[ubuntu-uk] getting help - UK List

[London School of Puppetry]

Yes Robin- Great idea?  Are you one of them?  Anyone in North Yorks?
Caroline

On 29/01/07, Robin Menneer <robinmenneer at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Ok then, you have to earn a living.  What about the retireds doing it on
> flexitime ?  Some protection would have to be provided against the
> no-hopers, who might just have to be told this, whether they liked it or
> not.
>
> On 1/29/07, Alan Pope <alan at popey.com> wrote:
>
> > On Mon, 2007-01-29 at 19:33 +0000, Matthew East wrote:
> > > On Mon, 2007-01-29 at 17:45 +0000, Alan Pope wrote:
> > > > On Mon, 2007-01-29 at 14:54 +0100, Matthew East wrote:
> > > > > On Mon, January 29, 2007 1:10 am, London School of Puppetry wrote:
> >
> > > > > > is there a list somewhere of Ubuntu experts
> > > > >
> > > > > There isn't such a list for the UK. However, developing one would
> > be a
> > > > > very worthwhile task for this team to carry out - face to face
> > help is a
> > > > > very important type of help which is much more difficult to find
> > for
> > > > > Ubuntu than it should be.
> > > >
> > > > How would you envisage such a list operating?
> > > >
> > > > Would this be a "not an Ubuntu official partner, but willing to
> > help"
> > > > type list?
> > >
> > > There is already one of those:
> > http://www.ubuntu.com/support/marketplace
> > >
> >
> > Yes, I was aware of that, wanted to clarify what you were suggesting.
> >
> > > What I had in mind was more something by way of freely available
> > > community support.
> >
> > I always find that a little tricky.
> >
> > For me (whether right or wrong) I like to choose how and when I
> > contribute to the community. As with everyone else I have a limited
> > amount of time to spend between this/that/theother. I also (as with
> > everyone else) have requirements to pay bills and feed myself and the
> > family. So this leads to a careful(ish) balancing act between:-
> >
> > a) Work - stuff that pays bills
> > b) FLOSS stuff - contributing to the community for free
> > c) Other - family stuff etc
> >
> > If someone were to pay me to do b) then I could do less of a) in order
> > to do c). If I were to advertise my free services then the balance might
> >
> > tip more towards b) detracting the attention from those vital c) and a)
> > sections.
> >
> > At the moment I can walk away from a computer, not looking at the
> > support tickets, mailing lists, email (to do a) or c)) knowing that they
> >
> > will either pile up and I will have to go through them when I get back,
> > or someone else will deal with them.
> >
> > If the contact is direct via email/phone/IM/whatever then the system of
> > one-to-many turns into one-to-one. This is of course potentially
> > beneficial to the recipient of the help, but less useful for the helper.
> > More of my time would be dedicated to helping one individual - and
> > whilst that would be a fulfilling task, it's not time efficient. Think
> > of all the other people who have the same problem now or in the future
> > who will not benefit from the private conversations between myself and
> > the person I am helping.
> >
> > I would say we are better off pointing people to the support ticket
> > system, as there are many eyeballs on it. For example I was going like e
> > demon on that between October and December last year, but this year have
> > barely touched it due to other commitments. Do the people asking
> > questions get no support as a result? No, because there are loads of
> > other committed people who the work load-balances around.
> >
> > Compare that with the person down the road who needs some one-on-one, if
> > I am away doing a) and c) then they are left in a situation where they
> > may mail/phone/IM/whatever me and get no response, or get a very delayed
> > response. How does that look/feel for them? In addition as I focus my
> > attention on them, talking them through whatever issue they have, what
> > happens to all the other people who are waiting for their support
> > tickets to be answered in a way that will benefit future google-users?
> >
> > I appreciate some people need a little hand-holding, I really do. But
> > when someone is desperate for help (machine wont boot) they will expect
> > the person helping to drop stuff to come over to help won't they? That's
> > how I often find people with problems.
> >
> > I know I have worded this mail from my perspective, but I am pretty sure
> >
> > it's not far off how many people feel about helping with the community.
> >
> > Am I out of order / hypocritical / wrong? Please tell me. I would like
> > to offer as much time and support to the community as I can, but I like
> > the idea of time-inefficiency built-in.
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Al.
> >
> >
> > --
> > ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com
> > https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk
> > https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
> --
> ubuntu-uk at lists.ubuntu.com
> https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk
> https://wiki.kubuntu.org/UKTeam/
>
>
>


-- 

---
London School of Puppetry
www.londonschoolofpuppetry.com
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