The issues raised by William Case (informal division of labour between more and less experienced OOo users), Bob Smits (separate lists for Windows and Mac users [and why not Linux users, whom I believe are well-represented among OOo users], respectively), and Harold Fuchs (on the problems faced by list members with dial-up subscriptions) are well worth taking seriously. Rob's suggestion concerning a list of problems which repeatedly come up on the list, to which I should add our old friend Error 1935 during installation). To make the user list less unwieldy, we need to consider how people, in particular new OOo users, become aware of it in the first place. My own experience may be relevant here : on 17 October 2006 I encountered a problem - Error 1935 - again - in installing OOo 2.0.4 to a Windows XP machine. To get help I proceeded to OOo's home page, and after clicking on «Support», discovered that both community and commercial support was available. After attempting and failing to find an entry for Error 1935 under FAQs, I then checked the archives under Users Mail List and, finding no entry there (more on this matter below), subscribed to the list, and at 23:15 hrs wrote a brief letter entitled «Error 1935» detailing my problem to us <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>** <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>[EMAIL PROTECTED] <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, which I copied to [EMAIL PROTECTED] <//[EMAIL PROTECTED]/> some 28 minutes later. Shortly thereafter I received a very courteous reply which helped me to resolve the problem....
My point here is that in the above procedure there were two opportunities for me to find answers to my query before writing my own letter to the List - thus saving me some effort and experienced users some boredom - but where I failed to do so. Searching for Error 1935 in FAQs did not then, and does not now, link to an answer. Searching in the User Mail List Archives did not then - but does now : the first such letter is dated 29 October ; for some reason my letter written 12 days earlier does not turn up in the search. Based on this experience, my suggestions to reduce the number of repeat questions from new users are as follows : 1. Update FAQs frequently. 2. Redo the search function for the User Mail List Archives so that it searches not only subjects but email texts. Only five letters, dating from 29 October to 29 November 2006 are listed in the results for a search on «Error 1935» in the Archives, all of which have Error 1935 in the subject. All readers of this list are (painfully ?) aware of the fact that this error has figured in many more queries than the above five (or six, including mine). 3. The «subscribe» button under Support/User Mail List should not, as it does now, lead directly to a «mail-to» address, but to a page which explains how to use the FAQs and the User Mail List Archives, before writing one's own message to the List. I hope the above suggestions, which presumably would not be too difficult to implement, can be of some use.... Henri
