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Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questions

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 11:07 pm
by RGB
From the Announcement mailing list:
Do you have a question about Apache OpenOffice? Something you always
wondered about the product? Or a question about the OpenOffice open
source project?

Ask OpenOffice -- The Apache OpenOffice project invites your
questions. Technical questions, questions about the open source
project, questions about where we see things going in 5 years, all are
good candidates. You submit your questions and help rate questions
submitted by others. We'll then collect the top 10 questions and
respond to them in a future project blog post
(http://blogs.apache.org/ooo/).

We're using Google Moderator to collection questions. To submit your
question, and to view and rate questions already submitted, go to
this page and click on "Submit a question":

http://www.google.com/moderator/#16/e=2033e8

Note: support questions should still go to our community support
forums (http://forum.openoffice.org/) for faster response. Ask
OpenOffice is intended for questions of broader interest to users and
the community.

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Tue Nov 27, 2012 11:45 pm
by Villeroy
The answers to most questions can be found here.

No, I will not register @google.com to ask my own questions ...
R.W. wrote:We'll then collect the top 10 questions and
respond to them in a future project blog post
... particularly if it won't be among the top 10.

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 12:25 am
by Hagar Delest
I've created an account, I can post it if you want.

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 8:40 am
by B Marcelly
Any question you may have ? This is a garbage collector.
Another brillant idea of the marketing leader, Rob Weir.

And yes, I have a question : does Apache OpenOffice need the marketing fuss of a commercial product?
See also Apache OpenOffice: Call for Marketing Volunteers

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 9:11 am
by Hagar Delest
I only posted to know their plans about OOXML.
I've not had any replied about that same question in the previous Google Moderator session...
NB: I fully agree, just a garbage collector.

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 10:53 am
by RoryOF
Looking at the postings, I think this will offer another excuse for users not reading the help files. Apart from the AOO/LibO questions almost every query can be answered by use of the help files or a visit to the Forum(s)

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 12:23 pm
by Hagar Delest
RoryOF wrote:Looking at the postings, I think this will offer another excuse for users not reading the help files. Apart from the AOO/LibO questions almost every query can be answered by use of the help files or a visit to the Forum(s)
+1. I've given the link to the forum in some of them already...

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Wed Nov 28, 2012 12:27 pm
by RoryOF
If analysis of the questions helps build up a current FAQ of problems and answers, it will be worthwhile, although the combined brains of Forum Vounteers could probably come up with such an FAQ much more quickly.

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 12:13 am
by robweir
Hagar Delest wrote:
RoryOF wrote:Looking at the postings, I think this will offer another excuse for users not reading the help files. Apart from the AOO/LibO questions almost every query can be answered by use of the help files or a visit to the Forum(s)
+1. I've given the link to the forum in some of them already...
We're not trying to collect support questions. In fact the note specifically said that support questions should come here to the community forums. Of course, who reads all of a note? It seems like not everyone even in this thread even read the note completely.

So we will get some questions that don't belong. So what? There is no harm. The random person asking how to print envelopes will not get any upvotes. The top 10 questions will still be the ones that are most interesting to all voters. So they will tend to be broader questions about strategic direction for the project. IMHO these kinds of questions would benefit from a definitive answer from the project.

Regards,

-Rob

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 12:27 am
by Hagar Delest
The problem is that if you want to check all the questions to spot the interesting ones, then you need to go through all the uninteresting ones...
The interface is really bad too, once your reply a question, you're back to the start of the list.

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 12:53 am
by robweir
Hagar Delest wrote:The problem is that if you want to check all the questions to spot the interesting ones, then you need to go through all the uninteresting ones...
The interface is really bad too, once your reply a question, you're back to the start of the list.
Google Moderator is not intended to be a discussion forum. It is not an interface for answering questions. it is an interface for scoring questions. Google Moderator is used, for example, to collect questions from voters before a debate with political candidates. The highest scoring questions get asked.

As far as interesting versus non-interesting questions, ideally we want voters to look at both, and to vote the good ones up and the bad ones down. The interface is optimized to showing you all of the new questions that you have not yet rated.

-Rob

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 3:20 am
by RGB
There are already a couple of good questions that deserve good and official answers like and ipad/mobile version, why the user profile gives trouble, why some extensions are bundled while others are external, plans for a new UI... and so on. None of these questions are properly answered here or anywhere else.

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 3:34 am
by kingfisher
I have voted for and asked a few questions. The only significant issue in my opinion is the one raised by Villeroy, namely, you need a Google account to participate. A board on these forums would have served as well if not better except for the fact that these forums provide for software other than Apache OpenOffice or its predecessor. The only organisation other than Google (to my knowledge) which provides a suitable medium is Yahoo. Enough said.

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 9:26 am
by Hagar Delest
robweir wrote:Google Moderator is used, for example, to collect questions from voters before a debate with political candidates. The highest scoring questions get asked.
I know but if you want to rate the questions, you've to see all the questions, including the new ones that get no votes at the beginning!
robweir wrote:The interface is optimized to showing you all of the new questions that you have not yet rated.
By default, it's sorted by popularity. OK, there are links on the left to change the sorting.
kingfisher wrote:A board on these forums would have served as well if not better
But you still need an account.

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 12:55 pm
by RGB
Hagar Delest wrote:
kingfisher wrote:A board on these forums would have served as well if not better
But you still need an account.
In fact, you will always need an account, no matter which system is used: otherwise you will only find real garbage in form of spam.

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 2:57 pm
by robweir
RGB wrote:
Hagar Delest wrote:
kingfisher wrote:A board on these forums would have served as well if not better
But you still need an account.
In fact, you will always need an account, no matter which system is used: otherwise you will only find real garbage in form of spam.
Right. And remember, we did the 4.0 brainstorming on Google Moderator as well, and 1,277 people participated, submitting 931 ideas and casting 14,031 votes. Sure, some were not willing to login with a Google ID. But we don't need everyone's opinion. We only need a representative sampling of opinion. I'd be more concerned about the huge number of people whose native language is Spanish or Chinese and who might not be able to read my note than the much smaller number of people who are not willing to login.

-Rob

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 3:11 pm
by RoryOF
robweir wrote: remember, we did the 4.0 brainstorming on Google Moderator as well, and 1,277 people participated, submitting 931 ideas and casting 14,031 votes.
Is there any analysis of that yet, Rob?

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 5:29 pm
by robweir
RoryOF wrote:
robweir wrote: remember, we did the 4.0 brainstorming on Google Moderator as well, and 1,277 people participated, submitting 931 ideas and casting 14,031 votes.
Is there any analysis of that yet, Rob?
Yes, in fact we've been using it to prioritize the 4.0 features. It confirmed some of the priorities we were already assuming, like MS Office interop concerns and the desire for a more modern looking UI. So it reaffirmed that we were on the right track.

-Rob

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 5:32 pm
by Hagar Delest
Any public communication about these findings?

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Thu Nov 29, 2012 6:40 pm
by robweir
Hagar Delest wrote:Any public communication about these findings?
Of course, everything on our mailing list is public. But if you're asking whether we have any blog post on this, the answer is no. I'm waiting for us to have a fuller view of AOO 4.0 features and I'll wrap it all into one post.

-Rob

Re: Ask OpenOffice: the project wants to answer your questio

Posted: Mon Jan 07, 2013 6:56 pm
by Minio
If anyone is interested, top questions has been chosen and answered on Apache OpenOffice blog:
https://blogs.apache.org/OOo/entry/your ... s_answered