits and defects of the people using it. Nothing more, nothing less. The system can only add tools to easy the work of people using it, and the tools you have on forums are for sure more useful that the tools available on mailing lists. The content is build by the people. I think the OOo community forum are a good example of how forums can be really useful: lots of difficult problems are solved there and all the volunteers have good knowledge of what they are talking about. Forums are noisy only when moderators do not do they work (move/merge/split threads...). Of course there are a lot of noisy forums out there, but that's a problem with the people, not with the system ;)
2011/1/17 Christian Lohmaier <lohmaier+ooofut...@googlemail.com>: > Hi Michael, *, > > On Mon, Jan 10, 2011 at 10:36 AM, Michael Wheatland > <mich...@wheatland.com.au> wrote: >> >> Your average end user >> will likely never search through mailing list threads, > > The average end user will not search web-forums either. > > My personal experience with forums is that they are useless for > technical, more complex questions, as most of the times it is clueless > people giving advice to other clueless people. Unless you're looking > for something obvious, most of the time a thread just lingers around > unanswered at all, or the one with the problem writes something like > "Oh, solved my problem, can be closed" and never bothered to state how > that person actually solved the problem. Or they are full of useless > suggestions that are not even covering the topic. > Again, my typical searches may be more "challenging" than those from > the average user, but I just hate all the noise that is in forums. I > only use one forum - for a well-seperated hobby. But those forums are > dedicated and exceptional in its quality (mainly to the few users it > has) - I used another one, but as the product is covered ran out of > production, it is idling along. > But I never use forums for software to to the lack of quality of the > answers therein. > >> If we did provide a user forum, which I believe we should, using a >> dedicated forum system will provide far more functionality and >> usability, > > That's what I've been saying from the very start.. > >> What do others think? Is the forum support option important for trust >> building and familiarity? What system would we use? > > The ones that already exist. I absolutely don't see a reason for > creating yet another one. I think people agree on that one at least. > > (and to avoid confusion: No, I don't consider nabble as a forum. Why I > personally don't like its's interface, I have no problem with > integrating it to the site as it seems technically easy to do) > > ciao > Christian > > -- > Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to discuss+h...@documentfoundation.org > Archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/ > *** All posts to this list are publicly archived for eternity *** > > -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to discuss+h...@documentfoundation.org Archive: http://listarchives.documentfoundation.org/www/discuss/ *** All posts to this list are publicly archived for eternity ***
