Re: NIS or automounter problem

Thread: Re: NIS or automounter problem

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Re: NIS or automounter problem
	2007-01-24 09:24:32
inode0 wrote: > On 1/23/07, Dan Hunter charter.net> wrote: >> >> New users usually don't know where to get help. >> I can understand their posting to the wrong list. >> If you know the answer, tell them. >> If you know the correct list for the question, >> tell them... after you answer the question. >> Not everybody knows the Redhat lists backward and forward. >> A little dab of understanding please. > > It surprises me that people can find this list but can't find the > redhat-list which seems to me to be at least as well advertised and > more appropriate. IMO this list might as well be merged with that list > if people really don't want a list with RHN as its focus. The noise > ratio on this list is currently very high. How did folks here initially find out about this list (if you can remember)? It's obvious the explanation of the list and pointers to other lists on both the list info page [1] and in the 'welcome' email for new subscribers isn't sufficient to help folks find the appropriate list for their questions and to avoid off-topic discussions on this list. Any suggestions on other things we can do are welcome. Some ideas I had: (1) We could make a policy that if an off-topic question is asked, we first let the question asker know that this is not the appropriate list and provide a list of links that might be helpful for them (I can come up with that list if needed, although the list info page is a good start [1]). (2) We could cc the reply with the quoted question to the appropriate list with the answer if we know it. (Is this terrible mailing list etiquette?) (3) We could reply to the question asker privately (I think it's better for everyone if questions are answered publicly, though, for the benefit of folks running into the same problems in the future searching for an answer.) (4) We could send out a monthly reminder to mailing list subscribers with an explanation of what the mailing list is about and redirects to other lists (I don't like the idea of sending out so much mail, but I'm on other mailing lists that do this - they send out their policies/rules on a monthly basis.) ~m [1] https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/rhn-users _______________________________________________ rhn-users mailing list rhn-usersredhat.com https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/rhn-users
Re: NIS or automounter problem
	2007-01-24 10:36:04
Máirín Duffy wrote: > How did folks here initially find out about this list (if you can > remember)? I honestly don't remember. I *think* it was on the RHN help section, here: https://rhn.redhat.com/help/contact.pxt > Some ideas I had: > > (1) We could make a policy that if an off-topic question is asked, we > first let the question asker know that this is not the appropriate list > and provide a list of links that might be helpful for them (I can come > up with that list if needed, although the list info page is a good start > [1]). This helps, and a few folks have tried it in the past, but I think that it gets frustrating when others start replying and answering the questions anyhow. I tried a few weeks of relying off-list, but that too got frustrating for the same reasons. There was no need for them to go to the other lists because they were getting help here. > (2) We could cc the reply with the quoted question to the appropriate > list with the answer if we know it. (Is this terrible mailing list > etiquette?) Probably a bad idea, and confusing to people that are already confused over what this list is for. And probably irksome if we cc the wrong list ourselves > (3) We could reply to the question asker privately (I think it's better > for everyone if questions are answered publicly, though, for the benefit > of folks running into the same problems in the future searching for an > answer.) This sounds like the right thing to do from a certain level, but doing so continues to let this problem drag on. If off-topic discussions aren't discouraged, they will never stop. > (4) We could send out a monthly reminder to mailing list subscribers > with an explanation of what the mailing list is about and redirects to > other lists (I don't like the idea of sending out so much mail, but I'm > on other mailing lists that do this - they send out their policies/rules > on a monthly basis.) I'm also on a few lists that do this. I'm not sure that it ever does much good. First, you have the new subscribers who join and then post their off-topic question right away. They won't see a monthly mailing for it to matter. Second - and this relates to point #3 you made above - you have the long time subscribers who, despite messages being off-topic, let the discussion continue by offering help via the list. I'm not saying that people shouldn't offer help, I'm just saying that messages to this list are *not* the place to do it. These folks might want to consider replying off-list, letting the original sender know that the list isn't the proper place to be looking for an answer. This is probably too difficult to pull off, but I think that some renaming of the lists would help. Names like Taroon-list and Nahant-list mean hardly anything to me, since I am not a heavy Redhat user - what do they mean to the brand new user? Probably even less. I think the "user' in rhn-user pulls most of these folks in. So even redhat-list probably gets overlooked because it isn't called redhat-user-list.We already know that a lot of people can't be bothered to read what the lists are about, so making the list names more clear might help to solve some of these problems. redhat-network-list might make a bit more sense and differentiate it from a general users list. I dunno, though. It's probably not do-able, but I think Mailman's "topics_enabled" Option could help clean things up by requiring posts to have a keyword or 2 in them. This would force people to maybe read the list information first? However, I'm not sure it works with digest mode. jef _______________________________________________ rhn-users mailing list rhn-usersredhat.com https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/rhn-users