Hari's Corner

Sometimes we just need to remind ourselves that we were newbies once and so learn to show patience when others show the same level of ignorance that we once did and we have now conveniently forgotten. I have been getting annoyed by real basic questions by newbies on forums, but I guess I must admit it: I used to asked them myself.

I was browsing an old LQ.org archive page and found this question I had posted in all my innocence.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=231688

Check the date of the post.

One of the real flaws of creating any product or service is trying to be all things to all people. You find so many examples of such exciting ideas floating around. Sadly few of them are realized and fewer survive in the long run to be termed a real success.

Let me try and explain with software as an example. Or more specifically, let me suppose that "A" has a great idea about a new kind of Linux distribution he wants to create. He wants it to be the absolute best Linux distribution ever created. It will be absolutely easy to use and yet at the same time have every possible feature that can every be included in a distribution. Based on the user requirements it should be either be a perfect, cutting-edge multimedia workstation, a simple desktop or a powerful and stable server - in short, an all-purpose distro, completely configurable and customizable, and yet completely easy to use by any newbie to computers. "A" wonders why nobody in the market ever thought of such a brilliant idea.

Now this is something that fires up a few people including "B" and "C" who join together and gather a few more people. So they go on and prepare a plan. Immediately they start running into problems. Since they want to listen to every idea out there, they will come into many situations where idea "X" clashes with idea 'Y". For example, if it should be user friendly, how can you allow users to configure a powerful server system while keeping several layers of complex detail hidden from them? Do you go for a powerful GUI orientation or just concentrate on command-line tools to do the job? Immediately they realize the contradictions of their own lofty goals. So "A" decides on a more realistic approach. This leads "B" and "C" to quit the project halfway in disgust, stating that "A" has abandoned the initial goals of the project. "B" and "C" proceed to build their own team and "A" continues to struggle, trying to cope with different pressures. The long and the short of it is, "A" fails to create a Linux distro and decides to go with an existing one, while "B" and "C" create a distro that merely clones another popular distro's functionality without adding anything new.

Now this is not about Linux, so let's not get into that aspect of it. The idea behind this story is that *any* product or service in the world cannot be developed without a firm vision of who it's intended for. Five-star and seven-star hotels cannot be thinking of cutting costs so as to reduce the bill for their clients. Their clients, which include CEOs of large corporates, are the kind who don't care about a few extra thousands on their bill - they expect the highest quality of service and ambience when they book a room in a star hotel. If they tried to cater to a lower segment of customers, they would end up losing their main clientele. The owner of the five-star hotel must charge a hefty price to maintain the beautiful ambience, the perfectly quiet and efficient air-conditioning, an effective room-service and the smart, costumed waiters who speak in polite and polished English. He must charge high to maintain his exquisite swimming pool and his well-stocked premium bar.

And on the other hand, the road-side teashop owner cannot afford to wait on his customers. He just makes tea and hands them round without any frills. If you wanted to drink tea in an exotic ambience, you'd better find a decent restaurant, because this guy doesn't worry about ambience. You drink tea standing in the hot dusty street right opposite a large garbage bin and inhaling copious amount of vehicular smoke as the buses and cars brush past you. You are not worried because you don't spend time in admiring the ambience and enjoying the flavour. The tea he dishes out is hot and it quenches your thirst, period. He washes your glass with hot water and immediately uses it to serve another customer.

So can any product or service really try and be a complete solution for everyone? There may be some successes, but they are more the exception to the general rule - you cannot be all things to all people.

Update: Transfer done

Literaryforums.org and this blog will be moving hosts shortly. Hosting has been kindly donated by my good friend trickykid and I would like to take this opportunity to thank him for all the help he's given me and answered my questions patiently. Being a complete newbie to the nuances of hosting and DNS, I have learnt quite a bit from him in the last couple of days as we exchanged plenty of e-mails back and forth.

So expect to see a short downtime for both my sites (I'll try to keep this as short as possible, but to ensure correct transfer, I won't be hurrying myself over the procedure ). harishankar.org has already been transferred and seems to be working well currently.

Here's an article I recently submitted at theadminzone.com forums. I've chosen to post this here, because both as a forum admin myself and as a blogger, I find this issue quite interesting and challenging, particularly seeing as I am trying to attract quality content writers on my own forum literaryforums.org

Here's the article in full:

One of the biggest problems of online forums these days is the huge threat of competition, not just from other forums but from personal blogs. Blogging has become such a huge phenomenon and the majority of blog owners choose to write and spend their energy on their own blogs rather than online forums. This takes away a significant chunk of traffic away from forums and into blogs because more and more quality content is found on personal blogs rather than forums.

How does a forum admin combat this threat and how do you get forum members to contribute quality content on forums, rather than their own blogs. After all, the barrier to entry to blogging is minimal and almost anybody with an internet connection can create a blog.

Being both a blogger and a forum admin, I kind of understand the motivations of both sides and feel that I should share some of my thoughts on this issue.

The key is to restore a sense of pride of ownership to people posting content on forums. Here are some of my tips on how to achieve this:

Recognize their work

If a forum member is particularly good at submitting original or insightful content, consider giving them a position on your forum. It can simply be a user-title or something more than that. In cases where you find their quality of work to be excellent you might even consider monetary compensation for their work. But above all, the contributor needs to feel a sense of pride and a sense of belonging to the forum to be motivated enough to contribute.

Neat Organization

A forum with a neat organization of categories and which separates quality content from the general chat and discussion will have a better response in terms of content submission. More than this, the content-driven portions of your forum need to be prominent and visible and members who submit original content should have an easy way of keeping track of their submissions.

Nothing is worse than having submitted a great article on a forum and then frantically searching for it one month later without any easy way of determining where it's gone. At the least, every member should have a "My Articles" link in his user profile to easily track the submitted content.

Customize and personalize

If a particular member is keen on contributing content but feels that the submitted content tends to get buried under others' contributions over time, the motivation to submit content will be reduced. In these cases where you find a member particularly prolific in submitting great content, but feels a lack of ownership or personalization, you should really consider setting them up for a section/subforum of their own where they can submit their content without having to mix it with others' content. This is, in many ways, a good solution for people who write and contribute regularly. Maybe even give them a "featured" status as a writer on your forum.

Finally, community blogs

Giving members their own blogs on the forum can be a great idea - if it's not overused. This is similar to the idea suggested above, but instead of integrating it with the main forum, it acts as a separate page of their own. A good idea would be to restrict the blogs only to members who've contributed well in the past and give other people a motivation to have their own community blogs.

If used properly, community blogs can be very attractive on sizeable forums because members will get the advantages of a personal blog combined with the visibility of a community forum. The key is to make it look attractive to members by making it prominent and well-structured.

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It's always difficult to get members to contribute on a big forum because it lacks a sense of personalization and people who contribute will not feel a sense of ownership. Also "content" driven sections of a forum need to be prominent and visible if it is to become popular because nobody wants to submit content in some obscure section of an online community.

The key is to motivate and recognize people for their contributions and making it more personalized over time.

The biggest threat to a content-driven forum community is not another forum but the ubiquitous blog.

I usually don't post major announcements on the forum here, but I thought I should mention this as it might be of interest to some bloggers.

Please read the announcement and contact me on the forum if you're interested: Details here

As an experienced Linux user, I've always been slightly irritated by the omni-present "which distro" thread that frequently comes up on Linux forums and in particular LQ.org. Many of us feel that newbies don't do enough research or homework or that they are lazy and want to be spoon-fed. A curt "search before you post" or "use what works for you" seems to be the obvious response to such repeated questions.

But I have to ask: is it really such a great answer?

The reason I say this is quite simple. I've pondered over the reason as to why people sometimes post obvious questions on online forums even when the answer is just a simple search away. And I discovered that it's sometimes not just what you know - it's also about a little moral support and justification behind your decision. "Which distro" certainly is such a question. Answers to this question certainly requires a bit of moral support. What better way to get this support than to pose this question in an online forum and get some live feedback from real, live people? It's one thing plodding through the archives of an ancient mailing list and it's totally another getting a response tailored to your particular issue on a forum where you can brainstorm with your peers about the pros and cons of a particular decision.

I believe a majority of new Linux users seek reassurance and approval from the Linux community as to the choices they make. In many cases, they might have chosen a distro, say Debian, and then feel - "what would these guys say about it? Is it really wise for a new user like me to plunge into this distribution? What would these guys think of my ability, based on my inputs?" In a nutshell, they want to be told - "You've made the right choice and here's why..." Nothing more or less. But since this kind of direct approval seeking appears to be a form of a crutch, many people would rather pose the innocent question - "which distro." In many of these questions, you also find the answers. And so when you answer them with - "Choose what suits you best," they are a little miffed and come away dissatisfied. They also feel slighted because the community gives the impression that it doesn't care about what Linux distro they choose. It might be the truth, but rationality and logic cannot be applied when it comes to people seeking to be a part of a larger community and gain social acceptance.

So I think a majority of people who start "which distro" threads are actually doing it so that they can seek confirmation and reassurance from the community that it does care about their choices. They also want some kind of technical justification to choose a distribution and in the rare occasion they want to know what the distro is about - how easy it is and what kind of audience it's targetted at. But most of all, they want moral support for their entry into the Linux community and to be an accepted member of it.

I think the "which distro" syndrome is more about the social phenomenon of gaining assurance and the tag of recognition from the community than a technical question that seeks a technically correct answer. I do think that a majority of "which distro" questions have their answers within the question itself. And while that does not necessarily make it a bad question it just means that as experienced Linux users, we need to tailor our responses accordingly by gauging the intent behind it. A little encouragement goes a long way...