[asterisk-users] RFC -- Improving the quality of the mailing lists

[Tilghman Lesher]

On Tuesday 27 January 2009 09:57:54 Steve Edwards wrote:
> The -user and -dev mailing lists are a valuable resource -- when they are
> not cluttered by posts unrelated to the "charter" of the lists.
>
> In my limited memory, this last weekend represents a new low in the
> "relevant subject to noise ratio."
>
> Replying to requests with meaningless, misleading, or misspelled subject
> lines ("I need help," "asterisk help," "Ntework Card") encourage careless
> posting and obfuscate useful replies from search engines.
>
> Also, while replying to such requests may seem helpful, some of the
> requests indicate such a lack of basic understanding that giving the
> answer is like giving a small child a very sharp knife when they ask for a
> slice of bread.
>
> For example: "How do I delete these files that end in that squiggly thing
> in my current directory and all directories below?"
>
> Since most of these users are probably running as root, a simple "extra
> space here and a missed character there" ("rm --force --recursive /* ~" vs
> "rm --force --recursive ./*~" can have catastrophic consequences.
>
> In an attempt to improve the quality of the lists, I propose the
> following: For a user's first 10 posts, they will receive a reply with a
> link to a web page and have to answer the following questions:

While I agree with your overall sentiment, I believe a few of these items are
a bit over the top, and perhaps I'm reading this with more seriousness than
it merits.

> i) I am fluent in English or I have attempted to have someone who is
> review my request.

In many cases, this just isn't possible.  While it would be nice to have all
posts in the King's English, a great many users are in locales which don't
have an English-speaking population.  These are likely the only lists to which
they have ready access which understand both enough English, as well as
enough telephony knowledge to process their questions intelligently.

> j) I have run my request through my spell checking resources.

Even I don't do this, and I know that I occasionally misspell some words.

> Included in the web page would be the original message with the ability to
> change the list the message is to be posted to, the subject line, and the
> body of the message.
>
> Comments?

I think we'd be better off posting a regular FAQ, perhaps weekly, with some of
these suggestions, as well as providing a link to that FAQ from the mailing
list signup page, along with a STRONG suggestion to peruse the FAQ first.

-- 
Tilghman