The cost of incivility
Posted: Wed Jan 21, 2015 6:02 am
I think this was discussed way back when we were hassling over finding an accommodation between Apache OpenOffice Incubator (with training wheels still on) and the Forums.
Today, on the user list, there was a complaint about a thread that an user was taken too while researching the usual problem about how to make an XSLX file.
viewtopic.php?f=45&t=56953&start=30 Ends a two page screed in which there were two users who dared to raise their heads and an incredible echo-chamber response that was not helpful at all, not even civil enough to say there is no such help. I understand that everyone who posted on that thread is probably satisfied with their righteous contributions.
But serving users and folks with immediate problems and concerns was not evident. And that is the page that people who have similar problems find.
The only advice I can offer is two-fold. First, review the Apache guidelines on civility and consider that it does apply here. You are Apache OpenOffice to the world, and it matters that this be a welcoming and gracious place, even when there is no immediate solution or place to send folks. This is useful: http://openoffice.apache.org/list-conduct.html and this includes forum (in the generic sense) behavior: http://www.apache.org/foundation/policies/conduct.html
The second piece of advice is to stay in the user or visitor's world and address their question and only their question. They are not here as acolytes of the local religion. They are users looking for a solution and thinking Apache OpenOffice could/should help. I don't mind a suggestion that they may find that the support for some function in LibreOffice may work for them, but don't just kiss them off. It does not serve them to know your ideas about how Windows sucks, Microsoft is evil, and OOXML is no standard. And you don't need to defend the developer priorities or what it costs to add some feature or facility. It is a fact that there is likely no immediate solution.
(The project probably needs a page or more on what it means to be a volunteer-supported, open-source development project that produces software that is free to the public. You don't need to address that.)
Now you get to deal with what folks will find when they are directed here for assistance with particular kinds of problems.
Today, on the user list, there was a complaint about a thread that an user was taken too while researching the usual problem about how to make an XSLX file.
viewtopic.php?f=45&t=56953&start=30 Ends a two page screed in which there were two users who dared to raise their heads and an incredible echo-chamber response that was not helpful at all, not even civil enough to say there is no such help. I understand that everyone who posted on that thread is probably satisfied with their righteous contributions.
But serving users and folks with immediate problems and concerns was not evident. And that is the page that people who have similar problems find.
The only advice I can offer is two-fold. First, review the Apache guidelines on civility and consider that it does apply here. You are Apache OpenOffice to the world, and it matters that this be a welcoming and gracious place, even when there is no immediate solution or place to send folks. This is useful: http://openoffice.apache.org/list-conduct.html and this includes forum (in the generic sense) behavior: http://www.apache.org/foundation/policies/conduct.html
The second piece of advice is to stay in the user or visitor's world and address their question and only their question. They are not here as acolytes of the local religion. They are users looking for a solution and thinking Apache OpenOffice could/should help. I don't mind a suggestion that they may find that the support for some function in LibreOffice may work for them, but don't just kiss them off. It does not serve them to know your ideas about how Windows sucks, Microsoft is evil, and OOXML is no standard. And you don't need to defend the developer priorities or what it costs to add some feature or facility. It is a fact that there is likely no immediate solution.
(The project probably needs a page or more on what it means to be a volunteer-supported, open-source development project that produces software that is free to the public. You don't need to address that.)
Now you get to deal with what folks will find when they are directed here for assistance with particular kinds of problems.