Forum activity

[Carl Symons]

On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 8:18 AM, Stefan Werden
<stefan.werden at open-slx.de> wrote:
> On Wed, 30 Nov 2011 07:18:13 -0800, Carl Symons wrote:
>>
>> On Wed, Nov 30, 2011 at 3:02 AM, Aaron J. Seigo <aseigo at kde.org> wrote:
>>>
>>> On Wednesday, November 30, 2011 11:40:57 Thomas Pfeiffer wrote:
>>>
>>>> I just took a look at the official Plasma Active forum
>>>
>>>
>>>> (http://forum.kde.org/viewforum.php?f=211) and saw that the majority of
>>>
>>>
>>>> posts is unanswered since several weeks there.
>>>
>>>
>>> it's pretty much impossible to develop the software and pay attention to
>>> the
>>> forums as well; both end up taking a lot of time on their own ;)
>>>
>>> for the forums to succeed, we need users who can help other users and
>>> triage
>>> difficult questions to the developers for (hopefully quick) answers that
>>> can
>>> then be relayed back to the forums
>>>
>>> it's really no different than 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc levels of support in a
>>> commercial product in that way
>>>
>>> --
>>>
>>> Aaron J. Seigo
>>>
>>
>> I sent a guy to the forum with a question about installing PA on
>> openSUSE 12.1. He was answered there within a couple of days...by
>> directing him back to the installation instructions. I think that
>> community.kde.org/Plasma/Active/Installation had changed since his
>> original inquiry.
>
> I had some talks. For a lot of users PA is seen as another Desktop. So they
> try to select it during installation with YaST2.
> This does not work, because PA is not part of the standard openSUSE 12.1 nor
> the official repo.
>
> So they only have 2 changes. Taking the repo of sebas for 12.1 and follow
> the instruction as it is provided in the plasma wiki, or downloading the
> preconfigured usb-stick-image and use the live-installation process as
> discribed by open-slx.
>
> All other ways are only doable for developers, for example checkout git,
> compile, install cycle.
>
>>
>> Keeping the PA wiki up to date and staying on top of forum.kde.org
>> provide a sustainable knowledge base. They can also support each
>> other. These tools are superior to interruptions and fleeting comments
>> on IRC#active. They also show an engaged community to newcomers who
>> can't get the same impression from dipping into IRC. A vibrant
>> community will go a long way toward PA adoption. We don't really have
>> many ways for getting the word out.
>
> Currently I feel technicans and early adoptes still dominating. Very little
> people writing articles or doing videos.
> I sponsored tablets, but it still not in the way we all like to have it.
>

It's early in the game still. More forum activity and trade show demos
will catch the attention of more of the public. The availability of
techies and early adopters makes things exciting...ground floor
feeling.

>
>>
>> It makes sense for forum.kde.org > KDE software > Plasma Active
>> (http://forum.kde.org/viewforum.php?f=211) to be as much a hub of
>> activity as possible. KDE is the source of a lot of publicity. We
>> certainly need to assist users--which the open-slx forum is doing. But
>> we also need to gather momentum and the KDE forum seems like an
>> excellent avenue for that.
>
> So may be we can find a joined model and open-slx can share something here.
> I'm not a forum specialist.
> Any idea?
>>

Well I'm not a forum expert either. It just seems to me that KDE has
the biggest potential for exposure to a wider range of users and such.
And that the KDE forum for Plasma Active is the best place for an
information hub.

I think that it works fine to have multiple forums. There is a note in
the KDE forum for Plasma Active to the German forum at open-slx.
Perhaps open-slx could have a similar referral to the KDE PA forum in
English. IMO, the most long term success for everyone will be in
collaboration. In addition, it works well to support the forums with
timely updates to the wiki.

As a strategy, it works best to have a lot of people participating. So
if knowledgeable users can act as Level One and Two support, the
development team doesn't have to be interrupted as much (as Aaron
suggested). With now a couple of reference-like platforms, more people
will be trying the Plasma Active approach and the forums will become
even better knowledge sources.

Thank you for all you're doing Stefan. I can hardly wait to get a new
PA2 image from open-slx.

Carl


>>
>> You can get email notifications from the Plasma Active forum through
>> the User Control Panel link (on the left of the top grey bar). In the
>> left menu "Manage subscriptions".
>>
>> Carl
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