How would it be if the threads were to be prioritized like bugzilla.
The priorities would be like that in bugzilla.
This will help in helping the users in more efficient way.
Giving some examples
If the system has been completely bricked or not able to boot - Urgent
If user is able to acsess system, but not some specific features and hinders in his work (like no sound) - High
If user is able to acsess system, specific features don’t work but doesn’t interfere in working (like vlc frezing) - medium
If user is able to acsess system, specific features don’t work but doesn’t interfere in working - but not as important as above case - Low
I need comments for two things.
Is this feature good enough to be included?
What changes you can suggest?
I didn’t knew whether the feature is worth it or not so I’ve not started a feature request at openFATE.
Such a priority system is liable to be misused and/or misinterpreted. Who’s to say who’s problem deserves more attention? In any case, unlike a bugzilla where cases can be assigned, this forum is effectively supported by volunteers, any of whom can participate. Just because a thread is marked ‘urgent’ doesn’t guarantee it will get answers any quicker or any other. Anyway, the KISS principle applies here IMHO. No need to complicate things. Some new members have a hard time figuring out the most appropriate subforum to post in let alone adding to the complexity.
And as many await from me that I word things a bit more strongly I can add that I observed many times here that people who tried to draw extra attention to their problem often are getting negative responses. Like:
Creating a title with all capitals will bring out answers like “please do not shout at us”.
Putting the word HELP in a title: “we all know this is a help forum, all threads here are requests for help”.
Putting words like Urgent, etc.: “there are paid Linux experts around, we are only your fellow users and will only help (and we very much love to help) when we have time and we feel entitled to say something on the specific subject”.
The best way to get attention from your fellow users is:
Choose the (sub)forum with care. And try to look at your problem with the eyes of other people. E.g. when you are sure that the problem you have using Tumbleweed has nothing to do with Tumbleweed, understand that mentioning the word Tumbleweed (and you have to, otherwise people will feel cheated as it later is revealed) will stop many non Tumbleweed users people from reading any further. Thus posting outside the Tumbleweed forum will have negative effect on your exposure.
Make a good title. Remember that many people will only browse through the new emerging titles to decide if they will open a thread. Keywords should be there (and “need help” is NOT a keyword).
Do start with telling what you are using. openSUSE version, which desktop, where the software your problem is about is installed from if not from the standard repos in the standard way. Remember that if those facts only show up after two days of fruitless posting to and from, will not encourage people to help you any more, also in future threads.
Try to have the three basic elements of a problem description: what did you do, what did you expect to happen, what happened instead. Not necessary as a three pointed list, but your description should have them all three.
Be exact and precise. Do not think that people will do the things you do, the same way and that thus they will understand you when you use some vague wording. Preferable copy/paste computer text in your post. Second (because not always easy to do in the forums) post a screen shot. All these are much better then descriptions (that often contain conclusions instead of facts).
Try to cope with people whose first language is not English. You will loose them when you do not format your text in sentences and paragraphs, or when you use lingo only understood by subgroups of the English language community.
Doing all of the above as good as possible will increase the chance that your problem will get as much attention as possible much, much more then having an “official” priority connected to it.
Well, I hope not all of you will take the trouble to read the above. Maybe not worth it.
My best advice – use short but very informative titles: “Computer bricked after last kernel update”.
I suggest this, because that corresponds to how I use the forum. I look through the titles. If a title suggest a serious problem for which I may have the know-how to help, I read that thread carefully. Otherwise I might skim through it or completely ignore it.
Again, I’ll expect answers from admins/moderators
Oops! Not an admin/moderator. I’m just an ordinary user.
On Wed, 06 May 2015 08:26:02 +0000, vish 99 wrote:
> How would it be if the threads were to be prioritized like bugzilla. The
> priorities would be like that in bugzilla.
>
> This will help in helping the users in more efficient way.
>
> Giving some examples If the system has been completely bricked or not
> able to boot - Urgent If user is able to acsess system, but not some
> specific features and hinders in his work (like no sound) - High If user
> is able to acsess system, specific features don’t work but doesn’t
> interfere in working (like vlc frezing) - medium If user is able to
> acsess system, specific features don’t work but doesn’t interfere in
> working - but not as important as above case - Low
>
> I need comments for two things.
>
> - Is this feature good enough to be included?
> - What changes you can suggest?
>
>
> I didn’t knew whether the feature is worth it or not so I’ve not started
> a feature request at openFATE.
>
> Again, I’ll expect answers from admins/moderators
I don’t see that this adds a lot of value - flagging something as
“urgent” doesn’t mean there will be faster answers, and isn’t likely to
make someone say “oh, well, I should look at this question rather than
this other one”.
I can add that I observed many times here that people who tried to draw extra attention to their problem often are getting negative responses. Like:
