Fedora Support channels Improvement ideas

[Jeff Spaleta]

2008/6/23 Kevin Fenzi <kevin at scrye.com>:
> - Form a 'Fedora Support' SIG to gather all the support channels under
> one org and start up some communication channels between them.
> Perhaps call it "Fedora HelpDesk" or "Fedora Helpers" or something to
> prevent people from confusing it with paid support.

This has been kicked around for a while now. The idea needs a leader
to organize the space. Form the SIG and see who shows up willing to
put in effort.

> - Some way of showing who has been helpful on the IRC channel would be
> great. Perhaps some kind of karma system where users could add karma to
> people who are assisting and remove from those who are not, then a
> periodic report to the channel about the active users and their
> standing, or a pointer to a website with current stats. Perhaps
> freenode cloaks for the folks in the SIG/group.

I have a hard time envisioning how evaluate the quality of help
without introducing significant personal bias.  Its beyond me, but
that shouldn't stop you from finding a way to do it. I would certainly
appreciate having a metric by which to trend.

>
> - Some guidelines people could look at for the channel. What is
> specifically supported. What is not. A list of items that will get you
> removed from the channel. A way to address a complaint to the SIG that
> will get mediated and checked. Specific HOWTO's or docs that should be
> used to help users.

I think this would be priority #1 for a SIG in this area.  In fact I
think I'm in agreement with the rest of what you said, in the order
you said it as a priority list... its been said before.  We need to
either attempt it or we stop talking about it and move on.

If you want to re-use #fedora and other existing channels you'll need
to make an effort to get the ops on those channels in on the SIG work
to draft the guidelines.  The more of the existing ops you can have in
the guideline formulation, and the more who affirm their personal
commitment to the final guidelines the less of a fight we'll have when
it comes time to do the re-org.

-jef"If I've been voted out of office, I'll definitely be
participating heavily in the SIG discussions."spaleta