[BioRuby] BioRuby.org website

[Fields, Christopher J]

On Feb 29, 2012, at 9:29 AM, Peter Cock wrote:

> Pjotr wrote:
>> Peter wrote:
>>> Pjotr wrote:
>>>>  Scenario: BioRuby.org newbie visitor with a question (2)
>>>>    Given I visit the main BioRuby.org page and no one is online
>>>>    When I click the button for contacting BioRuby
>>>>    And no one is online
>>>>    Then I should be able to post a question with an E-mail address
>>>>    And get an answer over E-mail
>>> 
>>> You don't think giving them instructions on how to join the mailing
>>> list is good enough? How would you implement that email form
>>> idea - keeping in mind the newcomer would reasonably expect
>>> their query to be 'private' and not be sent to the public mailing
>>> list on their behalf?
>> 
>> Exactly. We will have a limited number of people who receive these.
>> 
>> Privacy is key (I did not mention that), so people feel free to ask
>> any question, and a low threshold.
>> 
>> Glad someone is reading my stuff ;)
>> 
>> Pj.
> 
> I can see why being able to ask questions "in private" might
> lower the barrier to entry, but you will need a dedicated (in the
> sense of committed) and patient team to handle those queries.
> 
> Personally my preference is to encourage people to ask their
> questions on the mailing list in public (they can use a semi-
> anonymous email address if they like, assuming it doesn't
> get flagged as spam - I used to myself once). This means
> the entire development team and all the other users would
> see the question and might help, but also the fact that it is
> open means the question will be searchable by Google etc,
> and can spark useful discussions.
> 
> Sites like http://biostar.stackexchange.com/ work in a similar
> open way but are more question & answer focused. Based
> on the tag usage this isn't yet very popular with BioRuby folk:
> http://biostar.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/bioruby

The BioPerl folks don't monitor it much either.  We should be promoting it more.

> Do you feel that for many people the potential embarrassment
> of asking a 'silly question' puts people off asking 'in public'?
> 
> Peter

Peter, I think you hit the nail on the head; allowing people to contact you (or other devs) privately means there is no cross-benefit to others.  It makes more sense to promote the avenues already present (biostar, mail list, web site, IRC, etc) and encourage users to both search for answers and submit questions there.  

As an example, even though I currently oversee bioperl I certainly didn't write all the code (and I certainly don't want that distinction :).  I always redirect users to the mail list, to the point I may actually cc the list in my response.  The community benefits.  All bioperl code specifically mentions who wrote and maintains the code, where to send questions, etc, and it's very possible the actual author (very likely not me) will respond if the question is asked where it is promoted to be asked.  Asking me directly will not benefit anyone beyond having me redirect the question to an actual useful forum. 

Re: 'experimenting with this': that's a possibility, but then you run the risk of opening avenues for users that might be shut down later.

chris