Fedora support etiquette, need suggestions

Aaron Matteson fedora at cryptosystem.us
Tue Mar 9 04:38:04 UTC 2004


Andrew Robinson became daring and sent these 0.7K bytes,
> Aaron Matteson wrote:
> >
> >
> >Second, i would like to use my previous post to point out that
> >perhaps 
> >there needs to be a manifesto of sorts to show people where and how
> >to 
> >look for desired information. I would not mind undertaking this task
> >with 
> >the help of oen or two others using the standard fedora/redhat 
> >documentation methods.
> >
> >Anyone up for this task besides me?
> 
> Aaron, since I swung the stick that stirred up this hornet's nest, I 
> would be happy to help out. Since I'm not a developer, I may require 
> some, uh, hand holding. Please contact me at awrobinson at cox.net.
> 
> Andrew Robinson
> 
Started new thread for this.

Ok, i have begun to draw up a list of things i feel should be included
in this document in terms of where to look for information, how to look
for it and proper etiquete for asking for help or pointers. Most people
do not seem to have the problem of asking for information, but i feel
there should at least be some examples of how this shouldideally take
place. This seems kind of odd to me, so i am trying to put all this in a
way that will not riffle some feathers.

So far what i have had time to think of is this:

Information to include in a query:
*The problem
*What is the exact text of the error
*What you expect in terms of a solution
        **Pointers, nudge in the right direction etc.

How such a query should be handled:
*Nudge in the right direction
*At the very least a link to bugzilla
*If it is simple enouph just tell how to fix it
*There is much to be said for researching a problem for ones self, so i
do not think every situation demands a solution as to an explaination of
the given issue.

This will no doubt go through a dozen or more revisions before it see's
the light of day for the sake of tact.

What i guess i am trying to write here is more of a manifesto-handbook
for asking for help and giving help in a way that would be most productive.

What i am asking this list is for people to list how they think they
best like questions and likewise how to make an answer more appealing.
You all see what i am trying to get at, any input and suggestions would
be very helpful and appriciated. Also, what where some of the most
positive experiences dealing with community support everyone has had?
What methods have you found best for dealing with people needing help,
but at the same time not doing everything for them?

This has started out as a simple guide for finding information but i
think it demands more then that. Because i think some area's of support
can definatly use a makeover, sometimes it is that first question that
makes all the difference to someone adopting linux or trying it out for
the first time. First impressions are the lasting ones, this is one
thing the debian community does pretty well (If a newbie can get past
the installer) :)
-- 
  . 0 .  Aaron M Matteson - http://cryptosystem.us
  . . 0  Real programmers don't document. If it was hard to write,
  0 0 0  it should be hard to understand!
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