- Yes
- No
0
voters
Maybe we just need a wiki. How important is it that we have these communication methods?
Needs a third āMaybeā option.
From some of the support threads Iāve seen, the Wiki seems woefully inadequate. That being said, perhaps divesting OML of all this would allow for much more free time on development, and if some 3rd parties want to start their own forum, Matrix chat, etc, then let āem.
Lastly, using OMLx resources to support stuff that is essentially not OML related seems a bit of a waste. It may be fun, but is it worth the time, money, etc spent on it?
A question that I canāt really answer.
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You must realise that this poll is badly subject to Response Bias?
ā¦and isnāt really representative of what may happen IRL?
Sure, weāll all say weād use it, but is that really true? Then there is attracting new users.
How long and how much would it cost to do a real cost/benefit analysis? How long would it take for that to pay for itself, and how much would that actually profit OML, if at all?
Lord knows the OML folk have got enough on their plate.
Releasing actual server stats would allow folk/users to figure this out, at least a little bit, but who does that?
For many, the forum represents the gateway to a new home; you can choose whether to have a beautiful and welcoming entrance or a bricked-up door.
Who among you didnāt browse the forum when you decided to try OM?
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There are 103 active users:
https://forum.openmandriva.org/about
Out of 1300+:
https://forum.openmandriva.org/u
Thatās just under 10% usage.
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Are the stats fine-grained enough to see how much of those are support/dev related, as opposed to just fluff?
I would say that is entirely subjective. It has been my experience (even as far back as when I was the distro master in my local LUG) that most people just want something to replace a proprietary system. They are conditioned to not getting help from the people that make their system software.
After the search engine became popular, forum traffic has been reduced significantly when it pertains to support for software. The most traffic you see now, is developers celebrating their achievements and making unrelated statements about their world view when a user does attempt to get help.
We have seen a different trend lately where people say they use the system for a while and have moderate to significant problems, they use AI/LLMās or a search engine to try and solve them, and then show up to the forum frustrated with the expectations of their previous distro and no interest in our community or why we do things, at all.
I ended up in the Matrix chat first. The forum was the last thing I signed up for. Based on my previous reply, it would seem a lot of users do something similar.
The main page shows the bulk of the topic count, but I donāt think there are any options to view them contextually. The focus on Discourse is to behave like social media.
A lot of users do otherwise, as well. Like me. I looked into Matrix, found it woke, and decided not to use it unless there was a pressing need to do so.
Anecdotal data is often worse than useless.
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This should make you ask questions and then give yourself answers.
Iāve never used the chat, unfortunately itās completely out of step with my times. Without the forum, we probably would never have talked.
It would be difficult to find something that wasnāt, this medium included.
Therefore, the goal should be to allow us to do more with less. The information is too spread out to be useful and often becomes outdated when other information in another container is made available. If something is figured out in the chat to fix something simple then it doesnāt always get to the forum, and vice versa.
Please forgive that I do not speak Italian.
I agree, that would have been a shame. The point is not to keep people from communicating, it is to find the best method by which to do so that does not overload the group and keep the information from getting where it needs to go.
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It tells me that people are bored, or do not have the means to deal with disappointment. Beyond that, they should want to get things fixed when they go to the place that made the product they use. Just being frustrated never fixes problems no matter how much in the right a person thinks they are to be frustrated.
Perhaps some AI?
Sadly, that too costs money. Cost/benefit analysis. The people at OML have kept it going this far, and donāt seem to be in a state of panic. I trust you.
AI.
Mmmmnope
Whatever. Its already being used in the kernel. As if using it in a forum is worse.
We most likely are not configuring it as part of our packaging.
That doesnāt really change the fact that AI is being used to code the kernel.
There are situations where using the cheapest method to achieve desirable results is the best thing to do. I think forums and chats qualify. I donāt think the kernel does.
Just my opinion.
A better compromise might be to take something like Discourse and have the communications go through there primarily. They used to have a chat feature, and may still.
Likewise with certain releases/branches of the kernel. If FOSS is there so we have open and available options, perhaps we should be exploring how best to tailor those options to our needs.
AI is a hard sell, because no one really knows what itās doing either with the information itās processing, or the information adjacent to it. People also donāt like the idea of humans being replaced with computers with extensive decision trees.
From experience, this happens on all forums/social media/etc.
a I think itās fair for everyone to choose their role in the community developer helper, etc. I donāt expect you or Bero to respond to my post if I donāt know how to configure the printer. 
I think the forum/chat should be left more to the users, and they should help each other with common problems. A little takes, a little gives, but in the end, we find a balance. I fully understand that if you donāt set limits, you risk bringing the situation to a breaking point.
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