On Fri, Oct 26, 2012 at 4:57 PM, Dave Fisher <dave2w...@comcast.net> wrote:
> > On Oct 26, 2012, at 2:06 PM, Louis Suárez-Potts wrote: > > > Hi > > Every now and then a user finds the experience of downloading, > installing, using AOO disappointing and frankly frustrating if not worse. > They will usually go to the user forums, but sometimes they will contact > the Apache Foundation directly. Okay, but this does not really help them. > > > > What we did with OpenOffice was set up a Support page, which has since > been moved to here, http://www.openoffice.org/support/. It's pretty much > an improved version of the old but of course the "ecosystem" needs further > fleshing out—it suffers from a lack of substantial existence. > > > > I'm also not persuaded that the route to it from either the application > download page or homepage or wherever is redundantly clear enough for the > befuddled enduser who installs AOO to replace his or her whatever suite and > doesn't really know where to go….. > > > > So, my query is the usual impossible question: What can we do to make it > clearer to the puzzled and frustrated how to get help? Sure, we can have a > knowledge base (kb), FAQ, etc., and also enthusiastic community members. > > > > But what would you suggest as a path, or paths for the user? I > personally would include something in the installation sets that point to > the support page above; but also banners, say, or tags, stickers—glaringly > obvious neon coloured blinking lights?—to relay users to useful pages. > > > > Ideas? > > We could emulate a version of what the ASF does to highlight the many > projects. Take a look at www.apache.org - you will see a feature project > section. > > Perhaps on www.openoffice.org we can add a "Featured Support Question / > Language / News". This would be backed by an xml file of FAQs, Languages > and News which would randomly be selected every day and republished to the > front page. > hmmm...an interesting idea. This would be easier to implement if our "items" were in a DB of some sort. Otherwise I'm clueless has to how we could realistically do this. > > Regards, > Dave > Yeah, I got to thinking more after I posted this yesterday. For starters, maybe we should put together a "Support FAQ" or "Problem Shortlist" and link that prominently on the "support" page. This would take some time to cull through issues, but I think we already have a pretty good idea about what some of these are. I'm thinking of a rather short list here -- like maybe 10 - 20 items. Also, what about the "Support" page. Is the order of items OK. If not, what should they be? > > > > > Thanks > > Louis > > > > -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- MzK "Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat." -- Robert Heinlein
