[linux-elitists] Request-for-Comments: The "How to Get Help Online (2013)" Document

[Shlomi Fish]

Hi all,

I welcome comments about a document I wrote titled “How to Get Help Online
(2013)”, which can be found here:

http://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/computers/how-to-get-help-online/2013.html

(It is still not linked from the rest of the site.)

This document grew out of me concluding that it is highly possible many
inexperienced users do not know how and where to effectively get help online
with their problems. As a result, I wrote this document to distill my knowledge
and experience.

I am aware of this document -
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html - it is written well and is
a commendable effort, but mine serves a somewhat different purpose (= explaining
where to look for information instead of how to effectively do it yourself) and
I link to “How to ask Questions the Smart Way” in my (newer) document.

Any comments would be appreciated.

Regards,

Shlomi Fish

P.S.: part of my motivation for posting this here, is because people here have
been critical of my work, and I've been inspired by what Prof. Lawrence Lessig
wrote about encouraging critical people rather than sycophants in his book
Remix. For the relevant quote, see the <blockquote> here:

http://teachingopensource.org/index.php/How_to_start_contributing_to_or_using_Open_Source_Software#Some_Mental_Preparation

(short URL - http://is.gd/aDIMXG ).

[Don Marti]

Post by Shlomi Fish
I welcome comments about a document I wrote titled “How to Get Help Online
http://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/computers/how-to-get-help-online/2013.html

IRC has channels--how do you find the helpful people
channel and not the troll channel?

Why recommend a third-party site ahead of the
relevant project mailing list? Some projects have
active mailing lists that could turn out to be a
better place to ask than the Stack Exchange sites.
(Maybe mention that the Stack Exchange questions and
answers are CC-licensed so that projects can pick
them up and use them, which is a good thing.)

How about mentioning the local user group mailing
list? Some of the LUG lists are pretty good places
to start if you don't know which exact thing is
responsible for your problem. Good batch of
questions and answers on the SVLUG list recently...
http://lists.svlug.org/archives/svlug/2013-October/thread.html

Also, if the software that you're trying to get to
work has web-editable documentation, just edit the
documentation to describe the way you _want_ it to
work, and see if they take your change:
https://github.com/coreos/etcd/pull/272

[Shlomi Fish]

Hi Don,

thanks for your comments. See below for my response.

On Fri, 1 Nov 2013 13:00:34 -0700

Post by Don Marti

Post by Shlomi Fish
I welcome comments about a document I wrote titled “How to Get Help Online
http://www.shlomifish.org/philosophy/computers/how-to-get-help-online/2013.html

IRC has channels--how do you find the helpful people
channel and not the troll channel?

You are right that perhaps I should give some guidelines for finding the right
channel on IRC. Of course, there can always be one or two trolls even in helpful
channels, and one should realise they should ignore them.

Post by Don Marti
Why recommend a third-party site ahead of the
relevant project mailing list? Some projects have
active mailing lists that could turn out to be a
better place to ask than the Stack Exchange sites.
(Maybe mention that the Stack Exchange questions and
answers are CC-licensed so that projects can pick
them up and use them, which is a good thing.)

Well, the document I wrote does not only cover questions that relate to
open-source projects, but rather any question that one wishes to get help for
(with a focus on software-related questions). Anyway, perhaps I should
restructure the document so that to not imply a certain set-in-stone order for
the various resources I mention.

Anyway, one thing I noticed is that some people post a question on a Stack
Exchange site and then mention it on IRC or on mailing posts, so people who are
interested in increasing their Stack Exchange reputation can post an answer
there.

Post by Don Marti
How about mentioning the local user group mailing
list? Some of the LUG lists are pretty good places
to start if you don't know which exact thing is
responsible for your problem. Good batch of
questions and answers on the SVLUG list recently...
http://lists.svlug.org/archives/svlug/2013-October/thread.html

Well, I can mention it, but IRC can serve a similar purpose in finding where to
ask, and like I said, the questions may not be Linux/FOSS-related.

Post by Don Marti
Also, if the software that you're trying to get to
work has web-editable documentation, just edit the
documentation to describe the way you _want_ it to
https://github.com/coreos/etcd/pull/272

Well, the target audience of “How to Get Help Online (2013)” is people who
lack the experience and know-how to know where to get help, so I think assuming
they are confident or knowledgeable enough to send pull requests/etc. would be
quite a stretch. It is very likely that they are doing something wrong, and if
not, then someone more experienced than them should tell them it's a bug.

---------------

Thanks again for the commentary. I'll take it into account as I work on the
next draft.

Regards,

Shlomi Fish