Re: [gentoo-dev] Re: Improving developer/user communication (was Re: net-im/pidgin protocols)

[George Prowse <cokehabit@gmail.com>]

Thomas Scharl wrote:
> George Prowse schrieb:
>> Ciaran McCreesh wrote:
>>> On Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:45:46 -0500
>>> Dale <dalek1967@bellsouth.net> wrote:
>>>> Ciaran McCreesh wrote:
>>>>> Any user who will see and respond to a question is unrepresentative
>>>>> of the user base in general.
>>>> So if ten users reply then, are all ten individually wrong too?
>>>
>>> Not my point. My point is that most Gentoo users would either not see
>>> the question or not respond. Those that both see the question and take
>>> time to respond are highly atypical.
>>
>> If you were clever enough and wanted the largest amount of answers you 
>> would put the questions around ever communication channel gentoo has, 
>> you would then get the opinions of the majority of users.
> No
> In best case you get answers from a larger part of that part of the user 
> community that a) actively follow those information channels, b) want to 
> contribute answers and probably c) have enough technical skill to 
> express what they want to say in a useful way (not like 'bla doesn't 
> work, fix that') and some will stay silent because they are to shy or 
> alike.
> Even if you manage to get approx 10-20% of valid answer rate over all 
> channels this still is far from beeing representative.
> A relevant part of the user base is surely completely 'invisible'- no 
> matter which channels we use to publicate infos/polls/etc to.
> 
> Anyways this is more of philosophical/social issue to discuss about than 
> a technical one.

a) The people who don't actively follow the communication channels 
wouldn't know what was going on so they would never notice! Duhhhh...

b) If people don't want to contribute in them then it is up to them. 
People can't complain if they are given the option.

c) You don't need lots of technical skills to help. To be honest, that 
is immaterial anyway, there is a huge wealth of knowlege in the forums 
community (that is unused by Gentoo) and there are always people who 
would explain something in plain language.

George
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