Oct-16-2019, 02:55 AM
I'm doing research regarding open source developers writing software libraries, such as those on PyPi.
And, in keeping with the theme of openness, I figured I ask the open-ended questions here so that everyone can benefit from the discussion/answers given; not just me.
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For the libraries where I'm an active contributor (or the manager), one of the challenges for me (and the users of the library) is that they often have questions not covered by the documentation.
For a little-used library, the occasional "tech support" question thrown into GitHub Issues is no big deal and easily answered.
Huge popular libraries (and projects such as Python itself), often have full-born Forums (like this) and other infrastructure to help.
But between the "tiny" and the "huge" are a large number of libraries where questions simply go unanswered. Too small for infrastructure, but too big for the overworked contributors to handle the onslaught of questions.
I'd love to hear peoples opinions and solutions for the following.
1. For the libraries you support; how has communication with users been handled?
2. Any examples of complications?
3. How often do you encounter the same questions? Can you find "FAQ maintenance volunteers", etc.?
4. Can you think of other ways communication with end-users could be helpfully improved, increased, or decreased? Example stories?
And, in keeping with the theme of openness, I figured I ask the open-ended questions here so that everyone can benefit from the discussion/answers given; not just me.
-----------
For the libraries where I'm an active contributor (or the manager), one of the challenges for me (and the users of the library) is that they often have questions not covered by the documentation.
For a little-used library, the occasional "tech support" question thrown into GitHub Issues is no big deal and easily answered.
Huge popular libraries (and projects such as Python itself), often have full-born Forums (like this) and other infrastructure to help.
But between the "tiny" and the "huge" are a large number of libraries where questions simply go unanswered. Too small for infrastructure, but too big for the overworked contributors to handle the onslaught of questions.
I'd love to hear peoples opinions and solutions for the following.
1. For the libraries you support; how has communication with users been handled?
2. Any examples of complications?
3. How often do you encounter the same questions? Can you find "FAQ maintenance volunteers", etc.?
4. Can you think of other ways communication with end-users could be helpfully improved, increased, or decreased? Example stories?