Suggestions to Improve MEPIS.org

I know you said you didn't want software changes but email notification would be the best thing that you could do to improve this site.

wayne

I think that is more important to have somebody from Mepis actively scan the forum and respond questions, (e.g. http://www.mepis.org/node/11287 ) then to change software and forum look.

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Check out Mepis wiki: www.mepis.org/docs
Community site: www.mepislovers.com/forums

I don't know if AdrianTM is asking for this in the previous post, but there are quite a few of us who (try to) scan the forum daily or multiple times per day. Is there any plan to increase the number of moderators or people who could bump a thread up to the top of the "active" list, move it to a different category, and/or close a thread (if things get out of hand)?

I unfortunately don't have a suggestion for a solution, but I think it would be wonderful if we had some way to scan through bunches of threads and "categorize" some of the new knowledge (questions and answers) so that it would be easier for newbies to find. Of course, I know the question came up very recently that there are many newbies who would rather be spoon-fed the answer again rather than search the forum. So, changing my request: If it were possible to pull all of the SOLVED items together (so they don't get buried), perhaps it would help

Jon

I agree with all those suggestions.

A newsletter would be a good thing for informations about new versions and updates.

I think that the structure of the forum is too complex, it's not easy to track. There may be a confusion between the forum and some kind of knowledge base. Like Jon says, solved threads could be used in a separate knowledge base, may be in the wiki. By the way, the MepisLovers forum seems more active, there may be no need of a forum on Mepis.org other than the comments in the news.

Thanks for your support AdrianTM, I hope that french users will be able to use the wiki some day

I like the idea of all the solved going into a seperate file,however even that might add up to a lot of extra work for someone. But a good idea never the less.

Linux User #266786
http://www.thebarrel.net

"the MepisLovers forum seems more active, there may be no need of a forum on Mepis.org other than the comments in the news."

I really welcome the addition of the Wiki as a link at the top of the site I think it is good to see more interaction between the 'community' and 'Mepis'.

I echo the comment above, that for better or worse the Mepis lovers site is by far the most active and that maybe you should consider consolodating the help forums and supporting the 'unoffical' community site.

By having a less active (and frankly not very user friendly) 'official' forum it splits the energies of 'the community'. And means that newbies have a additional site to search.

Could Mepis offer to host the Mepis Lovers forums and make them 'official'?

I agree, Mepislovers works much better. That's why I spend my energy over there. If it were up to me I would say keep this forum only for official announcements and communications from Mepis.

We have 2 forums, we have a wiki, there's only one major thing missing from Mepis, a bug reporting system a place to see that bugs are dealt with to see which ones have been found and which ones have been solved (which ones are Mepis specific and which ones are Ubuntu, Debian, or Linux specific -- the bug reporting should somehow be integrated upstream to send info to Ubuntu devs if there's something they can fix.

I also feel a lack of communication with the devs and people that maintain the forum/servers (see my example about the question about a French Wiki).

Sorry for not responding exactly to the question that has been asked.
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Check out Mepis wiki: www.mepis.org/docs
Community site: www.mepislovers.com/forums

Since I am a LINUX newbie going on two weeks now, I have to say that I like the way this forum is set up. I am registered here and at MepisLovers, but I have yet to post there, as I seem to find more information here, as well as timely responses. I rarely go to ML.

I use the Mepis Google search engine a lot, and find the documentation section very helpful. If I ask too many questions, it's that I have a hard time understanding concepts, and I struggle with this on a daily basis. My attention span is very poor, but so far, I've been able to master many hurdles using this website and the fine folks that have helped me!

Cheerio,

Lisa

I personally like the fact that there are two areas (here, and MepisLovers) where one can look for solutions and post problems. From the forum answers, it also seems that those who read and respond to queries may be slightly different in the two locations.

So, whatever is done to reorganize Mepis.org, I would request that the forums not be merged with those at MepisLovers.

"it also seems that those who read and respond to queries may be slightly different in the two locations."

This is kind of my point - there may be experts here who specialise in say firefox, they dont see the fireox posts on Mepis lovers and so they do not respond.

If the forums were merged then everyone would be working together... I would only have to search one forum, and there would be no question of where the 'best' place to post an enquiry was...

I think you should incorporate the MEPIS.org Forum Searchbar on the front of your site. It will allow users to easily search for topics and other problems that may be similar to theirs.
Technalign/TaFusion has done it with their website! I made a searchbar for MEPIS.org already. All you have to do is create the link.
SAM

I understand that Warren doesn't want to spend his precious time dealing with forums, and frankly I want him working on MEPIS rather then dealing with trolls online, but it would be nice if somebody from Mepis (Warren or somebody who talks directly with him) would be around more often. Polls and asking opinions from users are nice, but we need communication to go both ways, again, this is more important than adding bling and glitz to the forum.

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Check out Mepis wiki: www.mepis.org/docs
Community site: www.mepislovers.com/forums

It would be nice if mepis.org could add some structure to the remarks that pop up from the community. There is a bunch of users out there that have experience with a lot of distros, and can weigh the pros and cons of Mepis.

It would be good if some 'request for improvement' forum was set up, with active input from both the community and the developers. I'm not saying the community should decide the path Mepis should take, but more active input and feedback would probably improve the commitment, and a clear roadmap for those that want to participate in sub projects (like anticapitalista's Flepis).

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

I know I've already put in my two cents above, but I'll add another nickle to it. I also agree with what AdrianTM mentioned above. I realize that Warren is busy "doing Mepis" and that is the most important thing for him to be doing.

I originally got started posting to Mepis.org because I saw a thread stating that Mepis was looking for help with documentation. I volunteered to help with it, asked a few questions about how to begin, whom to talk with, where and what to post... What I ended up doing is spending time helping out on the forum, which I enjoy doing, but not being able to work on "documentation" because of lack of time, and lack of information that I just mentioned.

I would like to point out some of my observations of the forum. I have spent very little time on MepisLovers, and I don't have an account on it, so my observations will be restricted to mepis.org. What I would like to describe is not the content but the organization of the content.

I am one of the first to complain to myself, "What, another question from somebody who can't install the CD?" or some other "repeat question". drlizau just recently went through and changed the format and number of forums to try to make everything make more sense. When I have created a new topic, it seems that I have to spend more time figuring out where to put it (under what forum) than I do coming up with a good title and posting. How do others scan through "new and updated topics" on the forum? I log in and check each one that's new, updated, or has new posts. It doesn't initially matter what the "forum" was. From that, I conclude that most of the posts are being displayed linearly, and sequentially. It seems to me that it would make more sense (if I'm right) to let new posts go into an unspecified queue rather than have the user take time to specify a forum. However, once the thread has been posted and a few people have responded, have a moderator move the thread to the right forum. Yes, that means more work for the moderator, and it means we need more moderators to help. Also, allow the moderator to change the titles of things. Why? Because the title of a main thread should say something like "Can't Install Mepis 12.0 on Fwozit 2000 Laptop" instead of "I NEED HELP!"

From the above, I would like to recommend, if possible, some way to move a topic, once it has had sufficient input (and possibly "solved"), to a "more permanent place". Perhaps just being able to move a thread from the "Incoming Queue" to one of the forums would be sufficient.

I know, I'm probably rambling and haven't had enough coffee. I'll summarize by saying, I think we already get enough information from people posting, but it's not organized well. The classification and organization of a thread has to come after being posted. Is it possible for a topic to be linked to more than one forum? And maybe by being able to reorganize the info, it would be possible for a moderator to push a button on a thread that essentially means "HEY WARREN, READ THIS!" or be able to plug the number of the thread into a bug-tracking system for resolution. It might also be possible to pull the "good stuff" together to be the beginning of honest-to-diety "documentation"!

OK, I'm done. I'm probably due a well aimed flaming

Jon

Hi Erin;

It might be an idea to give us a chance to search & read strings of posts of frequent users.

I.e.: I'd like to read all what Jon, Jimmy and other frequent users (and the MEPIS-crew) have been posting.

They often give very interesting advise, that I wouldn't want to miss.

So when I'm able to click on their name in a forum-post, I will be able to read all their earlier comments and advizes...

Thanks in advance!

Ruud

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Compaq N1050v, Pentium 4 1.8 GHz, 1024Mb Ram, Mepis 6.0.
Shuttle SN41G2, AMD Athlon XP 3000+, 512Mb RAM Mepis 6.0.
Linuxcounter user reg # 417292
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This is an example of a great post
qtparted is dangerous - beware. | MEPIS
http://www.mepis.org/node/11324#comment-41197

Why? Because the OP (TheGreenKnight) had a really bad problem and the respondent (JimCockfield) offered a really good solution. But the problem is such an odd one that it will eventually be buried in history and drop down through the threads, only to be found through careful searching. If this example could be entitled or indexed with things such as "disk partition recovery", "damaged partitions" or some such it would be easy(er) to find.

These are the sorts of things that should be linked or copied to a wiki or some other "more permanent" location.

BTW ruud, your idea of linking/indexing names is a good one. I've always wanted to trace what BadDog, drlizau, and others have to say about various problems. I wouldn't trust that "Jon" guy though (too many letters in his last name)

Jon

Jon had a great idea with "HEY WARREN, READ THIS!" kind of tag that moderators could place on the tread, we would also need a [[SOLVED]] tag, that should be searchable so people would be able to see the solved problems.

Some ideas of useful tags:
[[HEY WARREN, READ THIS!]] -- important bugs that need to be communicated to Warren
[[READ THIS]] -- for important stuff that users need to read
[[SOLVED]] and maybe a [[PARTIALLY SOLVED]]

I'm not sure the forum software support this, but this would be very useful.

Jon, came around to www.mepislovers.com/forums to check what's going on, it's a really nice forum now. Also, you could help with the Wiki if you have more time now...

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Check out Mepis wiki: www.mepis.org/docs
Community site: www.mepislovers.com/forums

These are the sorts of things that should be linked or copied to a wiki or some other "more permanent" location.

Exactly Jon, this is what I mean!

This is what I would be looking for when I wanted my crashed harddisk to be repaired and recovered!

So, indeed indexing, so I don't have to spend hours/evenings of searching through strings, finding a solution for a specific problem.

Ruud

I wouldn't trust that "Jon" guy

By the way, your avatar could be a little professor penguin, with such a square hat, it already wears a tux...

Hahahah...!!!

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Compaq N1050v, Pentium 4 1.8 GHz, 1024Mb Ram, Mepis 6.0.
Shuttle SN41G2, AMD Athlon XP 3000+, 512Mb RAM Mepis 6.0.
Linuxcounter user reg # 417292
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Thanks Adrian for the invite over to ML. I'll wander over to your neighborhood soon. I'd like to help with the wiki. I'll need to ask my friend malanrich to do the same

Ruud (Duuuude!). Actually, I'm looking for a good duck avatar. My nickname is "jon duck" and I raised them for quite a few years, so I have an affinity for those silly birds. And a penguin's kind of a duck

Jon

Jon

MS would rather wish it were a sitting duck

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

I make the following suggestions:
Moderator Visibility - Let the people know who the moderators are. I am sure most people here have no idea who the moderators are.
More moderators - based on previous work here
Moderator Tools - so that we can have timely and effective communication
Increase Moderator Privileges - Simply because the more we can do, the more we will do. I know this can be a two edged sword, but I know the current mods can be trusted.
Support Escalation - if we can't answer the question, some way we can escalate it to someone who can.
Release and Retire Schedule - So that we can send retired releases to some type of legacy support area and clean up the forums.

It is late and I am sleepy. I must get up early. I will return with more later. Everyone please keep the suggestions coming. The Mepis team is listening and as usual thank you to all.

Joe Pearce

The student is not above the teacher
The servant is not above the master
The student shares the teacher's fate
The servant shares the master's

http://www.joepearce.com

yes, moderation in all things
so there is one active moderator (drlizau) here (unless on holiday) and one 'reserve' (joeintenn) moderator.
i have suggested to Erin that we at least have Jon (doo cain) on board as a moderator.
the concept of the new user section at the beginning of the forum was to catch the unsorted posts and then move them later, but the subdivision of the hardware and resorting of the old hardware forum is still a 'work in progress'.
does enigma_one / allan have any interest in moderating?

I second that; Jon is good. Figuring out a way to properly divide the forums can be a never ending task. I suggested some type of archives or legacy area. I also put Liz in for a raise. I suggested looking at the quality of answers, amount of posts, etc. in the forums as a way to decide who could moderate.

Joe Pearce

The student is not above the teacher
The servant is not above the master
The student shares the teacher's fate
The servant shares the master's

http://www.joepearce.com

we could use the splendid drupal taxonomy feature to classify content. But I don't know drupal well enough to tell if that allows for forum post classification as well.

If it does, taxonomy could be made mandatory for every post, and moderators would only have to check if a post has been classified correctly.

There are extensions for drupal that allow a taxonomy tree search which could be useful for retrieval. drlizau, do you know if this would be feasible??

Jon for Moderator!!!!

Newbie or not Newbie, there's always a question

carlops, you're stretching my brain here, i haven't fully experimented with the taxonomy, and worse still, although it's sunday I have to head off to work now

One other thing I would like to see is a mirror of this site to use for development. If we had a mirror, we could try things to extend the site, such as adding more modules. Once we get it working on the development site, we could then upgrade the core site. I usually do this on any system I am developing. This is exactly what is needed to help in testing all of those Drupal modules.

For example, right now I am developing a project in VB 2005 for a security course I am in. I have two copies, one that is my stable ,soon to be released version, and one that I do development on. If something screws up on the development version, I can always copy my last build of the stable version and start over. Once I am happy with something I have developed on the development version, I copy it over to the stable version. This development model actually has a name, but it is escaping me at the moment.

This is just an idea, one that I think would save worry about the site craching, and would help in making the site grow.

Joe Pearce

The student is not above the teacher
The servant is not above the master
The student shares the teacher's fate
The servant shares the master's

http://www.joepearce.com

Yes Joe, a backup/development system is a very good idea. If it were possible for you to do testing, and then inform select community or the community at large that some new goody's been added, then those folks could hammer it a bit to see if it works. If it seems stable, then "flip the switch"

Just a couple days ago I downloaded a copy of drupal to my laptop so I could play with it (gotta love open-source and free software). Unfortunately, my mysql database is messed up so I have to fix it before I can play any more. Some minor password in revision issues. But since I don't currently have anything really important in it ('cause it's development) I'll probably end up blowing it away and starting over anyway.

Jon

Why do we have time limits on editing our post & can that be changed so we don't have a time limit? Heck, I now have a post in this forum that says "I will bite you" when it should read "It will bite you".
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MEPIS Help Files: http://www.mepis.org/docs/index.php/Main_Page
INTEL P-IV/HT 3.0GHz - 2X256 DDR3200 - SimplyMEPIS 6.0-1
KDE 3.5.4 - kernel 2.6.15-27-686-SMP - My iMAC runs De

I am surprised no one has put in a word for RSS feeds. It is so easy to monitor forum postings on akregator that ships with SimplyMEPIS. Organizing and filtering forum postings is so much easier with RSS feeds.

arbus