[mapserver-users] Adding stackexchange to our support channels

[Rahkonen Jukka]

Hi,

Mapserver users list has worked fine for me for several years but I have seen that it is no more what it used to be. There are less mails on the list and part of the discussion that would be interesting also for users (at least power users) has moved into developers list and inside the github issues as comments.
Compared with same kind of projects, the Geoserver users list and GDAL-dev have remained popular and users do still receive good service.

Somehow it feels that we cannot turn the clock backwards and if users have moved away from the mailing lists then they won't come back and Stackexchange feels like a modern and not so bad alternative. OpenStreetMap is having their own Help center which is like Stackexchange but I do not know if Mapserver is popular enough for something similar. Perhaps there are also people who are eager in hunting Stackexchange points and prefer that instead of something just Mapserver specific.

However, change from mailing list into Stackexchange is not necessarily that simple. Of course we have lots of simple problems like "WMS does not answer me, why?" with simple answers "Read http://mapserver.org/ogc/wms_server.html and set "wms_enable_request" "*" "

But then we have rather much stuff like this
http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.gis.mapserver.user/51482

Discussion and problem solving like that does not suit very well into Stackexchange, and it is not so easy to find the comments from inside the answers. I think that Stackexchange is not an ultimate help desk solution. There are also similar sites like Stackoverflow but I do not know what differences they have.
"Power-users, would you be willing to participate to another support channel?"

I miss-read that "Would you be willing to participate to yet another support channel?".  I would say that not really, for me it is enough to handle one channel per each project I am following. If Stackexchange would be the main channel, then perhaps. I still wonder where would we handle the kinky but interesting problems which are not solved without using brain and perhaps gathering more information and sample data and mapfiles for repeating the problem.

-Jukka Rahkonen-


Umberto Nicoletti wrote:

+1

I already have a mapserver filter in place on gis.stackexchange.com<http://gis.stackexchange.com/>

So should it be gis or all stackexchange sites?
I am for gis, as it more relevant to the mapserver community and mapserver is already listed in the ads:

http://meta.gis.stackexchange.com/ads/display/1968

Umberto

On Fri, Oct 4, 2013 at 12:32 PM, thomas bonfort <thomas.bonfort at gmail.com<mailto:thomas.bonfort at gmail.com>> wrote:
Hi MapServer Users and Power-Users,

As FrankW pointed out during our FOSS4G presentation, I would like to
propose that we add stackexchange as an "official" support channel for
MapServer. You can check and subscribe to mapserver related questions
here: http://stackexchange.com/filters/90617/mapserver

Why?

- Stackexchange questions and answers are very well referenced through
search engines, which would avoid recurring questions from being
brought up on the mailing list
- The answers get up or down-voted by the community, allowing a user
to immediately flesh out relevant information for a given question
- Asking a question on stack-exchange might help new users to seek for
help, instead of having to subscribe and post to a public mailing list
(which can be intimidating)

How?

- By referencing stackexchange in our "getting help" documentation section
- Most importantly, by having MapServer power users subscribe and
participate to the stackexchange questions, providing answers or
upvoting correct existing answers.

Users, is this something that you would find beneficial?
Power-users, would you be willing to participate to another support
channel, knowing that in the long run the aim is to reduce your
workload as the most common questions will answer themselves ?
PSC, should we have some kind of motion to vote and officialise this?

best regards,
Thomas
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