[Zope] Documentation via this list was.. Pay or DIO (Re: Quality vs. Quantity )

[Joel Burton]

On Mon, 11 Mar 2002, Paul Browning wrote:

>
>
> --On 11 March 2002 00:22 -0600 Tim Cook <twcook@iswt.com> wrote:
>
> > Here's a suggestion that I see works well on another list
> > (linuxmanagers) that is the same or very similar to what you
> > suggested.
> >
> > The questions are posted to the list.
> > ALL responses are sent only to the original person asking the
> > question.  That person is tasked with sending a reply where the
> > subject line is prefaced with the word "SUMMARY".  This summary
> > contains a concise list of the responses received and which one(s)
> > were attempted and the results of those attempts.
>
> I think this is an excellent proposal.
>
> >
> > This procedure:
> > 1. cuts down on list traffic
> > 2. puts responsibility on the person asking the question to
> > contribute back better detailed results
> > 3. creates a very useful archive
> >
> > Disadvantages:
> > 1. May inhibit productive discussion?
>   2. Risk loosing pearls of wisdom if summary of off-line response
>      not forthcoming
>   3. Requires discipline early on - perhaps people indicating that
>      they will follow the protocol should put something like
>
>      WILL SUMMARISE
>
>      in the Subject line
>
> The list archives should end up showing a one-to-one correspondence
> of SUMMARY and WILL SUMMARISE messages and we'll all live happily
> ever after ;-) Dangling WILL SUMMARISE messages will haunt the
> original poster for the rest of time .....

Hmm... this will cut down on list traffic, and it will put some
responsibility on the asker. But it raises a few quesions:

* When our penitent (let's call her Jennifer) asks her question about Zope
now, I can check and see if she's already rec'd a response to her question
before writing to her. Under this situation, I couldn't. So people will
either (a) spend more time writing to more people w/solutions or (b) spend
the same amount of time as they currently do, but having less info about
who needs their help and who's already received 10 answers about the use
of <dtml-var>

* When a clever Zopista answers a question (even a simple how-to-use-DTML
question), I'll learn something about their style, and sometimes they'll
throw out some higher-level piece of wisdom or deep Zope insight. I'm
afraid that these will be totally lost in the translation by the Zope
newbie trying to summarize.

* Part of the way community gets built her is by hearing each others
voices and playing off each other. If all we hear is the questioners and
the answers (or that's 95% of what we hear), I'm afraid this sense of
dialog--and a lot of the inherent community that comes with it--will be
lost.

* I think that seeing your own posts on the lists and knowing that people
are hearing your voice (rather than simply being listed as "thanks to
dieter and paul everitt for their help on this") is an ego-driven but
subtly important part of lists like this, and shouldn't be tinkered with
lightly.

Those of you that have been on both kinds of lists: can you address these
issues?

Might there be a through-the-web way of addressing these questions? Like a
MailingListThread Product on zope.org, so that after Jennifer's question
has been bantered around (& answered), she can go to zope.org, create a
MLT and fill in for this which lets her mark the category of the problem,
etc. People could then refer to these or search these.

-- 

Joel BURTON  |  joel@joelburton.com  |  joelburton.com  |  aim: wjoelburton
Independent Knowledge Management Consultant