Caro Marco,
I agree that modifying a subject of the the type «Help !» to one which
better denominates the specific problem could be a way to make it easier for
inexperienced users to find relevant commentaries. I also agree that
changing the subject line to read something to the effect «you must put a
summary here» is singularly unhelpful, at least for search purposes (it may
succeed, however, in expressing - and perhaps, therewith diminishing - a
certain degree of frustration)....
Henri
2007/1/7, M. Fioretti <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
On Sun, Jan 07, 2007 14:57:02 PM +0100, M Henri Day
([EMAIL PROTECTED]) wrote:
> 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.
I'd add here:
3) strongly (but metaphorically of course) hit with a ruler the
fingers of all the "experienced" users who *answer* any message
with a "you must put a summary here" subject, or that answer
without substituting that string with a decent, informative
subject.
One of the reasons why searching by subject is so seldom useful that
questions are repeated all the time is exactly that:
* many newbies forget to put a decent subject (which _may_ be
excusable) and
* even more "experts" *hide* the answer because they don't change the
subject to match what the solution they put in the email body (much
less excusable)
what's worst is that some of those "experts" are the same that then
scold newbies for "not bothering to search the archives before
posting, I answered this yesterday..."
HTH,
Marco
--
The right way to make everybody love Free Standards and Free Software:
http://digifreedom.net/node/73
