Technical support on the list [was Re: rogers rocket stick sierra 330U]

[Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre]

On Fri, Sep 14, 2012 at 4:12 PM, Kip Warner <kip at thevertigo.com> wrote:
[...]
> Which is more valuable?

Orange.

>
> 1) A new Ubuntu person gets concierge treatment that tactfully points
> them to the best online support site for Ubuntu in the world. The site
> is free and jammed with experts on Ubuntu, and the correct answer is
> entered into a database that helps hundreds or more Ubuntu people,  or

Of course that's great, but I don't feel just pointing someone to a
website is 1) polite, and 2) all that "personal".

What I mean by this is sure, they will get the help they need, but
they will likely lose the personal touch of finding someone /
someplace they can count on, where they feel welcome because they feel
they are speaking to human beings rather than a collection of data.
The hard hand-off from one source of information to another is going
to be beneficial on the long term.

The one truly great support site for Ubuntu stuff I say would be
AskUbuntu [1]. It's really awesome, but you would still have to
manually wade through the hundreds of questions to find exactly what
you're looking for; it doesn't mean it's been answered already, and it
doesn't mean it will look sufficiently like what you're having trouble
with to notice it really is the same issue. Then again, maybe I just
can't figure out how to search through it.

If you ask your own, you still have to wait for someone who knows
about to subject to answer the question, which may take a few days.

> 2) A new user gets in-person outreach from a friendly Ubuntu tech
> support person in their town/city and makes a personal connection to the
> Ubuntu philosophy and project, or

Sure, it would be great, but it's not going to happen every time
someone asks for help. It's a large country, people are spread out all
over it. I certainly would like to go drive up to BC to help someone
with their computer, but I'm in Montreal and it's just not practical.

> 3) A new user gets random incorrect advice from some grumpy guy who has
> never been to an Ubuntu event and never wants to, only occasionally uses
> Ubuntu (begrudgingly), and longs for the good old days when everything
> free was incorrectly named after a kernel and the world didn't care.

Who here is the grumpy guy who has never been to an Ubuntu event?

I haven't seen random incorrect advice here yet, for the posts I've
taken time to read. I'm sure they would quickly be corrected by
knowledgeable people anyway.

> Answer carefully. Bonus points for speed.

What can I do with my points? ;)

[1] http://askubuntu.com/

Mathieu Trudel-Lapierre <mathieu.tl at gmail.com>
Freenode: cyphermox, Jabber: mathieu.tl at gmail.com
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