Frank, Now that the mailing list has migrated, is the archive searchable? The New Users page (http://mapserver.gis.umn.edu/new_users/index_html#list-arch ives)on the Mapserver site still links: http://lists.umn.edu/archives/mapserver-users.html Is it still valid?
I think the email archives hold great value. The challange is to enable access. Here are some ideas (by doing one test search): 1. A better seach page - ability to use AND and OR with seach terms 2. Record the top ten seaches by month (or some other stat) so we can improve the FAQ. 3. A better results page - show me hits by all my seach term combos - allow me to sort by score, Lines, subject , etc 4. Somehow identify an email containing a question/problem, and a solution 5. ... Hmmm, an automatic FAQ extractor. Sounds painful. Let's learn from Google (a search tool is beats an organized portal). Brent Fraser GeoAnalytic Inc. Calgary, Alberta ----- Original Message ----- From: "Frank Warmerdam" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Milo van der Linden" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "MAPSERVER-USERS" <mapserver-users@lists.osgeo.org> Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2008 2:36 PM Subject: Re: [mapserver-users] Re: user support > Milo van der Linden wrote: > > Frank Warmerdam schreef: > >> I think it would be very valuable if some people were willing to comb > >> the mailing list for frequently asked questions and answers and turn > >> some of them into FAQ entries on the plone site. > > If this would be done in a divide and conquer manner, I would be > > interested. It would be a good thing if one could take a seat in some > > sort of board and cover a certain aspect. I would be particulary > > interested in contributing to WMS and WFS sections, as well as postGIS > > integration since this is the area I am trying to make my business in. > > Would it be possible that in return the person maintaining a certain > > area of the documentation could offer commercial support and consultancy > > on his particular field of expertise? Just a taught and trying to > > discover if there is business value in signing up for this. Because in > > the long run, we all need to make at least enough money to live. > > Milo, > > In Plone you can have a profile, and FAQ entries list their author. > So you can use your full name for your account and make sure your > author profile page describes you as a consultant, and your expertise > with a link page to your own web page. This should have at least a > modest advertising effect. > > I think FAQs mostly digested from mailing list responses should also > try to give some credit to the original author. > > I'm not sure that specific divide and conquer rules will be easy to > manage. I would suggest you just attack your area of interest. > Duplication of effort is the least of our problems now. :-) > > > I hereby offer my couple of hours. Would it be an idea to set up a group > > of say 100 people and then divide the list in blocks of say a month? > > Well, I'm not sure about how that would work. Again, I would suggest > you get a plone account from Howard, and just skim the email archives > for the last month or two looking for threads in your area of interest > and digest a few down into FAQs. I'm sure there is also room for > additional categories in the FAQ if you think it would be helpful. > > It may just be me, but I think any process that starts with "get a group > together and split up a task" is likely to get stalled and frustrated. > Better to just dig in and do a part of the task that you like, perhaps > with some notification / interaction as you find you need. > > Best regards, > -- > ---------------------------------------+------------------ -------------------- > I set the clouds in motion - turn up | Frank Warmerdam, [EMAIL PROTECTED] > light and sound - activate the windows | http://pobox.com/~warmerdam > and watch the world go round - Rush | President OSGeo, http://osgeo.org > > _______________________________________________ > mapserver-users mailing list > mapserver-users@lists.osgeo.org > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/mapserver-users _______________________________________________ mapserver-users mailing list mapserver-users@lists.osgeo.org http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/mapserver-users