[Freeswitch-users] Get on IRC day!!

[Michael Collins]

On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 1:06 PM, mazilo <Nabble at slickdeals.endjunk.com>wrote:

>
> 1. FS needs to setup/provide a good forum, instead of the unfavorable
> mailing list.

No, it doesn't. We've heard this argument for three years. We've openly
stated that while *we*, personally (the core FS team) don't care for having
a forum, we are not against the community setting one up and maintaining it.
We had one person try two different things with a forum, one of which I
think is the Nabble thing. It died a slow, painful death from lack of
community support. Our community as a whole just doesn't want one. An
argument has been floated that having a forum will allow the community to
grow and thrive, and therefore *we* (the core FS team) should sponsor and
maintain it. Frankly, we don't buy it. We feel like having an AWESOME piece
of software with enthusiastic users is what makes the community grow and
thrive. If someone stays away from FreeSWITCH solely because they don't like
our combination of mailing list, IRC, and wiki then so be it. We respect
their decision.

I tried to bring in as many newbies and/or other PBX users as
> I could (at least 4 newbies) and none of them has shown up.  I followed up
> with them and got several answers. One of them is I had had my share with
> mailing lists in the past and I don't like to deal with it again. I sure
> don't mind if FS has a good forum to attend. One managed to lurk around and
> told me that there are a lot of FS experts here trying to help, but she
> wouldn't understand at all when reading the replies addressed to some
> posts.
>
She told me the replies/suggestions were brief and vague with no examples to
> lead/guide any newbies to make them trying to understand. Honestly, I agree
> with her. This leads me to the next item below.
>
> 2. When helping a newbie, try to explain in more detail (best with an
> example) and don't be brief. For instance, when I posted
>
> http://freeswitch-users.2379917.n2.nabble.com/More-questions-migrating-from-Asterisk-to-FS-td5260522.html#a5260522
> this  asking for some help, I know everyone, including Antonio, had
> voluntarily tried to help. However, telling a newbie like me to use param
> is
> really not going to help at all, let alone may completely discourage a
> newbie who tries to learn FS. Some people, be it a newbie or an expert,
> will
> learn better to understand through examples. For sure, we don't really want
> to encourage any spoon fed activities here.
>
I respect your honesty. I will encourage those answering newbie questions to
be more explicit wherever possible. Just understand that everyone on this
list and in IRC is an unpaid volunteer, giving of their time freely. In some
cases an expert has to make a choice: give a brief answer or give no answer.
Given the option, I think even a newbie would appreciate the quick answer as
opposed to silence on the wire.


>
> 3. The Wiki needs to be revised with additional examples.
>
Agreed. Volunteers welcome. :) Seriously, I need as much help as possible
with the wiki. I definitely have a core of people helping out. (You know who
you are, and I thank you profusely.) I would like to have more help. Keeping
the wiki updated is a big job. Anthony & company add features faster than we
can document them! In many cases, because Tony is such a great programmer,
he can add stuff in like an hour and it takes 2-3 hours for me to read the
source code, recompile, make changes to my dialplan or other configs, test
various scenarios, and then update the wiki with the new API, dp app, chan
var, SIP profile param, etc. All the while I have a day job and other
FreeSWITCH-related duties.


> There may be some
> few good suggestions with examples replied to the posts that helped the
> posters. Perhaps, one needs to make sure those good suggestions with
> examples get added to the Wiki for others benefit. The
> http://wiki.freeswitch.org/wiki/Dialplan_XML Dialplan XML  and
> http://wiki.freeswitch.org/wiki/SIP_Provider_Examples SIP Provider
> Examples
> are two good examples to follow. This way, a newbie can learn easier,
> instead of bombarding the list with the same questions from time to time.
>
We spent a ton of time on the FreeSWITCH book, which contains a lot of the
hand-holding newbies really need. It's relatively inexpensive and you can
get just the PDF if you like. (If you're destitute then you can probably
borrow the book from someone who has it.)


> <snip...>
> For instance, I recently (as far back as 3 weeks
> ago) told someone in a VoIP forum about FS conference calls and even
> provided the  http://wiki.freeswitch.org/wiki/FS_weekly_2010_09_15 link
>  (at
> the time). He replied back and told me that he doesn't know how to make his
> VoIP device to support a SIP URI dial into the conference line.

I'm not trying to be mean here, but honestly, if he can't dial any of our
ways of getting to the conference then he's *not ready for a VoIP
conference*!! We have many ways to connect:
PSTN: 1-919-386-990
SIP: sip:888 at conference.freeswitch.org <sip%3A888 at conference.freeswitch.org>
GTalk: gtalk:conf+888 at conference.freeswitch.org<gtalk%3Aconf%2B888 at conference.freeswitch.org>
Skype: call skype user "skypiax5"

That's five different ways of connecting. I'm sorry, but that's more than
enough ways to get people to call a *VoIP* conference about telecom
software. If people are incapable of connecting from one of these five ways
then they are not yet ready for FreeSWITCH.

I will keep working the wiki and making FreeSWITCH as easy as possible for
newbies. However, please keep in mind that those who don't have telecom,
networking, and/or VoIP experience are going to experience a much steeper
learning curve. That's just the nature of the beast. To ease their
transition maybe we could come up with a recommended reading list? "VoIP For
Dummies" kind of stuff maybe. If you guys have any suggestions I'll put the
on the wiki.

-MC
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