2009/7/17 Drew Jensen <[email protected]> > Hello All, > > Well, the subject pretty much sums it up. > > The current setup of this mailing list is insane IMO - there is absolutely > no valid reason to offer the ability for individuals that are not subscribed > to post messages. > > If OpenOffice.org would like me to offer direct one-on-one support (for > Base of course) then I will be happy to discuss my fee with any of Community > Council members. > > As for better ways to manage this list, and the users experience while > using it, there are plenty of examples out there: > Mozilla > Apache > MySQL > etc... > > To the other volunteer responders on this list I have two requests: > > 1 - Please do not forward, or repost, any of my emails to this list with > the posters direct email address as a secondary To: or CC:. > > 2 - Take the pledge and let's put an end to this madness. > > Drew > > During 2008 there was an *average* of over 1800 messages per month on this list. For 2009 Jan-Jun, the figure is over 800. For 2007 the figure is just shy of 3000 *per month*.
If I'm a new[ish] user of OpenOffice, or simply a puzzled one, and I have a question to ask, I really don't want my inbox cluttered with close to 1000 messages a month, 99.9% of which will be entirely irrelevant to my question. I probably don't have the skills to set up a mail filter to put all OpenOffice stuff in a separate folder (typically I won't even know what a mail filter is). I almost certainly don't know about Gmane and I also almost certainly don't even know anything about newsgroups. Usenet is soooo last century ;-) Yes there is the forum. But that involves usernames and forgotten passwords and ... Also, the forum is much harder to manage for people like me. I answer on a widish range of subjects with shallowish depth, unlike you who answer on a narrower range of topics but in much more depth (this is in no way meant to be derogatory in either direction). This means that, were I to try to support OOo via the forum, I'd have to go hunting through various sub-forums looking for "answerable" questions. I know, I've tried it and it'a a pain in the major sphinctre. So, sorry, but I have to disagree with you. I agree that allowing unsubscribed posters means we get a larger amount of trash. I also agree that checking if the user is subscribed and, if not, explicitly cc'ing them is really hard work. But I think all of that is worth it for the ease with which enthusiastic amateurs can get support here. Remember, not everyone has the computer skills you have. On the other hand, we might not have the skills in brain surgery that they have. -- Harold Fuchs London, England Please reply *only* to [email protected]
