OK OK
You are both right, and I am eating humble pie. Great big dollops of it.
Steve, I agree entirely with the "teach to fish" context. I shall be using a different rod in the future.
Cheers
Russ Kent
Steve Kopischke wrote:
Russell Kent wrote:
Doug Thompson wrote:
It is impossible to make things as "easy as possible for [all] potential users." That is because far too many users are too intellectually lazy to make the effort to learn and understand their tasks and the tools to perform those tasks. They merely know how to push the buttons they were taught. You are welcome to try to prove me wrong, but first spend a few weeks reading and even responding to inquiries to this list. Your appreciation of the incredible patience and dedication of the Project Leads and other regular contributors will be altered significantly.
Perhaps the following warning should be available before downloading OOO
"Warning, Do not even think about downloading this programme if you are too intellectually lazy to make any effort to learn and understand how to use it an only want to push buttons"
An interesting marketing concept.
[warning - rant alert]
Not a marketing concept, but a support model. And one we should *openly* adopt, if in a milder tone.
Too often in IT support of all kinds, we get drawn into the "I'm too busy to learn, come do this for me" trap. This is frequently supported by upper management who side with the poor, overworked end users. I've seen this happen as an IT employee in firms large and small, as well as a consultant. Countless times I've had to reset a network password (sometimes day after day) because not only did the user not take ownership of remembering the password, but management decided it was better for me to spend my time resetting passwords than making the network more stable, secure, available, etc.
In the open source software world, the "here's how you can help yourself" or "teach a someone to fish" approach to support is a necessity. Any user who is put off by the concept of having to exert him/herself to get up and running probably is not a good candidate for open source software. No application, whether by function, interface or support model, is going to be the best fit for all users. By not acknowledging that, I think we do the open source community at large a disservice.
The folks who offer support here in the [users] list do an incredible job of not only helping new and experienced users find solutions, but they *create* them with what I consider to be astonishing regularity. When was the last time a Microsoft technician offered to write a macro to provide missing or hidden functionality in Word?
I see the same kinds of complaints in Mozilla's support forums - "You mean you want to me look it up? What are you, mean and nasty? Where's my *support*?!?!?" O.K., perhaps that's a little (but just a little) over the top, but I think you can see my point.
I feel that by not acknowledging the peer support, "help yourself, and learn how you can help others" nature of open source software, we perpetuate the myth that learning how to use software is *hard*. Think about how much time it takes to learn how to drive a car. Use a power tool or a sewing machine. None of those come with menus, yet we're all used to heeding warnings on packaging that say "read the owner's manual before using this for the first time." And we all (most of us, anyway) take the time to at least read up on the basics before attempting to cut our fingers of with a chain saw. We don't consider it an onus to do so.
When did we all agree that it was OK to ignore the same concept in using software?
Russell, your remark may have been meant flippantly and in jest. I couldn't quite tell. Unfortunately, there are many in the world today who take just such an approach very seriously. I happen to think that's the wrong approach. I happen to think we should be very upfront with users and let them know 'there ain't no such thing as a free lunch.' After all, if you are required to put a little skin into the game, you'll likely get more out of it.
O.K., I'm done now. Thanks. I'll go back to largely lurking.
oldgnome
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