[BioRuby] BioRuby.org website

[Peter Cock]

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

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

Peter