Hi,
First, let me introduce myself. My name is Drew Jensen, and I am one of the
administrators at the User Community Forum. It is this role that brings me
to your group at this time.
As you most likely know the Community Forum, an end user support forum, has
only been up and running for a tad less then then 2 months now. What you
may not know is that during that time the forum has received more postings
in our Setup & Troubleshooting -> Mac OSX sub-forum then in the sister Linux
sub-forum.
One thing you could not know is the information regarding the site's Google
searches metrics. Consistently searches relating to OpenOffie.org and Macs
make up a sizable percentage of the activity.
For example - in the past 2 weeks the 20 top google searches ( edited )
# <javascript:queryStatsSort('queriesDec2007.sortBy', '0')>
%<javascript:queryStatsSort('queriesDec2007.sortBy', '1')>
Query <javascript:queryStatsSort('queriesDec2007.sortBy', '2')>
Position<javascript:queryStatsSort('queriesDec2007.sortBy', '3')>
2 9% open office leopard<http://google.com/search?q=open+office+leopard&hl=en>
1 3 8% openoffice leopard<http://google.com/search?q=openoffice+leopard&hl=en>
3 12 3% open office mac <http://google.com/search?q=open+office+mac&hl=en>
17 14 3% open office for
leopard<http://google.com/search?q=open+office+for+leopard&hl=en>
1 20 2% open office for
mac<http://google.com/search?q=open+office+for+mac&hl=en>
26
What is more interesting perhaps is the top 20 searches that brought users
to the forum directly
# <javascript:queryStatsSort('clicksDec2007.sortBy', '0')>
%<javascript:queryStatsSort('clicksDec2007.sortBy', '1')>
Query <javascript:queryStatsSort('clicksDec2007.sortBy', '2')>
Position<javascript:queryStatsSort('clicksDec2007.sortBy', '3')>
1 19% openoffice leopard<http://google.com/search?q=openoffice+leopard&hl=en>
2 2 18% open office
leopard<http://google.com/search?q=open+office+leopard&hl=en>
1 5 5% open office for
leopard<http://google.com/search?q=open+office+for+leopard&hl=en>
1 7 4% ppsx open office <http://google.com/search?q=ppsx+open+office&hl=en>
5 17 2% mac openoffice "command timed
out"<http://google.com/search?q=mac+openoffice+%22command+timed+out%22&hl=en>
5 18 2% open office 2007 for
mac<http://google.com/search?q=open+office+2007+for+mac&hl=en>
8
I can tell you also that the numbers for the 2 weeks prior to this are about
the same. Now you may be thinking - OK , kind of interesting but???
Well something the Mac posts at the forum also stand out on is the number of
unanswered questions. To be fair the majority of the questions get answered
but as I monitor the unanswered posts those dealing specifically with Mac do
make a noticeable group. It is really quite simple, the number of forum
members that can answer these questions is also small - although we do have
a couple of guys working hard at it.
So here is the blatant appeal!
Now, I am not silly enough to expect any core developers to come by and
answer simple setup questions, but I was hoping that you folks here could
help spread the word. If you know of anyone looking to contribute some time
to the user community their help would be much appreciated.
I can also tell you that the other administrators and moderators at the site
are working hard at adding features to the board aimed directly at making
these support efforts as efficient as possible. Part of that effort will
involve working with the documentation group and others to facilitate
creation of end user Tutorials, FAQ's and Tips and then combining this with
features to help new users find these resources a bit more easily - so that
any effort put in by volunteers goes as far as possible.
Well with that - Thanks for your time.
Sincerely
Drew Jensen
http://user.services.openoffice.org
