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Re: dev@ to users@ communication channel

From: Miha Vitorovic <mvitorovic_at_nil.si>
Date: 2007-04-14 23:45:33 CEST

Karl Fogel <kfogel@red-bean.com> wrote on 14.04.2007 20:21:41:

> Miha Vitorovic <mvitorovic@nil.si> writes:
> > I think that may not be enough. I think this role should not be
reduced to
> > the commentator of the dev@ list for the users@, but calls for a
person
> > that is to some extent "part" of the developer community. Someone who
can
> > ask questions on the dev@ list without being perceived as a pesky user
who
> > sticks his nose into everything. I know that user questions are not
left
> > unanswered on the dev@ list, but they are usually answered by the same

> > persons, not by the people actually "in charge" of that feature. And
the
> > feeling I get on such occasions, is that the person "in charge"
doesn't
> > "have the time" to answer it.
>
> That doesn't matter, as long as the answer is correct. Why would
> anyone care whom the answer comes from?

I didn't mean it *needs* to be one of the developers. I just meant that it
sounds more relevant if the person saying it is perceived to be "part of
the team". See below.

> > In short, I see this role as something similar to the release manager
- he
> > gets to say "I still need signatures from these people". I think the
"PR"
> > manager would be someone who has the right to say "You there, you
working
> > on something. Can you take 10 minutes of your time and write up an
e-mail
> > that explains what you're doing and why from the users perspective?"
After
> > that the "PR" manager takes that, asks some additional questions if
> > necessary, and communicates it to the users@ list, puts it on a site
> > somewhere or something like that.
>
> Yuck -- no :-). The point of the PR manager is so that developers
> *won't* get bothered with such requests.
>
> The people working on features _already_ take the time to write up
> user-friendly explanations. But it doesn't matter how often we do
> this, there will always be some users who don't see these writeups.
> This new manager's job would learn where the writeups are, point
> people to them, and answer questions.

See, we're all learning :-) I wasn't paying enough attention to see that.
Or rather I never bothered to really look at these writeups, because I
always assumed they are strictly development related. Maybe my proposal
sounded a little bit awkward. I'm not looking for "power", I just don't
have the time to become the unofficial SVN "support person". Of course I
wouldn't want become someone every SVN developer hates. I just meant that
maybe the PR manager should to some extent be perceived as someone a
little bit closer to the developers than an average user. Someone who is
"allowed" to ask questions (in case he doesn't know the answer) that may
otherwise be ignored, or dismissed by simple "When it's done" answer.

I am prepared to gather all the information, and direct users to it when
they don't know where to look, but I'd also like to know that if I need to
ask something I can send an e-mail to the dev list without people going
"Who the **** are you?". That's all I meant with my original idea.

Well, I'll gather all the info I can find, organize it in some way,
compare it against the roadmap and see what I come up with.

Br,

---
  Miha Vitorovic
  Inženir v tehničnem področju
  Customer Support Engineer
   NIL Data Communications,  Tivolska cesta 48,  1000 Ljubljana,  Slovenia
   Phone +386 1 4746 500      Fax +386 1 4746 501     http://www.NIL.si
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Received on Sat Apr 14 23:45:55 2007

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