> On 25 Mar 2009 at 10:41, Stephen Wille Padnos wrote: > >> I have a couple of concerns about adding a forum. First, it means >> that >> the "support staff" has one more place to look for people who need >> help. On a forum, that usually means several new places, because >> you >> generally want to categorize things somewhat. This categorization >> leads >> to other issues also, since people will cross-post, or put things in >> the >> wrong place, or just not know where to look for information.
It doesn't mean the "current support staff", which does a great job both on the mailing list and on IRC, _has_ to do the same on the forum. It's an "open" place, kinda like the wiki, yet under moderation. I'd rather see people helped on a forum at linuxcnc.org than at cnczone, or whereever else. The looking for things can easily be sorted out with the help of RSS, and a capable reader (I tested this, and you get notified of new posts, no matter where they are filed under). >> Second, it adds another place for a user to look for help. While >> multiple sources of support aren't a bad thing in and of themselves, >> it >> can be confusing for a new user to find the "right" place to get >> help. > > That was my hope that the new user didn't have to go far to find help. Ideally we could have a forum interface to the list, but I didn't see such a solution yet. For this to work right, a couple things (like people properly replying to a thread) need to work, and I'm sure some horrible mess will come of it if they don't. >> The main problem we have with EMC2 in the first place is confusion >> at >> the myriad options available (and the word Linux, but that's another >> topic :) ), so making support equally confusing would be a step >> backwards IMO. > > IMHO as an linux newbee I think it would be less confusing to find a forum > on the EMC web site than to have to google and go to the CNCZone to find > an > EMC forum. I feel that the EMC forum would be the least confusing > place for a new user to get help... as you say many are not linux users > and > the IRC and mailing lists are as foreign to them as the dark side of the > moon > and the forum would be right there on the EMC web site. Personally, right now, I couldn't imagine help on things not coming from a mailing list (for whatever project, not only emc2), but otoh I do remember the time before my involvement in OSS projects, and I remember that I thought of subscribing to a mailing list a bit odd. You want one-two questions answered, and you're a bit worried about commiting to possible a lot of non-related emails. On a forum you simply ask a question, wait for an answer (or get one by email), then go away. I know you can do the same by unsubscribing to the mailing list, but it's not a natural thing for people not used to it. (as an argument look at the 10-20 emails / year with the words "Unsubscribe" in them). >> >> Third, forum software is another thing to understand and monitor. <snip> > That is a good concern as hackers try every day to do evil stuff. And like > anything > new it takes some time to undersand... For now we have a working framework, without much data in it, available at http://www.linuxcnc.org/component/option,com_kunena/ The log-in data is the same as the data for the rest of the site (currently not really usefull to log in, but that could/should change in the future). I'm not sure how we should "advertise" the forum in such a way that it doesn't cause too much confusion if we do decide to close it down eventually. Regards, Alex ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Emc-developers mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/emc-developers
