Harold Fuchs wrote:
> On Friday, November 03, 2006 1:10 PM [GMT+1=CET], Terry
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>> Dotan Cohen wrote:
>>> On 03/11/06, Harold Fuchs <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>>> On Friday, November 03, 2006 10:33 AM [GMT+1=CET], Dotan Cohen
>>>> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> <snip> If someone can figure out how to subscribe to a mailing
>>>> list
>>>>> and send a question, then how is it that he does not know
>>>>> what to do with an installer???
>>>> <snip> Also, the fact that someone doesn't know what to do with
>>>> an installer doesn't mean they are stupid. It just means they
>>>> are ignorant. The difference is that ignorance can be fixed. I
>>>> know lots of people who don't know the very simplest concepts
>>>> of their Operating Systems ("directories", "select", "file
>>>> associations" for example) but who are decidely not stupid and
>>>> are extremely knowledgeable (i.e. not ignorant) in fields you
>>>> and I have probably never even heard of.
>>>
>>> I'm certain that there are. I don't mean to insult the users that
>>> post. But I subscribe to quite a few mailing lists, and none see
>>> the really basic questions like "can I delete the installer", or
>>> better yet, the posts with no subject line at all. Even an
>>> ignorant person knows what the subject line of email is. If it
>>> happened once, then I wouldn't be mentioning it. But we see
>>> probably five of those a week.
>>>
>>> Dotan Cohen
>> With respect, I concur. There seems to be large number of
>> enquiries on this list which those making them could easily answer
>> with about the same amount of effort it takes to locate the list's
>> address and send an email.
>
> People who need to do word processing or to prepare presentations or
> whatever are not necessarily ofay with computers and installing
> software. I'd be willing to bet that for a large number of users OOo
> is the first thing they've ever had to install themselves. This is
> particularly true in the Windows world. In most cases people use what
> came already installed on the machine from whatever shop they bought
> it. Even if they use a computer at work it's likely that they are not
> allowed to install software themselves so the issue has never arisen.
>
>
> Also, as a registered user of this e-mail list I get scores if not
> hundreds of e-mails per day. If I wanted to ask a simple question
> and, as a result, got several hundred messages before seeing a reply
> I'd not be a happy bunny. Especially if I was a busy person anyway
> having to deal with lots of e-mails as part of my "real" life.
>
> Perhaps we should alter the format of the list. I'm not sure what
> they are called but there are many web based forums where you can set
> a "watch this thread" flag so that you only get notified when someone
> responds to a message within a thread you started. I've seen some of
> these forums where registration is a requirement and some where it
> isn't. We could then have a class of user (the volunteers) who get
> everything and another class (the "customers") who only get stuff
> s/he has flagged as interesting.
>
> Would this be a good idea?
>
> Harold Fuchs London, England
With apologies to all on the openoffice.questions list:
You could even have a class of user that knows how to wrap their
responses to 72 characters - I've rewrapped yours for you :)
If you look at the "list" categories shown on the gmane.comp.openoffice.
archive (news.gmane.org) or http://www.openoffice.org/mail_list.html
you'll find a wide variety of classes. This one happens to be:
gmane.comp.openoffice.questions and is open for anyone to ask a question
regarding OOo. Hence, even questions deemed to be "stupid" by some are
on topic (IMO) if they are OOo related.
<quote>
[email protected]
For questions relating to the use of OpenOffice.org (the application). A
very popular and effective list.
</quote>
You can of course pop over to:
gmane.comp.openoffice.general
gmane.comp.openoffice.releases
gmane.comp.openoffice.bugs
gmane.comp.openoffice.announce.features
or start your own
gmane.comp.openoffice.onlysmartquestions allowed.
Note: gmane.org simply provide an nntp feed to the actual OOo
openoffice.questions list and allow access to the list via nntp. What
this means is that I don't receive your email (unless you cc me) and
instead I follow the thread/subjects/authors etc via the nntp server.
Now back to the original off-topic comments regarding questions etc; it
would appear to me that the OP of this thread is very well educated
(http://www.lithic.org/). It would also appear that he does know how to
install a program and even run a Linux system.
I would suggest that there are very many posters who are indeed well
educated, know how to install a program, and come here asking a basic
question relating to OOo. I know that I have done so in the past and
will continue to do so in the future. In the spirit of open source and
OOo I also try to give back by responding to questions from others
if/when I can. I can also say that I've worked with computers & computer
systems since the 1970's, have multiple systems installed including
Windows and Linux, consult for international companies and corporations,
and quite often I ask simple, dumb, or even stupid questions - ditto for
advise.
Were it not for access to this "list" via
gmane.comp.openoffice.questions I would have been stumped on many
questions that I have had regarding OOo.
Point being that this "list" is read and used by users from all walks of
life from many corners of the world. You, or I, have no idea who is
reading this now, or their experience, or education. I can only hope
that those who are, are not discouraged from asking simple basic OOo
questions... it is the answers to those that help all of us learn. One
can only hope that they will find the responses friendly and helpful.
I'll avoid the continued soapbox of OOo etc., and leave it at that.
There is an easy solution to the list problem; do away with the "lists"
altogether and simply place the groups on a proper nntp server instead.
Given this day and age of spams, spam filtering, and other email
problems why would you wish to subscribe to a list or multiple lists for
general discussion of this type of product anyway?
Disclaimer: I do indeed subscribe to several lists, and find them
useful. However they are generally restricted to a small user community
(Stanford.edu based) and are restricted to small closed user groups
related to a specific subject.
There will of course be ongoing arguments proposing using only the web
based forum, or "I can't or don't know how to use an nntp server", but
IMHO that is simply nonsense and more than likely a OOo cost issue than
anything else. Setting up a proper nntp news server will easily
eliminate the problem of receiving hundreds of emails daily. It also
will allow those that are searching for a particular solution to search
and view the threads that are of interest to them. It's not rocket
science and it is 2006... so perhaps it's time to move on and put the
"lists" on a proper nntp news server. Subscription & verification can
still be maintained just as it is on the gmane server, or as an example
the Mozilla groups on the nntp.giganews.com servers that they use.
---------------------------------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
