On Fri, Oct 8, 2010 at 1:06 PM, mazilo
<Nabble@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@conference.freeswitch.orgGTalk:
gtalk:conf+888@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