Re: Support forums / mailing lists future?

Alexander Limi wrote:
> 
> - Modernize the support page to have an easier overview of what kind of
> support is available, similar to (but not identical, it's an older
> proposal) the screenshot attached.
> 

I'm missing the screen shot but 
+1 to an easier overview



> - Use the Plone page on Stack Overflow
> <http://stackoverflow.com/unanswered/tagged/plone> for a period, to test
> if that works better for the people that we usually send to the
> plone-users mailing list. Some advantages:
> 
>     - Only uses OpenID to log in, and now that Google and Yahoo and
>     other major providers let their users log in using OpenID,
>     that's a very low barrier.
>     
>     - Stack Overflow publishes an XML dump of their content under a
>     Creative Commons license every N weeks, so we can always get our
>     content back
>     
>     - Built-in reputation management, which is the major problem
>     with mailing lists — "is this person just talking crap, or does
>     he really know what he's saying?"
>     
>     - Easy to subscribe to unanswered questions via RSS
> 
>     - Increased exposure to frustrated .NET and Java users looking
>     for a great CMS. ;)
> 

I don't use Stack Overflow often but when I do, it's extremely pleasing. 

Two considerations: 

1. Is it easy to search *focusing on Plone alone* within Stack Overflow?
(Compare with the <http://n2.nabble.com/-f293351.html> and
<http://n2.nabble.com/-f293351.subapps.html> experiences, exceptionally easy
to seek and find exactly what I want, focusing on Plone alone.) 

2. For shallow discussions, or for non-technical users, _realistically_: how
suitable is the Stack Overflow experience? (Compare with e.g.
Get Satisfaction, some areas of which suffer from duplication/multiplication
and mixtures.) In Stack Overflow: 

 * can a thing that becomes mixed/confused be logically separated into
smaller parts?
 
 * can small duplicates be merged to form something greater?



> - Keep the mailing lists for more in-depth discussions that aren't
> necessarily troubleshooting and the kind of questions that typically show
> up on plone-users
> 

+1

I'd be happy with the forums alone, but I fully expect that a significant
number of users will prefer to continue with the underlying lists (no
argument with that). 



> - Evaluate how well Stack Overflow worked for us at the end of the period,
> and revert if we find that it didn't work out.
> 

If it doesn't work out for Plone: 

 a) how will the XML dump(s) from Stack Overflow be re-used, and 
 
 b) who will take responsibility for the reversion(s)?

(I don't expect answers to those questions now. Just being realistic about
planning.)



> I'd like to try this first, and then look at other solutions in the
> meantime. I do think we have to bite the bullet and provide a kick-ass
> comment/forum infrastructure with proper email integration eventually, and
> it should be easier to do this with the latest improvements to our
> infrastructure. (ie. using Archetypes for something like this isn't really
> the best idea ;)
> 
> Does this sound like a reasonable plan?
> 

It's certainly reasonable, but I'd be wary of underestimating the effort
involved. 

Best, 
Graham
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