[mapserver-users] Adding stackexchange to our support channels

[thomas bonfort]

Steve,
I'm not proposing we replace mailing lists, as Jukka pointed out a
mailing list has some usages that cannot be replaced by a se.com

--
thomas

On 4 October 2013 16:35, Stephen Woodbridge <woodbri at swoodbridge.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I would hope that this is "in addition to" the mapserver lists not a
> replacement to the lists. I just setup my account to forward mapserver
> questions to my email account so I can monitor what is happening on gis
> stack exchange. I don't find the extra step of logging into stack exchange
> as convenient as responding to email, but I have noticed that there are a
> lot of questions that get asked there and not on the list.
>
> -Steve
>
>
> On 10/4/2013 10:23 AM, Rahkonen Jukka wrote:
>>
>> 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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>>
>>
>>
>>
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