[
Lists Home |
Date Index |
Thread Index
]
>we should have sufficient privileges to clean up posts that need to be backed
out, toned down, or redirected.
Bruce is right. We should probably document what constitutes a bad post and a
proper response, then just give all Edboard members a clear mandate to enforce.
Our current options for dealing with bad posts are to a) append a public
comment asking author to edit or move, b) send a private email to the author,
c) delete the post, or d) a combination of these (for instance, if we delete,
we should probably also send the author an email stating why we did it and
asking them not to persist in the behavior).
Of course, there are degrees of bad. Posts that have nothing to do with DITA
should be deleted immediately. If you see a post like that on an area of the
site you can't delete, let me know, and I'll do it.
As for other bad posts, it might help if we could identify a few on the site
now. That would make it easier to develop a set of stock notices, along the
lines of:
"This posting is more appropriate for the Forum section of this site. Please
repost this question to the appropriate discussion area at
http://dita.xml.org/forum.";
or an email message like:
"You posted information to dita.xml.org that does not relate to DITA. Your post
has been removed. If you persist in posting inappropriate material to this
site, your XML.org posting privileges will be revoked. See our Editorial
Guidelines <link> and Terms of Use <link> for details. If you feel you are
receiving this message in error, please contact communications@oasis-open.org."
If anyone sees an inappropriate post, could you please send the link to this
list--just for the short-term, so we can get a handle on the types of misuse
out there?
Carol
-----Original Message-----
From: Esrig, Bruce (Bruce) [mailto:esrig@lucent.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2006 1:54 PM
To: 'Carol Geyer'
Cc: dita-fa-edboard@lists.xml.org
Subject: RE: [dita-fa-edboard] Forum/blog queries hard to track
I have reservations similar to Don's, although my thoughts run a little more in
favor of editing posts than perhaps anyone else's on the editorial board.
We should have a pretty definite plan in place about how to bring people in who
can respond to posts that need responses, and we should have sufficient
privileges to clean up posts that need to be backed out, toned down, or
redirected.
Best wishes,
Bruce
-----Original Message-----
From: Carol Geyer [mailto:carol.geyer@oasis-open.org]
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2006 1:36 PM
To: dita-fa-edboard@lists.xml.org
Subject: RE: [dita-fa-edboard] Forum/blog queries hard to track
Don,
Thanks for raising these issues. Maybe it would help to deal with them one at a
time, the easiest first.
1) Blogs are being used for questions that should be posted to Forums instead.
Inappropriate posts are bound to happen, but certainly, we should do whatever
we can to educate and encourage proper use. Given that most people won't take
the time to review any lengthy site instructions on what to post where, there
are a few options that might help:
--create a new page with blog/forum use instructions and link it from the blog
and forum pages
--add specific instructions to the Editorial Guidelines (when to use blog/when
to use forum)
--compose a friendly template message to send to those who inappropriately use
the blog, asking them to use the forum instead. We could do this via private
email or we could post a comment publicly on the site (hopefully using words
that wouldn't embarrass the misguided poster.)
--other ideas?
I'm happy to draft blog/forum use instructions, and then take care of posting
and linking it appropriately.
If we want to send stock messages to "blog abusers" via email, would someone on
the edboard be interested in taking that on? If we post append a comment on the
site to inappropriate blogs, we wouldn't have to necessarily task one person to
do--anybody could do with when they see the need. The community may even start
policing this themselves.
2) People are posting questions to the Forum that aren't being answered.
I don't think pointing people *away* from the Focus Area Forum is the answer. I
would certainly not be in favor of ever saying "this [forum/blog/mailing list]
is not often monitored..."
The Forum hopefully offers an alternative, complimentary, engaging way for
subsets of people to dialogue on specific topics and easily find answers to
issues previously raised.
On our last edboard call, we discussed have one edboard member monitor each
Forum container and respond when needed. Maybe we need to revisit/formalize
that. Eventually, our goal is to encourage (in a positive way) more people in
the community to use the Forum and respond to one another.
Naturally, it would be great if every question posted to the Forum received a
quick response, but is that absolutely necessary? If, in a few months, we
observe that the majority of Forum posts are unanswered, I think we should
address it (by closing out some of the Forum containers we've created, perhaps)
but if a minority of posts go unanswered, does that really reflect terribly on
the site? There is an organic nature to a community project like this that we
need to respect, no?
Carol
-----Original Message-----
From: Don Day [mailto:dond@us.ibm.com]
Sent: Thursday, June 22, 2006 12:02 PM
To: dita-fa-edboard@lists.xml.org
Subject: [dita-fa-edboard] Forum/blog queries hard to track
Carol, a potentially poor situation is building up around the DITA FA's
forum and blog areas. Users have been using these tools to pose questions
that need answered by a variety of SMEs. My Toolkit developers do not have
time to browse these forums daily, which I suspect is true of other SMEs
too. My toolkit team relies on the "push" capability of the dita-users
forum to keep us abreast of issues needing our response. This site has
been very effective and responsive for support, especially urgent
queries--the kind most likely to fall between the cracks in a pull-based
environment such as the DITA FA.
If a user wants the most possible eyes on his or her question, there are
900+ subscribers on dita-users, many using the immediate email option to
keep track of support questions. I do not believe the current user stats
that I am seeing on the FA front page: "There are currently 0 users and
3384 guests online. " I suspect that the counter is accumulating over
time, and that the questions now appearing on the forum are getting very
little actual visibility.
I am especially concerned about users posing questions on the blogs. This
isn't what blogs are intended for, but users will grab at any writeable
space they can find if they are not clearly aware of other venues. Somehow
we need to promote the preferred behavior for blogs (messaging rather than
support).
We have the same issue for other tools that offer help facilities that
users discover, but which are less effective than dita-users. Sourceforge
provides a practically useless help mailing list, for example, which is
getting questions better answered on a broadly subscribed list. From
dita-users, we can triage the items easily and point them to the next best
resource if necessary such as the DITA FA. The triage center aspect of
dita-users is probably the key reason to keep that forum in our overall
support picture--to avoid swamping the doorways of the specialists who end
up referring patients to other hospitals rather than tending their own
urgent user issues.
I am inclined to respond to these out-of-place questions with boilerplate
like this that I had to use this morning for a support question posed to an
obscure OT support list. What do others suggest?
-------
Thank you for your inquiry. It is important to be connected with the user
community who have the experience to guide you in your questions. I suggest
these resources:
The Yahoo! dita-users forum http://groups.yahoo.com/group/dita-users (the
best place to post questions like these and get quick answers--over 900
people are on this list!)
The DITA Focus Area http://dita.xml.org (the "watering hole" where you can
get latest info on tools, background, techniques, educational materials,
etc.)
The DITA Coverpage bibliography site http://xml.coverpages.org/dita.html
(everything ever published about DITA is listed here, by category)
Because this [forum/blog/mailing list] is not often monitored, I encourage
you to bookmark the above sites and freely engage the users there, most of
whom have been through similar "getting started" scenarios that they would
be glad to recommend.
--
sig
Regards,
--
Don Day
Chair, OASIS DITA Technical Committee
IBM Lead DITA Architect
Email: dond@us.ibm.com
11501 Burnet Rd. MS9033E015, Austin TX 78758
Phone: +1 512-838-8550
T/L: 678-8550
"Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?"
--T.S. Eliot
---------------------------------------------------------------------
This publicly archived list is provided by OASIS for feedback on
the XML.org DITA Focus Area. To minimize spam in the archive, you
must subscribe before posting. Alternatively, you may contact
communications@oasis-open.org for direct assistance.
[Un]Subscribe/change address: list-[un]subscribe@lists.xml.org
List archives: http://lists.xml.org/archives/dita-fa-feedback
XML.org DITA Focus Area: http://dita.xml.org
Committee homepage: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/dita
List Guidelines: http://www.oasis-open.org/maillists/guidelines.php
---------------------------------------------------------------------
This publicly archived list is provided by OASIS for feedback on
the XML.org DITA Focus Area. To minimize spam in the archive, you
must subscribe before posting. Alternatively, you may contact
communications@oasis-open.org for direct assistance.
[Un]Subscribe/change address: list-[un]subscribe@lists.xml.org
List archives: http://lists.xml.org/archives/dita-fa-feedback
XML.org DITA Focus Area: http://dita.xml.org
Committee homepage: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/dita
List Guidelines: http://www.oasis-open.org/maillists/guidelines.php
---------------------------------------------------------------------
This publicly archived list is provided by OASIS for feedback on
the XML.org DITA Focus Area. To minimize spam in the archive, you
must subscribe before posting. Alternatively, you may contact
communications@oasis-open.org for direct assistance.
[Un]Subscribe/change address: list-[un]subscribe@lists.xml.org
List archives: http://lists.xml.org/archives/dita-fa-feedback
XML.org DITA Focus Area: http://dita.xml.org
Committee homepage: http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/dita
List Guidelines: http://www.oasis-open.org/maillists/guidelines.php
|
