What are we doing wrong?

[Vikram Dhillon]

Phil, I believe this can relate to our discussion of extending the
help menu in the gnome-meeting, I think people will find it most
helpful to use that instead of google, what do you say about that.

-- 
Regards,
Vikram Dhillon

~~~
There are lots of Linux users who don't care how the kernel works, but
only want to use it. That is a tribute to how good Linux is.
-- Linus Torvalds

On Sun, Jan 17, 2010 at 12:35 PM, Carl Symons <carlsymons at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2010 10:48:27 +0000
>> From: Phil Bull <philbull at gmail.com>
>> Subject: What are we doing wrong?
>> To: Ubuntu Doc <ubuntu-doc at lists.ubuntu.com>
>>
>> Hi guys,
>>
>> I've been reading the comments in news articles [1][2] about the Ubuntu
>> Manual. No-one knows that the system docs exist. Seriously, read them.
>> They think that the wiki is the closest thing we have to official docs.
>>
>> What are we doing wrong? My hunches are:
>>
>>      * People don't think to look in the System menu, or they don't
>>        think that clicking the "Help and Support" button will actually
>>        be helpful.
>>      * People just use Google anyway, because it's faster and they're
>>        more familiar with it.
>>      * We aren't promoting ourselves enough.
>>
>> What do people think?
>>
>> Thanks,
>>
>> Phil
>>
>> [1] -
>> http://digg.com/linux_unix/Ubuntu_Manual_Will_Be_Available_with_Ubuntu_10_04
>> [2] -
>> http://news.softpedia.com/news/Ubuntu-Manual-Will-Be-Available-with-Ubuntu-10-04-131201.shtml
>>
>> --
>> Phil Bull
>> https://launchpad.net/people/philbull
>>
>>
>> Date: Sun, 17 Jan 2010 23:53:13 +1300
>> From: Benjamin Humphrey <humphreybc at gmail.com>
>> Subject: Re: What are we doing wrong?
>> To: Phil Bull <philbull at gmail.com>
>> Cc: Ubuntu Doc <ubuntu-doc at lists.ubuntu.com>
>>
>> Hi Phil,
>>
>> This is what I have been thinking recently as well. The system docs are
>> good, but for some reason they just aren't used enough - they don't seem to
>> work. I can't work out why.
>>
>> I know from my personal experience, that the first thing I do when I install
>> Ubuntu (and not only now that I'm a seasoned user but also when I first
>> installed it) was remove the two default panel launchers for help and
>> Firefox. In *my *opinion, they look *bad. *But, there doesn't seem to be any
>> other way to attract the eye of the new user as long as we aren't allowed to
>> put icons on the desktop by default.
>>
>> It's an interesting topic and I would love to see some statistics on how
>> often people actually use yelp. I mean it's not like it's not obvious -
>> there is the slide in the ubiquity installer slideshow about help and
>> support, there's the icon on the* *panel *and *a menu entry under "System."
>>
>> I too would like to hear some other views on this.
>>
>
> My experience and behaviors about the system docs are similar. I've
> been editing the new Kubuntu docs and am surprised at how much I've
> learned.
>
> A key to the system documentation may be that it is included with the
> software, and is therefore "official" (i.e., directly sanctioned by
> Ubuntu). For that reason, it is distinct from other methods of getting
> answers. Google and the ()Ubuntu forums are messy...mostly right, but
> occasionally the source of bad information.
>
> The wiki is also "official". However, for someone new to FOSS,
> probably coming from Windows, the idea of official, authoritative
> online help is foreign. There's no Microsoft or Windows wiki that
> comes close to the Ubuntu wiki.
>
> Possibilities
> 1. The official system documentation and wiki could reference each
> other, such as forums recommend starting with FAQs.
>
> 2. The community forums would probably support a similar
> recommendation as #1. Beginners often arrive at a forum with questions
> that have been asked and answered many times. But for a beginner, this
> information is not very accessible. The forum environment is not
> always helpful to absolute beginners. It would be beneficial to both
> new users and the forum to point at the official information.
>
> Kubuntuforums.net has the following in the forum header to head off
> these beginner questions:
> "IMPORTANT:  If you are new to KubuntuForums, please take the time to
> read the following two articles:
>    Please Read Before Posting
>    SEARCH BEFORE POSTING"
>
> Another entry could easily be a suggestion to read the official
> documentation, along with instructions about how to find it. The forum
> council and moderators should be open to the suggestion of including
> references to the official documentation where it's appropriate. They
> may need to become aware of what the official documentation offers.
>
> 3. Embrace the issue. If you can't fix it, feature it. One of the
> things that sets open source apart from the proprietary software
> ecosystem is the wealth of shared information. The system
> documentation, wikis, forums are all ways to give users the
> information they want.
>
> This multi-modal information resource is one of the primary reasons I
> use Kubuntu. In my experience, the Ubuntu community is by far the most
> extensive and helpful. Whether the marketing materials say this or
> not, it is a major "selling point". The system documentation is a key
> part of that, even though there is no direct way of knowing the
> click-through to the local help system. No way of knowing how many
> people use it.
>
> Carl
>
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