Re: [Audacity-devel] Non-english request on audacity-help
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From: Markus M. <me...@me...> - 2004-03-19 23:50:46
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Okay, what about this plan: 1. Short term: Set up a "support request" form with the following items on it: - Language (with disclaimer for the non-english speaking) - OS (not preselected, user _must_ select something) - Audacity version (dito), include here things like "Linux (rpm), Linux (compiled from source)" - Text of the request (with disclaimer "please give error messages" etc.) - Email adress (required) - Submit button that sends email via registered user agent (audacity-support-agent), but with Reply-To to user mail address (is this possible?) Make audacity-help subscriber-only, set up audacity-support-agent email address. Encourage users to subscribe to audacity-help (on the "donate time" page). Mention this change on the news page. 2. Long term: Stay with the previously generated form, but make the results go to whatever system we will have in place by then. As a step 1.1 we could maybe think of a better way to access the audacity-help archives (let Gmane mirror them?)... Markus Am Fre, den 19.03.2004 schrieb Dominic Mazzoni um 23:55: > Markus Meyer wrote: > > Am Don, den 18.03.2004 schrieb Dominic Mazzoni um 19:23: > > > >>On Mar 18, 2004, at 7:59 AM, Arturo "Buanzo" Busleiman wrote: > >> > >>>It would be a nice idea to create separete mailing lists > >>>(self-populated) > >>>for the languages we are getting more questions with. > >> > >>I agree. We should start audacity-fr, audacity-es, audacity-de, etc. > >>and encourage people who speak those languages to join. > > > > Yes, but this doesn't change the fact that people who have just a quick > > question will still post to audacity-help (no need to subscribe etc.). > > And if these lists are not members-only, no one will use them because > > the post-to-spam ratio will probably be quite low. > > I'm hoping that over time we could redirect the majority of > mail to the correct mailing list, though. But your point is > well taken, since spam is such a big problem. > > > Another idea would be to have kind of a web interface for general > > support requests. Nothing special, just a "mail-to-somewhere"-type of > > form. Users would be able to choose a language (which would be > > preselected by the homepage language). The resulting stuff would then be > > sent to audacity-de (by a "registered" user like, say, > > audacity-support-agent) to the correct mailing list. This would > > eliminate the possibility of spams. The users will then receive the > > result by email. This would be good anyway, because we could require the > > user to indicate the OS/Version etc. he's using. > > That's definitely a good idea - in fact it would be nice if people > could check boxes for the languages they are willing to accept > an answer in. We could also indicate which languages they are > most likely to get responses in as well. > > >>Also, SF has stopped sending out membership reminders, so the size of > >>the lists are growing and I think that quite a few people probably > >>don't want to be on them anymore. Any thoughts? I could take > >>unsubscribe requests via email every once in a while (aggregating a > >>bunch of them at once is much nicer than the occasional manual > >>unsubscribe). Or we could even consider unsubscribing everyone from > >>audacity-users once a year and forcing them to resubscribe if > >>interested. Alternatively we could unsubscribe everyone who has > >>not actively posted in three months or something like that. > > > > Ummm.... I don't see the rationale behind this. Why do you want to have > > our mailing lists _less_ traffic? (Sorry, might be I'm misunderstanding > > something here.) > > Well, there are something like 500 people on the audacity-users list, > and I get at least 1 email a week from someone extremely frustrated > with all of the traffic and who wants to subscribe, but can't figure > out how. > > There are definitely occasional "unsubscribe me plz" messages that > make it through to the lists, too, which is just annoying for > everyone else. > > > I think, people are supposed to know how to unsubscribe (it's on the > > bottom of every list email). Furthermore, it's good when people are on, > > say, audacity-users. Forcing them to post or unsubscribing them > > automatically will just cut down the numbers. I have often received > > lists for multiple months, never answering or even reading any post, but > > then something catched my eye and I started writing on the list again. > > That may be true for most people, but I guess there are a lot who > just have no idea what they're doing and have trouble following > simple directions. Otherwise I wouldn't be doing so many manual > unsubscribes. > > > That said, of course bouncing email adresses etc. should be deleted from > > lists, but that's a completely different issue. > > > > > >>Actually I've been thinking that good web forums might be a good > >>alternative to mailing lists (not to replace them entirely, but > >>to complement them). Anyone know of any good web forum > >>software we should look into? > > > > > > Please NO FORUMS. No, seriously. (At this point I originally had written > > a 2-page list of why web forums are bad, but I decided to delete it, > > because you can imagine already how it looks like, I think.) I believe > > web forums are not the way to go for support, because they are bad for > > both "customers" and "supporters". The "customers" are required to check > > back to see if their question is answered. (One could use > > auto-notification via email, but, eh, you get the point ;-) The > > "supporters", on the other hand, are required to check into the system, > > which is an extra step. Login may also be required. I will just not be > > able to answer an audacity-help email between two phone calls when > > someone says "I'll call back in 2 minutes". There's also the point that > > Web Forums are sloooow _by design_. Even with a fast server, they suck > > compared to a native MUA. Not to mention the limited interface. > > > > What I could agree on would be a kind of automatic support system (like > > most companies have in place for support requests). The user would just > > fill out a form on a page (this could be combined with the "language" > > idea above). Then, this would be added to some list. Supporters could > > "assign" questions to themselves (like in BugZilla), then answer them. > > Interaction with the system could be over email or maybe over the web, > > but I personally would only use it if the interface is clean and fast. > > OK, so this is like a forum, but only special people can reply. > > > But then again, I'm not sure what would be the advantage of all this, > > because mailing lists in Evolution's thread view are just fine to me. > > The advantages would be: > > 1. Forcing users to indicate their O.S. and Audacity version > > 2. Directing things to the appropriate list based on the language > spoken > > 3. The Bugzilla type system you describe could really speed up the > process for us, making it easy to give common replies and > letting fewer requests fall through the cracks. > > - Dominic > > > > ------------------------------------------------------- > This SF.Net email is sponsored by: IBM Linux Tutorials > Free Linux tutorial presented by Daniel Robbins, President and CEO of > GenToo technologies. Learn everything from fundamentals to system > administration.http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=1470&alloc_id=3638&op=click > _______________________________________________ > Audacity-devel mailing list > Aud...@li... > https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/audacity-devel |