On Fri, 2011-07-29 at 09:33 +0100, Dianne Reuby wrote: > On Fri, 2011-07-29 at 09:12 +0100, alan c wrote: > > > My immediate reaction is to think of prompting phone contact, or > > having it as an option somehow. In this case the user reverted to > > direct personal contact with a person already known to them, to > > confide in. It can be taken that the user did not 'know' the IRC > > helper, and could not confide. Or at least, they felt that way. > > My only experience of internet chat before Ubuntu was that AIM stuff > that my children loved but I hated - mainly because it flooded with > weird strangers. I was very nervous when I started using IRC because of > this, and I was also worried that I could do something wrong (don't ask > me what!) and get told off (don't ask me why, or by whom!) > > I mainly used the forums, and always the "absolute beginners" - there I > felt that I could ask any question, no matter how basic, and not be > worried about showing my ignorance. > > Do we have an Ubuntu newcomers IRC channel that would be more > appropriate? > > But I always felt IRC wasn't really the place to ask about problems - > the person with the answer may not be online, and a question would > pretty quickly scroll off the screen. In a forum it's there to be > answered whenever the experts called in. > > Dianne
It does seem that Ubuntu is unprepared to meet the support needs of the type of general, every day user that it wants (I assume) to attract. If we were a commercial organisation, all the support workers would be trained and there would be a common approach. Maybe it is time Ubuntu thought a bit more about how support is given through the community. Perhaps even devise an on line training course. Looking at the Ubuntu support page, the first port of call given for support is Launchpad Answers, where I hang out giving support for Libre/OpenOffice. I prefer it to IRC because I can give a more rounded and considered answer. IRC only allows short answers so you are bound to get more of the 'sudo apt-get install whatnot' type replies which baffle the non-tech users. Even in Launchpad you still get a lot of this type of answer or a quick link to a very technical forum post. I even find the new Ask Ubuntu to be pitched at a high technical level. But, perhaps this is the way it seems as, like in many forums and IRC, all manner of issues are put into the same pot whereas Launchpad tries to separate out queries by package, and LO/OOo queries tend to be quite simple. These are my thoughts. Tony -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
