Standing in the street trying to hear yourself think

[Charlie Kravetz]

On Thu, 9 Jul 2009 14:58:49 +0800
John McCabe-Dansted <gmatht at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Sat, Jul 4, 2009 at 2:23 AM, Evan<eapache at gmail.com> wrote:
> > We also seem to have a duplication of effort on several fronts. At
> > last glance we have:
> >
> > - mailing lists
> > - IRC
> > - wiki
> > - launchpad
> > - launchpad answers
> > - forums
> 
> I wrote a blueprint for maintaining a database of errors. I suggest
> that for all questions of the form
>    "What does this error mean? What should I do?"
> The way to get help is via this database. E.g. say I run
>   Xvfb :2 -screen 2 1600x1200x32
> and get the error
>   Couldn't add screen 2
> Then instead of hunting round in all the of the above. I simply run
>   autohelpsys  Xvfb :2 -screen 2 1600x1200x32
> (autohelpsys has not yet been written)
> autohelpsys searches the database for a solution. If a solution is not
> found it offers to create a new ticket. Someone (possibly me) then
> submits something like the the following to the database:
> 

At this point, are we back to telling the user something like "I did
not find you an answer, but if you wait a few days(, weeks, months),
someone should get back to you."?

It would be better to connect to the live help instead, and when the
answer is written, email the user with. This will give them another
avenue of help, and if the answer was done quickly, may give them the
help in time.


> COMMAND=Xvfb
> REGEX=Couldn't add screen [[:digit:]]
> ANSWER=This is usually caused by selecting 32 bits per pixel. Try 24
> or 16 instead.
> 
> The database then sends me an email, asking me to confirm that this
> fixes my problem.
> 
> https://wiki.ubuntu.com/AutoHelpSysSpec
> 
> Although the above example is for command line applications, it would
> be possible to add a link to GUI warning and error dialogs.
> 



-- 
Charlie Kravetz 
Linux Registered User Number 425914          [http://counter.li.org/]
Never let anyone steal your DREAM.           [http://keepingdreams.com]