One thing I have noticed since I returned to the Forums: It sure is dead compared to what it used to be like. I presume it has to do with spreading our help seekers and help contributors out too thin with too many different platforms for support.
I recently learned we actually have some Online Chat, and I have known for some time that there is the openSUSE Facebook page(s), in addition to our Forum and the IRC.
I do not know if we have other help platforms.
But I think that might be making it actually more difficult to get the necessary help (???) now that the answers are scattered across so many locations, instead of mainly being concentrated here on the Forums.
What do you think?
I’m not trying to push for any changes, don’t get me wrong, it is just an observation. I think that the internet atmosphere has pushed us in that direction, and I think it is necessary openSUSE goes there as long as users are on places like Facebook, Instagram, and heaven knows where else.
There has been an IRC chat for openSUSE for as long as I can remember. A decade ago (perhaps 12-to-15 years) I used to hang around that online chat a lot - but no more. Hanging around that chat was useful when I spent hours in the evening on my computer - but strange as it may sound, now that I am retired I no longer spend as much time doing technical things on my computer in the evenings (rather I do non technical things - such as watch videos).
The openSUSE Facebook page has also been around for a long time - maybe more than 5 years.
There was a time when we had at least 3 (maybe 4) different forums supporting openSUSE … then sometime back, when Novell came into the picture and purchased SuSE-GmBH, an effort was made to bring the 3 openSUSE forums under one forum (around 2007/2008). I think there may have a couple of other (less popular) openSUSE forums also at the same time, both of which faded away when the person running them moved on to other interests. And while Novell is no longer in the picture - I don’t think things have changed much from an openSUSE user’s perspective … or maybe I should say not from my perspective.
I like to think that when things get quiet on the forum, it means everything ‘just works’ much better than in the past. Not everyone likes to blog/post about their success, but one often will see their posts (requesting help) when they encounter difficulties.
I know for myself, my installs require much less configuring, most of the time. The only exception (very recent) is when I buy very new hardware - and have to spend a bit extra time tuning the software to work with more cutting edge hardware.
.
Also as time goes there is a change in demographics and what sites people prefer. Looking back 15-20 years of the internet I get the impression that people used to hang more on forums and read blogs in say 2000-2004, but then Facebook, Twitter and more recently Reddit captured more and more of the attention of the larger part of users. Forums do not seem to appeal to younger people. Just an impression.
There’s also the fact that the forums haven’t really changed in the last 10 years, in usability or otherwise - even the VB here is from 2013.
The pretty heavy registration system is one that that drives users away compared to the much more streamlined Reddit style “Here is your nick, email, start posting”.
That has been my impression as well, although personally I do find the forum environment more suitably structured for support. (A good blog is like reading a good reference book…nice when it closely matches the issue I’m researching.)
Hi
The openSUSE distribution is pretty good these days, I suspect end users are having less issues… or find that the issue is already answered here in the Forum…
With support forums, it’s always important to remember that lower message volumes tend to be a good thing - means that people don’t have as many issues as they used to.
As one of the admins of the Facebook group, we spent a fair amount of time trying to push people to ask support questions over here, and we got massive pushback from people who wanted to ask on Facebook. They were on Facebook already, and they were asking their questions.
This sort of thing goes in cycles. I’ve been doing support forums work of one form or another since the mid-80s. Organizations centralize their support to a single place, and it works for a while, and then users start asking in other places - now those other places include IRC, mailing lists, Discord, Stackoverflow, Facebook (both pages and groups - as well as via DM, which we do actively discourage).
It’s the nature of the beast. Trying to push users to a single place to ask for help ultimately results in people saying “it’s easier to use this other distro” because they get answers to their questions wherever they ask, instead of the project trying to ‘police’ them into a particular corner of the Internet.
That I know. I was referring to another Internet Chat area (not using IRC, more of a graphical Chat room) that I am certain I had stumbled across in the past few days. I just tried to hunt it down, but could not find it. If I stumble across it again, I will show it to you.
The openSUSE Facebook page has also been around for a long time - maybe more than 5 years.
Yes, I know, but I also see Twitter, Mastodon, Flickr, LinkedIn, Reddit … and I do believe we have an Instagram page.
I like to think that when things get quiet on the forum, it means everything ‘just works’ much better than in the past. Not everyone likes to blog/post about their success, but one often will see their posts (requesting help) when they encounter difficulties.
Yes, I generally prefer to think that way, myself.
I know for myself, my installs require much less configuring, most of the time. The only exception (very recent) is when I buy very new hardware - and have to spend a bit extra time tuning the software to work with more cutting edge hardware.
.
Same here. I have not had to look for any solutions on the Forum for myself in a few years. I have not had any difficulties since at least way back to 42.1, AFAIR.
Me, too. I prefer the Forum Environment, and the Wikis are not too bad, either. Just needs some of to do some updating/maintenance (f.e.: I just removed the reference and link to connect.opensuse.org, which has long been deprecated. I see on the main web page we have a similar link that is deprecated, but I’m not the web admin.)
Quite likely, old chum. As I said, I have had no issues I have had to ask for help with for a long time. The Developers have really done an awesome job for the past few years, even more so than the great work they did before that.
As one of the admins of the Facebook group, we spent a fair amount of time trying to push people to ask support questions over here, and we got massive pushback from people who wanted to ask on Facebook. They were on Facebook already, and they were asking their questions.
I am sure you got a lot of pushback. We cannot be doing that (your following quote). It is why we must be dragged to all those other places. But, agreeing that we need to does not mean it necessarily a good thing that we are thinning out the helpers by having some here, some there, some gosh-golly-some-other-place-by-heavens-we-know-not-where.
rotfl!
It’s the nature of the beast. Trying to push users to a single place to ask for help ultimately results in people saying “it’s easier to use this other distro” because they get answers to their questions wherever they ask, instead of the project trying to ‘police’ them into a particular corner of the Internet.
I only know about the Facebook one because, though I despise Facebook, I (gack!!!)have to be there for my Music and Recording Career.
(Doing just fine with that, thank you for asking.)