Apparently there is a major problem in the way OO handles feedback and
questions, especially that coming from newbies:
http://www.openoffice.org/contact.html
"If you post mail without subscribing, you will not be able to view
responses unless you check the archives of the list. The Mail List
page lists archives to the most popular lists."
This is ridiculous and needs to be changed immediately. Apparently all
help sent to the specifically most helpless newbies on this list never
reaches them and wastes many helpers' time. I've only been here a
couple of days, but i can think of already at least 10 emails of mine
and others that i'll have to forward to the original posters'
addresses.
It works quite well. You started to include the non-subscribers' address on the reply.
Someone also notes that this has been allowed in order to help as many as
possible.
It does not work well because the senders apparently do not receive a
separate email with only the warning in simple English that they will
not receive any answers unless list members know they should and
remember to send them copies. If senders do get such a warning, it is
apparently buried in many lines of info about list commands that
completely overtax most normal users.
It also does not work well because there is no warning at the top of
messages from unsubscribed senders saying that the sender will not
receive the reply unless the personal address is copied and pasted. The
subject header "[moderated]" is not clear enough of an indication. Many
list members, not only new ones, don't add the sender's address to
replies; it's unclear whether they just forget it or don't know that
they should. As a result, several other list members often resend copies
of answers posted only to the list to many unsubscribed senders. These
multiple forwarded messages can be very annoying and even frightening
for newbies.
The current system also does not work well because it doesn't force
unsubscribed senders to place a personal subject in the header, which
would be easy with a webpage submission system. As a result,
unsubscribed senders get emails with the senseless heading "moderated"
and/or with several different headings from complete strangers. And even
if they then subscribe, newbies are confronted with the extremely
confusing situation of having to find relevant answers to their question
in the mailing list messages or archive among several simultaneous
different threads with the senseless heading "moderated" and possibly
several other headings invented by different helpers.
It would be easy to automatically assign a unique heading e.g. "question
12345" to each unsubscribed sender's query so that answers are at least
easy to find for the senders, even if this still wastes the time of
dozens or hundreds of helpers reading queries irrelevant for them i.e.
that they don't want to or can't answer.
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