On Wed, 2011-08-24 at 12:40 -0400, Rob Weir wrote: > On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 9:30 PM, drew <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Wed, 2011-08-24 at 09:05 +1000, Jean Weber wrote: > >> I've started a new thread, because I think Rob Weir's very important point > >> has got lost in the discussions about forums and lists. Rob wrote: > >> > >> > Support is important. The question is > >> > how best to do it. If all we're doing is considering the merits of > >> > different access methods to support, without looking at the > >> > implications of fragmenting the repositories and the resulting > >> > knowledge base, then we are doing a poor job at thinking this through. > >> > Remember the best support site is the one that allows the user to > >> > answer their own question, without signing up for a mailing list or > >> > posting to a forum. We should be looking at how we can prevent user > >> > support questions. > >> > >> This ties in closely with end-user documentation and how it is delivered, > >> so I am very interested in this topic. Later today I'll go through the > >> archives of this list to find the earlier discussions, which I believe > >> occurred while I was traveling and thus weren't given enough of my > >> attention at the time. Or, have ideas and suggestions, perhaps examples of > >> good practice, been posted to the wiki? Apple is IMO a brilliant example, > >> but they have a lot of resources > >> > >> It's clear to me that we need to do better than we have in the user > >> support area, if we can do so. Not only will that benefit users and > >> improve our reputation, it will allow us to work smarter, not harder. I > >> will pursue this, along with other interested people. It's something > >> valuable that I can do while the techies are moving websites and working > >> with code etc. > >> > >> Setting up a suitable system and populating it with suitable information > >> will be a big task and take quite awhile, especially if we don't have > >> enough skilled people to do it. (I'm referring to content, not > >> infrastructure.) All the more reason to get started now with planning what > >> we want to do, so we can start doing it ASAP. > >> > >> BTW, the Docs mailing list at OOo gets quite a few enquiries from people > >> wanting to contribute, and a few of them sound like they have relevant > >> experience and skills. I don't want to lose them. Yes, we point them to > >> this list as well as ODFAuthors, but I don't know how many have actually > >> joined. If we're actively discussing topics of interest to documenters, > >> perhaps more people can be persuaded to get involved. > > > > > > Hi Jean, > > > > Before I let another thread slide away from view - I agree completely > > with approaching this with a unified view of user support, not just > > stove pipes for different delivery vehicles. > > > > Does anyone have a sense for how far we can take this by extending > phpBB? It looks like we've already enhanced it quite a bit. > > In other words, is phpBB the best way forward? Is it easy to hack? > For example, do we think it would be possible to eventually add > collaborative features like question/answer ranking, etc.?
hmm - one of 'those' questions. There are a good number of such mod's available for this from the pbpBB team site. There is the KDE brainstorming site http://forum.kde.org/brainstorm.php#cat83 This is custom coded pbpBB - a few years back I spoke with the admin's there and they made it clear they would be happy to share the code. //drew
