community Digest, Vol 36, Issue 45

[Jonathon Suggs]

Jonathon Suggs wrote:
> IRC is great for technical people to ask quick little questions 
> without "spamming the list".  However, IRC is not an option for those 
> less-technical.  Basically, if they can't get the information they are 
> looking for using their browser and ONLY their browser, then they will 
> NOT find what they are looking for...
>
> IRC and mailing lists have their uses, but so do forums.  I honestly 
> don't understand the resistance to the idea of a forum.  Other than 
> people being so closed minded and elitist that they can't understand 
> how people are soo stupid not to have know the answer to the question 
> already.
>
> So if anything, hopefully those people (who are the people who give 
> FOSS a bad rep) will stick to IRC and mailing lists, and people that 
> can actually perform social interaction can help people out in the 
> forums.
I will again apologize for the social interaction comment.  It did not 
come across as I meant it (especially after re-reading my own post).

But the fact remains that we must be conscious of the less technical 
users.  I personally do not feel that mailing lists and IRC are 
sufficient to provide a broader audience with the information that they 
will be looking for.  If you think that the spamming of the lists, and 
improper "netiquette" is bad now, just wait till the userbase is more 
diluted (meant in a positive way) with non-technical people.  Will 
simply having a forum "solve" the problem...obviously no.  However, it 
will be a LOT more user friendly, and that in itself could be a deal 
breaker for some.

Sorry if I offended,
Jonathon