[ic] Wanted: Support Group - opinions?

Kevin Walsh interchange-users@icdevgroup.org
Fri Feb 14 01:22:00 2003


Devin Harris [listmail@webvizion.net] wrote:
> >
> > Yeesh, I gotta go buy myself some more duct tape.
> >
> Again, would you please make a list for beginners separate from types 
> like my friend here.
> 
There would be problems with creating another list.  The main ones I can
think of are as follows:

  1. Most beginners don't consider their problems to be simple so they
     will probably post to the main list anyway.

  2. The more advanced users won't bother to follow the articles on the
     beginners list because it will be full of people asking questions
     that have been asked 10,000 times before.

  3. Some users won't know (or care) where they post their questions.
     We even get users trying to use the "submit a story" link on the
     ICDEVGROUP website to ask questions, despite the (bold) text on the
     submit page that clearly reads "please do not use this form to
     contact the core developers or post a support request."  Of course
     any such articles, submitted to that page, are discarded with no
     followup.

  4. If a question doesn't get a response on this mail list, what makes
     you think that it'll get a response on another?  Remember that a
     "beginners" list is likely to have less subscribers?

  5. There was a point 5, but I've forgotten it.

  6. Most of us have got enough to do without having yet another mail
     list to follow.  Remember that we have this mail list, the web-based
     BBS system and the IRC channel already in operation.  There's also
     the interchange-biz mail list for people who want to post a request
     to pay for professional help.

Remember that nobody gets paid to answer questions on the mail list.

-- 
   _/   _/  _/_/_/_/  _/    _/  _/_/_/  _/    _/
  _/_/_/   _/_/      _/    _/    _/    _/_/  _/   K e v i n   W a l s h
 _/ _/    _/          _/ _/     _/    _/  _/_/    kevin@cursor.biz
_/   _/  _/_/_/_/      _/    _/_/_/  _/    _/