Long open questions expiring

[Tom]

Problem
Many questions still remain unanswered and 'open' even tho we have the skills to solve them. This damages Linux's reputation as well as just Ubuntu's. It also forces people to repost questions that may be half-way answered.

Possible answer
1 or 2 experts given more Karma points for Solving questions that have remained unSolved for over 3 days and much less for questions that have been opened for less than 3 days. I think 2 experts (or 1PR person and 1 expert) could be enough to gradually go all the way back and triage/solve any bad-feeling that people may have toward Ubuntu.

Currently we have a great team, both noobs (such as me) and experts/"team leaders" solving most problems soon after they are posted. This is brilliant and people getting answer off 2 or 3 people definitely helps non-experts (like me) feel more comfortable about risking giving an answer, knowing that someone else will cover things i might not have thought of.

Good luck with this
Regards from
Tom :)

[marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra)]

I agree with you.

a) An answer contact daily receive an huge amount of mail from launchpad.
b) It is impossible to be 24/24 answering to questions.
c) regularly we must clean the incoming mail from launchpad i can't keep more than 2 or 3 days of traffic.

Sometimes i read answers already answered still in open state.
The answer contact for Ubuntu users cannot see them until they are discarded from Launchpad Janitor.

We need more states on a question assigned automatically from Launchpad system, something like this:

days= current day - date asked

green : fresh not solved in open status question asked days < 5 days from current time
orange : open question not solved asked days > 5 and days < 10 days
red : open question asked days > 10 and days < 15 days

The system might be send to the contact users a report when a question change status from orange to red status.

The Launchpad notification of dead answers >15 days is not so useful to us.

Thank you

[Tom (tom6)]

I hadn't thought of that but i like the idea.
.

Even without adding a new team for people to join ..

Red notification would give subscribers a 'last minute' chance to fix the problem before LaunchPad Janitor insultingly expired it.

Orange notification would give subscribers a nudge to remind them the problem hasn't been resolved.
.

I definitely think that if Bug #1 is to be fixed then we have to leave good lasting impressions even if we are unable to fix a problem for them The LaunchPad Janitors message is really quite insulting to read for people that have been waiting patiently. I'm not sure about the technical term but i would call it 'a blocker' or something. It would be more helpful if it apologised for us not fixing the problem and suggested other places to look "if these places haven't been searched already". In Britain and America we are often quite abrupt and 'straight-forward' which many other cultures would see as 'rude & arrogant'. I think the Janitor's message seriously needs a re-write by someone kind perhaps experienced in Public-Relations or perhaps even Marketing.

Sorry, i just got the Janitor's message again this morning and found the problem is now one i have learned enough to fix. Of course i can't post the answer so i'll have to just contact the person directly - again this is not a good way for us to have to act.

Regards from
Tom :)

[Tom (tom6)]

It would be good if an apology was offered to the customer and alternative places to get help from, it wouldn't really hurt to suggest re-posting the question either would it?

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToGetHelp

http://www.ubuntulinux.org/support

Please can we do something about this soon?
Regards from
Tom

[Rikki (rikkitic)]

As the one who initiated the query that has led to here, I feel obligated to respond to this thread. I'm very impressed by the level of helpfulness in the Ubuntu community. It's unlike anything I have experienced elsewhere. I especially appreciate the kind offer to help me get Ubuntu set up on my computer after I mentioned in passing the difficulties I was having in addition to the original problem with dial-up that I posted about.

I am usually busy with multiple projects at any one time and at the moment I am upgrading and reinstalling my computers. I am also desperately trying to get off dial-up. For these reasons I decided to put Ubuntu on hold for the time being and return to it when I had the time and energy to focus on it again. That is why I haven't responded to other posts or returned to my original query. I still very much want to get Ubuntu up and running on my system, but until I am ready to go with a dedicated machine to experiment on, I have relegated it to the 'too hard' box.

Thanks again to all, Rikkitic

[Fred Dyck (freddyck)]

I have been able to get my printer working again. After doing a software update my system recognizes my usb connection. I then had to download my hp driver and then my hp plugin. The printer works okay for now.

> Date: Wed, 27 May 2009 04:51:54 +0000
> From: <email address hidden>
> To: <email address hidden>
> Subject: [Bug 324794] Re: Long open questions expiring
>
> As the one who initiated the query that has led to here, I feel
> obligated to respond to this thread. I'm very impressed by the level of
> helpfulness in the Ubuntu community. It's unlike anything I have
> experienced elsewhere. I especially appreciate the kind offer to help me
> get Ubuntu set up on my computer after I mentioned in passing the
> difficulties I was having in addition to the original problem with dial-
> up that I posted about.
>
> I am usually busy with multiple projects at any one time and at the
> moment I am upgrading and reinstalling my computers. I am also
> desperately trying to get off dial-up. For these reasons I decided to
> put Ubuntu on hold for the time being and return to it when I had the
> time and energy to focus on it again. That is why I haven't responded to
> other posts or returned to my original query. I still very much want to
> get Ubuntu up and running on my system, but until I am ready to go with
> a dedicated machine to experiment on, I have relegated it to the 'too
> hard' box.
>
> Thanks again to all, Rikkitic
>
> --
> Long open questions expiring
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/324794
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in Launchpad Answers: Triaged
>
> Bug description:
> Problem
> Many questions still remain unanswered and 'open' even tho we have the skills to solve them. This damages Linux's reputation as well as just Ubuntu's. It also forces people to repost questions that may be half-way answered.
>
> Possible answer
> 1 or 2 experts given more Karma points for Solving questions that have remained unSolved for over 3 days and much less for questions that have been opened for less than 3 days. I think 2 experts (or 1PR person and 1 expert) could be enough to gradually go all the way back and triage/solve any bad-feeling that people may have toward Ubuntu.
>
> Currently we have a great team, both noobs (such as me) and experts/"team leaders" solving most problems soon after they are posted. This is brilliant and people getting answer off 2 or 3 people definitely helps non-experts (like me) feel more comfortable about risking giving an answer, knowing that someone else will cover things i might not have thought of.
>
> Good luck with this
> Regards from
> Tom :)

_________________________________________________________________
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[Craig Huffstetler (xq)]

This thread has to do with Long Open Question Expiring and is a bug. I believe the above comments were meant for an Answers forum thread. Please double check your posting intent. :)

[dE (de-techno)]

People should realise that this is the opensource community...we help each other...some have time, some don't...the people facing the problem should realise this.

The key thing in opensource community is that, there's no one to blame...you're stuck, you find a bug etc...you cant blame anyone...except yourself...you are a uses, you are the contribute...so its your job to fix the bug...or at least get ensured that the developers get notified about it.

As a contributor...I'm trying to spread Linux fatest possible...in that case all opensource products...with openoffice. What I've seen is that the most difficult part of Linux is software installation, otherwise, its the undisputed winner of OS (as a result people are just falling in love with ubuntu...after I do the software installation)...we got tons of distributions...choose what you like; you can install deb packages install in red hat, and RPM install in debian...or even ebuilts...its perfectly compatible with each other...so compatibility is not an issue.

The best thing that can happen to Linux, in a profit organisation that provides technical support (like with Red Hat), this industry will bloom and so will Linux after this, cause the most difficult part...software installation will be taken care of.

[clombard (clombard44)]

Yes people are falling in love with Ubuntu...and from the folks I recently spoke to, they are also falling out of love with Ubuntu. They claim it is starting to act more and more like... ...don't make me say it...only instead of the blue screen they now get the gray screen!

--- On Wed, 5/27/09, dE <email address hidden> wrote:

From: dE <email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 324794] Re: Long open questions expiring
To: <email address hidden>
Date: Wednesday, May 27, 2009, 12:05 PM

People should realise that this is the opensource community...we help
each other...some have time, some don't...the people facing the problem
should realise this.

The key thing in opensource community is that, there's no one to
blame...you're stuck, you find a bug etc...you cant blame
anyone...except yourself...you are a uses, you are the contribute...so
its your job to fix the bug...or at least get ensured that the
developers get notified about it.

As a contributor...I'm trying to spread Linux fatest possible...in that
case all opensource products...with openoffice. What I've seen is that
the most difficult part of Linux is software installation, otherwise,
its the undisputed winner of OS (as a result people are just falling in
love with ubuntu...after I do the software installation)...we got tons
of distributions...choose what you like; you can install deb packages
install in red hat, and RPM install in debian...or even ebuilts...its
perfectly compatible with each other...so compatibility is not an issue.

The best thing that can happen to Linux, in a profit organisation that
provides technical support (like with Red Hat), this industry will bloom
and so will Linux after this, cause the most difficult part...software
installation will be taken care of.

--
Long open questions expiring
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/324794
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of the bug.

[Tom (tom6)]

I think people do a great job in here but looking through the questions attached we can see that some slipped through our net that would have been really easy to fix.

I think Marcobras traffic light suggestion to re-flag up questions that have remained unsolved after a few days would require very little extra functionality added to launchpad, a tiny utility, but would lead to our work being better focussed. The same amount of work from us could easily lead to a much greater percentage of questions reaching the fully "Solved" status.

[Tom (tom6)]

Think about a team game like football. Does everyone play at the furthest forward position? If the whole team played at striker positions lacking positions such as defence then the game would be very different. On a chess board if every piece was a pawn then the game would soon crunch to a halt in the middle.

At the moment launchpad isn't able to help people that don't have a broadband connection and aren't able to respond quickly if/when we ask them for more info. This makes it very tough to troubleshoot a question. By the time the problem is pinned down there is only likely to be one person subscribed to the thread and they might not have an answer. As a result all we can really effectively do is throw one or 2 quick 'easy' answers and hope that one of them is right. Alternatively we have to throw a book's worth of info which the person asking will then have to wade through alone. The fact that so many people manage to do so much more is a impressive but is purely down to answerers often being really good helpful people.

Regards all from
Tom :)

[Curtis Hovey (sinzui)]

This bug has become invalid by the traffic. Questions open are automatically expired if they are not solved. The issue about letting answer contacts and project owners change the question status requires a Blueprint.

[Robert Millette (rjmillette)]

Hello again Tom,
This is a mistake I think. I notified you that my problem of initial
start up with 8.1 was resolved with installing Ubuntu 9.04.
I hope all is well.
Thank you again for your help!

On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 1:17 PM, ayhan<email address hidden> wrote:
> ** Visibility changed to: Private
>
> ** This bug has been flagged as a security vulnerability
>
> --
> Long open questions expiring
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/324794
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in Launchpad Answers: Triaged
>
> Bug description:
> Problem
> Many questions still remain unanswered and 'open' even tho we have the skills to solve them.  This damages Linux's reputation as well as just Ubuntu's.  It also forces people to repost questions that may be half-way answered.
>
> Possible answer
> 1 or 2 experts given more Karma points for Solving questions that have remained unSolved for over 3 days and much less for questions that have been opened for less than 3 days.  I think 2 experts (or 1PR person and 1 expert) could be enough to gradually go all the way back and triage/solve any bad-feeling that people may have toward Ubuntu.
>
> Currently we have a great team, both noobs (such as me) and experts/"team leaders" solving most problems soon after they are posted.  This is brilliant and people getting answer off 2 or 3 people definitely helps non-experts (like me) feel more comfortable about risking giving an answer, knowing that someone else will cover things i might not have thought of.
>
> Good luck with this
> Regards from
> Tom :)
>

--
Sincerely,
Robert Millette

[Tom (tom6)]

Ooops, i think you are right. I've been linking quite a few threads to the bug-report i filed but i'm not sure why i linked yours to it - just a mistake i think, sorry about that! Glad you no longer have to worry about the problem :)

Thanks for getting backe to me
Good luck and regards from
Tom :)

________________________________
From: Robert Millette <email address hidden>
To: <email address hidden>
Sent: Thursday, 11 June, 2009 19:18:20
Subject: Re: [Bug 324794] Re: Long open questions expiring

Hello again Tom,
This is a mistake I think. I notified you that my problem of initial
start up with 8.1 was resolved with installing Ubuntu 9.04.
I hope all is well.
Thank you again for your help!

On Thu, Jun 11, 2009 at 1:17 PM, ayhan<email address hidden> wrote:
> ** Visibility changed to: Private
>
> ** This bug has been flagged as a security vulnerability
>
> --
> Long open questions expiring
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/324794
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in Launchpad Answers: Triaged
>
> Bug description:
> Problem
> Many questions still remain unanswered and 'open' even tho we have the skills to solve them. This damages Linux's reputation as well as just Ubuntu's. It also forces people to repost questions that may be half-way answered.
>
> Possible answer
> 1 or 2 experts given more Karma points for Solving questions that have remained unSolved for over 3 days and much less for questions that have been opened for less than 3 days. I think 2 experts (or 1PR person and 1 expert) could be enough to gradually go all the way back and triage/solve any bad-feeling that people may have toward Ubuntu.
>
> Currently we have a great team, both noobs (such as me) and experts/"team leaders" solving most problems soon after they are posted. This is brilliant and people getting answer off 2 or 3 people definitely helps non-experts (like me) feel more comfortable about risking giving an answer, knowing that someone else will cover things i might not have thought of.
>
> Good luck with this
> Regards from
> Tom :)
>

--
Sincerely,
Robert Millette

--
Long open questions expiring
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/324794
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of the bug.

Status in Launchpad Answers: Invalid

Bug description:
Problem
Many questions still remain unanswered and 'open' even tho we have the skills to solve them. This damages Linux's reputation as well as just Ubuntu's. It also forces people to repost questions that may be half-way answered.

Possible answer
1 or 2 experts given more Karma points for Solving questions that have remained unSolved for over 3 days and much less for questions that have been opened for less than 3 days. I think 2 experts (or 1PR person and 1 expert) could be enough to gradually go all the way back and triage/solve any bad-feeling that people may have toward Ubuntu.

Currently we have a great team, both noobs (such as me) and experts/"team leaders" solving most problems soon after they are posted. This is brilliant and people getting answer off 2 or 3 people definitely helps non-experts (like me) feel m...