On 8/23/07, Eloi George <..hidden..> wrote:
Ok, I see what you mean. However my assertion was never about what
should be the -main- thrust of communication. That's decided by the
community. I'm just saying that forums provide a way to get the more
non-technical involved / interested in the product.
I don't think anyone is saying that this shouldn't happen. The question is basically whether the core team should take responsibility for it. We have enough work on our plate at the moment without adding *additional* responsibilities for core members. At the same time, provided that it is representted appropriately, I think this is a great opportunity for people who want to show support for the project either to host such forums or more importantly get involved in them answering peoples' questions.
I will say, however, that we may be some time from developing a community who understands the software well enough to provide effective help in the forums. So I don't see this as urgent by any measure.
Likewise with the exception of Ubuntu, those aforementioned applications
are all targeted towards technical users. Ledger-SMB seems to be more
targeting the small to medium business owner that can't afford an IT
person and doesn't have the time or patience to learn how to use mailing
lists.
Although I continue to see this as an opportunity, I see a few concerns. If these are primarily people with little accounting and/or technical knowledge, the community is going to need to field people who can point out (quickly) where things are wrong so that we don't have a lot of misinformation there.
While it would be wonderful, the dev team doesn't have to participate in
the peer forums. What these people usually want is to know that people
like them are using the product. They want to see other businesspeople
with real-world solutions to real-world problems that might not even
have anything to do with a software bug.
Agreed with this assessment.
If they have an -absolute- need to talk to the guys in charge, they have
no problem with paying a couple of bucks (not tens or hundreds) to do
it. They might even learn how to post to this list. But until they get
invested into the program, that's not going to happen.
The one caution I would mention is that getting them invested in the pogram is going to *require* that the content on the forums is high quality and ideally reviewed by people who do understand what is going on accounting-wise and/or technically. Again this is an opportunity for accountants, support guys, etc. to offer quick (5-min) advice for free and advertise their supporting services at the same time. Recruiting *this* community is what is critical.
Best Wishes,
Chris Travers