[Koha] Non-technical questions (and beating a dead horse)

[MJ Ray]

Hal Bright <HBright at farmingtonlibraries.org>
> I agree the list should cover non-technical threads and topics, but
> every question (3 in total) I have posted that was non-technical
> came back with A) please do not use the "reply"button to start other
> topics (that was the reply I got for non-technical post #1 and
> non-technical post #2 when I forgot about the response from #1) and
> B) a resounding silence on post #3 , #2 & #1.

Yeah, readers of these discussions are snowed under.  Once upon a
time, I was the sweeper and tried to answer all the questions that
didn't get an answer from anyone else, but I can't do that any more.
I'm just about to delete 800-odd emails which no-one answered because
they're now so old that I doubt anyone cares about the answers any
more (if anyone wants to ask an unanswered question again, please do).
If anyone would like to pay me to answer more questions on this list,
please email me directly and I'll send you a donation link.

Alternatively, please help out and answer questions!  What if you're
no expert?  I wasn't when I started 8 years ago.  I've posted some
absolute howlers, but as long as no-one dies, no-one holds them
against you: the important thing is to try to help, in a humble and
useful way.


Because we're snowed under, misbehaviour like using "reply" to ask a
new question is a pain because the bad cataloguing data it generates
makes it harder for old hands to follow discussions and it also means
that non-techies using the "web forum" views of these discussions
probably won't see it at all.

For example, here's where one of the above questions appeared:
http://koha.1045719.n5.nabble.com/Bulk-Item-Modification-Assinging-Branch-Codes-td3361228.html

I don't see why people with answers about collection performance
would be reading a page about Bulk Item Modification - do you?

So I usually only give those a canned reply - if it was important,
they'll ask it again properly, in a way that non-techies will see both
the question and the answer.  I don't think we can conclude that
another list is needed because a few misplaced questions didn't get
answers.

Hope that helps,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef), member of www.software.coop, a for-more-than-profit co-op.
http://koha-community.org supporter, web and LMS developer, statistician.
In My Opinion Only: see http://mjr.towers.org.uk/email.html
Available for hire for Koha work http://www.software.coop/products/koha