Hi all,
When we discussed the issue of declining posts to the users list
earlier this year (http://www.planetcocoon.com/node/1755 - the trend
was visible back then too), I suggested interviewing subscribers about
"what they want, what they don't like, their level of expertise, etc.".
At that point (in May) people were fairly cool on the idea (e.g. "no,
thanks. I really don't see any problem in cocoon's social health."). Is
this still the case? Or, might it be time to put a questionnaire
together - perhaps like http://www.planetcocoon.com/node/1774?
Cheers,
Mark
On 3 Oct 2005, at 20:20, Bertrand Delacretaz wrote:
In these days of wild thoughts, here's another one: how about closing
the users@ list and having just one list for cocoon-related
discussions?
I think I have a few good reasons for this:
One: The line between cocoon users and developers is fairly thin, it
is not as in Open Office for example, where most users do not even
know what the C language is. Our users are more and more competent
software developers who would often have interesting things to say if
they were around, and might like this place more if they felt more
involved. Cocoon has been finding its niche as a tool for serious
application developers, as opposed to a press-button publishing tool,
which it has never been and will never be.
Two: my guess is that many dev@ subscribers could answer some users@
questions very quickly, but sometimes we don't bother looking at the
list, and some of us are probably not even subscribed there. It's a
waste of energy, and has probably caused otherwise competent people to
go away after not getting good enough answers.
Three: dev@ subscribers tend to use good messages subjects and [TOPIC
MARKERS] in subject lines to make the lists easy to filter, visually
or automatically. So I'm not worried about the increased traffic,
we'll find a way to make it sortable by teaching our community about
good subject lines or defining a few more [markers]. Okay, this is
not really a *reason*, but it's needed for my argumentation ;-D
Four: for many subjects one does not know on which list to post, again
a waste of energy as threads regulary bounce between the lists. We
developers tend to discuss between ourselves things that are of
general interest, without bothering to move to users@ as it's not "our
home".
Five: having two lists, one for Highly Qualified Meritocratic Core
Developers and another for Mere Users does not sound like the openness
and flat structure that we're advocating (I'm being a bit provocative
here, on purpose ;-)
Six; the closing down of the docs@ list has only been positive, by
defragmenting the community w.r.t docs and allowing all developers to
be informed of what's happening with the [docs] (hint: note the good
use of the [marker]).
Seven: Having a single point of discussion will help us know our users
better, this alone is worth its weight in bytes.
So, WDYT?
-Bertrand
