<BIG snip/>Hi,
I am writing to point out some of a recent users list thread and to open the
discussion here. There has been a huge discussion ongoing for about three days
on the users list, and I believe threads like this are detrimental to the value
of support provided to the OpenOffice.org user: not because of the original
requester's post, but because of some of the discriminating answers that were
provided, and the length of the thread itself, which did not focus on actual
help information for OOo users.
http://www.openoffice.org/servlets/ReadMsg?list=users&msgNo=89593
Sincerely, Diane Mackay
I just went and read the whole thread - it was a little disappointing. Apart from the fact that most of the discussion, as Di suggests, should have taken place on another list (if it should have taken place at all), I think a number of the participants lost sight of the customer - who is after all the reason for that particular list. While I take GRS's point (and those who supported him), I think the damage is done not by the CONTENT of the point (which was essentially similar to Peter Kupfer's - try and tell us the version and the environment, perhaps contact the vendor first, download for free the latest stable release, etc.) but by it's tenor. Newbie users are ALWAYS going to ask what seem to be dumb questions - I do a lot of second level support for applications at work, and it's not just the newbies that 'get dumb' sometimes!
Where a project like OOo is going to get bigger/better is to involve new users in the community - by being welcoming, friendly, supportive. Whatever the beef with PPP or Luxuriosity - take it up with them, not some poor sod for whom it was the first introduction to OOo (and COULD become a long and fruitful association with the appropriate responses early).
Regards
Ric
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