Ambiguity In What "answers.launchpad.net" Is Used For

[Randall Ross]

Recently, I posted a question on answers.launchpad.net regarding the best places (venues) to host LoCo events. I received a response that paraphrases roughly to: "answers.launchpad.net" is for technical questions/answers only.

Though this is a response from a single individual, and a volunteer with good intentions, I feel is perhaps indicative of a wider perception that I do not share.

My interpretation is that answers.launchpad.net is and should be for ANY question about Ubuntu, technical or not and that there should not be any discouragement of questions that do not meet certain criteria.

So, there are at least two competing viewpoints on what the "answers.launchpad.net" site is for, possibly many more.

Thread is here for reference:
https://answers.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+question/83940

[Daniel Holbach (dholbach)]

I personally feel that you have much better chances to get a good answer about LoCo events at https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-event-planners or either https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/loco-contacts

Sure this is no answer to your question if Launchpad can serve other than merely technical purposes, but in this specific case it's pretty clear where to get the best information.

[Randall Ross (randall)]

Thanks Daniel for your good input and suggestions.

I guess in a way it's a Catch-22. If we (the community of people that hang around the Ubuntu forums, answers, lists, etc) don't encourage people to use answers.launchpad more, then the coverage of non-technical issues there will remain sporadic. I personally feel that answers.launchpad could be an amazing place for all questions, technical or not.

An analogy would be how bugs.launchpad is now used for community, where it was once only used for technical bugs. It funnels all the issues into one place/database. Having a single funnel is powerful, and simpler.

Perhaps it makes sense to rename this bug?

[Daniel Holbach (dholbach)]

I think we should try to identify use-cases first that are not already covered by mailing lists, forums or IRC channel before we start pushing answers.launchpad.net.

[Randall Ross (randall)]

Further thought:

Mailing lists, forums, IRC channels are all disjointed, and unstructured. As a result the data is largely "un-mineable" (locked away in a hairball, needle-in-a-haystack...) This makes it difficult for other areas of the Ubuntu community (i.e. non-developers) to thrive in a manner that builds/contributes to the project.

[Daniel Holbach (dholbach)]

There's two use cases I can think of
 1) you're totally new to Ubuntu, you might want to meet with people in your local team and find out more - that's something we could try to fix in the loco-directory (we should link from ubuntu.com when it is available)
 2) you want to get involved in some kind of team: check out https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Teams to see what the teams do and how you could fit in.

I realise that it's a bit difficult to find that information "at a glance", but it's not a needs in a haystack. :-)

In any case we should put some work into this.

[Randall Ross (randall)]

Here's my use case:

A user has an established LoCo and is not new to Ubuntu. They also
aren't savvy researchers. They aren't programmers. When confronted with
an Ubuntu issue, they'd like a place to reach out to the whole Ubuntu
community but with a primary emphasis on their locality (Vancouver BC in
this case) in the hopes that a neighbour can help them. They would like
the information to be structured, easily searchable, and backed by
reputation (i.e. They can put a face and name to the advice.)

Here's my feeling:

Launchpad use by " everyday users" should not be discouraged. It's the
best tool (highest signal-to-noise, well organized, database driven). We
should be actively encouraging everyone to use Launchpad and even going
a step further by integrating it more tightly into Ubuntu's desktop.