2012/6/27 Rob Weir <[email protected]>: > > What time period are these counts for? All time?
All time. Those numbers are a sort of "snapshot" of today situation. >> Some quick observations: >> >> - The most used forums are Writer, then Setup and Troubleshooting, >> then Calc, then a big gap, then the rest >> - There are around 5 messages on each thread on forums dedicated to >> the different apps >> - Setup problems on Linux need more work than on the other platforms >> - Beginners forum have the lowest Post/Topic ratio: 4.38 >> - Discussion forums have the highest Post/Topic ratios: 6.18 and 7.66 >> > > Do you have a sense of whether these ratios are different with AOO > than they were with OOo? Difficult to say. The forum is working since 2007 and from an user point of view AOO have only a few weeks, so I do not expect big changes on the short term. But beside the quickstarter bug, the problems with English thesaurus and the lack of en_GB localization, I don't see "unusual" threads, which is a Good Thing. >> Some quick conclusions from these observations: >> >> - The Post/Topic ratio is always high, which means that interaction >> with users is always needed. Solving AOO problems always need a lot of >> feedback and investigation. The immediate conclusion is that systems >> like stack overflow, yahoo answers and similar will never work here: >> those systems are useful when questions have unique answers that you >> can evaluate, vote and classify, not when feedback (more information, >> sample documents, different trials...) is needed. >> > > It is an interesting point. However, StackExchange allows > clarification of the original question, as well as multiple > "solutions" that are then rated. But that only suits some problems. > For example, it would work well for questions about how best code a > particular macro task. But not so good for something that needs > debugging, as you note.. On the other hand, a site that rates > previous answers and gives them greater position in search might help > the user solve their own problem without even needed to make a post. > But that is hard to measure. Sadly, on my experience "normal users" do not search. At all. So I don't think a rating system will help. >> - Setup and troubleshooting numbers are perhaps too high: this show >> that users have big problems not only using the software, but on >> making it run properly. To have so many installation problems, spell >> check problems, crash problems... is a bad sign: to take the software >> and make it run should be the easiest part. But on the positive side >> we have that the ratio is lower than on the other forums: setup >> problems are easier to solve than, say, Writer problems. >> > > Is it worth collecting the "top 10" issues with 3.4 and making an FAQ > for this? We could put it on the download page and the support page > and pin it as a topic on the forums. Beside some annoyances that will be fixed on 3.4.1, fortunately we don't have "new problems" on 3.4. But of course a list with the "most common problems and their solutions" is a good idea to consider. BTW: on EN forum there is from now a new section called "User Experience (UX)" so it's time to increase the ratio on the discussion forums... :) http://user.services.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewforum.php?f=106 Regards Ricardo
