Open Stack

Interesting because Ron very specifically mentioned being able to find
useful and relevant information on the Ubuntu forums without bothering devs
at the beginning of this discussion (which Soren then noted as an excellent
point). 

We don't have an extended answer from Anne yet, but she did vote Yes on the
survey (unless someone else used her name since there is no real auth).

-----Original Message-----
From: Thierry Carrez [mailto:thierry at openstack.org] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 03, 2011 9:27 AM
To: Jordan Rinke
Cc: openstack at lists.launchpad.net
Subject: Re: [Openstack] Creating a forum

Jordan Rinke wrote:
> I think a purely QnA site misses the mark a little, that style is 
> great for a very specific question (And the OSQnA stuff Everett linked 
> looks great) but I think a lot of users are lacking the knowledge to 
> ask a very specific question just yet. So maybe it is that we need a 
> place for random discussion, but that can also specifically answer a
question as well.

If you take Ubuntu (arguably one of the largest software-related forums in
the world), the forums are completely ignored by developers, so it relies on
a completely separate user community. It is a source for wrong (or outdated)
technical answers and user frustration.

They recently set up a stackexchange site at ask.ubuntu.com, and it is a
huge success. Developers and users contribute to it, and it's a valuable and
continuously-updated source of information.

I don't want us to run into the same failure before realizing there is a
better and more targeted tool available... Personally I would ignore forums
(since they are a waste of time), but contribute to the stackexchange site
(since they are an easy way to contribute reference information).

> 77.8% voting for a forum at this point (out of 18 responses)

I would wait on Anne's answer before taking any hasty decision based on a
binary poll.

--
Thierry Carrez (ttx)
Release Manager, OpenStack