Re: Empathy survey results

[Phil Bull <philbull gmail com>]

Hi Milo,

On Sat, 2009-08-01 at 22:52 +0200, Milo Casagrande wrote:
> I was thinking about doing one for Brasero, that's one application I
> would like it to have Mallard docs for 3.0. Aftert WOSCON, me and Phil
> brainstormed a little bit about some Brasero topics while at the
> airport. I have a note with all that ideas.

I noticed from the Empathy survey results that we're hardly getting any
non-technical users as respondents. Of the people who replied, over half
were comfortable with programming! I don't think that these people are
our main target audience for the documentation.

How can we get less proficient users to take our surveys?

> > I love this piece from you: "how not to be a jerk when
> > asking question on the #telepathy channel".  I think it
> > would be great if documents each had a page telling you
> > where to go for more help (IRC, mailing lists).  And I
> > don't see any reason why we can't include some tips on
> > netiquette in those pages.  (Of course, in the case of
> > Empathy, directing people to IRC might be an ironic
> > insult, if what they're having problems with is IRC.)
> 
> A small listiquette would be a good topic to write anyway, even if
> it's not really easy to use the Empahty IRC feature.

I'm a bit worried about adding material because we think that it's a
good idea, rather than because there is a demand for that information
from users. While a topic on netiquette surely would be a good idea,
will people read it? We run the risk of falling into the same trap that
we did with the old documentation: Answering questions which no-one has
asked.

Maybe there are questions which users *do* want the answer to, which
fall under the umbrella of netiquette. Maybe "Why isn't anyone replying
to my questions on IRC?" or "Why am I being told-off for using
all-capitals?".

Thanks,

Phil

-- 
Phil Bull
https://launchpad.net/people/philbull