Re: [SLE] User-generated support database?
Hi Paul,
I'd think that SuSE could help the users greatly through this mechanism at very little cost.
To be fair to SuSE they already have a knowledgebase ... a search engine for the archives would be cool though :-) James C. Rocks Equant Archway House Canary Wharf London E14 9SZ Phone: 0207-5226856 Fax: 0207-5126087 Mobile Phone: 07771-767405 http://www.equant.com
On Friday 05 July 2002 03:13 pm, James.Rocks@equant.com wrote:
I'd think that SuSE could help the users greatly through this mechanism at very little cost.
To be fair to SuSE they already have a knowledgebase ... a search engine for the archives would be cool though :-)
There's lots of stuff that never makes it into the SuSE database or makes it in after a long delay. The work required of SuSE staff in maintaining the database makes it almost certain that the database coverage will be sparse. The beauty of the user database is that it's almost maintenance-free, and entering information requires very little effort. It would take a very sophisticated search engine indeed for the archives to duplicate the power of the keywords attached manually to the SuSE database articles. Paul
* James.Rocks@equant.com (James.Rocks@equant.com) [020705 12:13]:
To be fair to SuSE they already have a knowledgebase ... a search engine for the archives would be cool though :-)
The archives have several search engines--please read the faq. -- -ckm
On Friday 05 July 2002 04:17 pm, Christopher Mahmood wrote:
* James.Rocks@equant.com (James.Rocks@equant.com) [020705 12:13]:
To be fair to SuSE they already have a knowledgebase ... a search engine for the archives would be cool though :-)
The archives have several search engines--please read the faq.
Which FAQ? The only relevant FAQ I see on the SuSE support website is the one on htdig. Which brings up the next reason for the knowledge base I'm suggesting. Any search of mailing list archives is bound to produce a large number of false hits. Just think about how a typical thread evolves, with someone asking a question and a chain of responses that quote one another. The density of information compared with a knowledge-base article is exceedingly low. And without keyword indexing, it's also likely that relevant posts will be missed. Christopher, my suggestion is in no way a denigration of the SuSE knowledge base. I'm sure the SuSE folks recognize its limitations as well as or better than I do. The knowledge base I am suggesting would complement, not replace, the SuSE knowledge base (and operate independently of it, except possibly for shared software). Paul
* Paul W. Abrahams (abrahams@acm.org) [020705 14:55]:
The archives have several search engines--please read the faq.
Which FAQ? The only relevant FAQ I see on the SuSE support website is the one on htdig.
There's no reason to sound incredulous, really. The one you get by emailing suse-linux-e-faq@suse.com or looking at Togan's unofficial faq. This was explained in the welcome message you received when you subscribed (the one that politely asked you to read it and save it for future reference). An email to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com, listed on the bottom of every posting and in the headers, would have told you this as well.
Christopher, my suggestion is in no way a denigration of the SuSE knowledge base. I'm sure the SuSE folks recognize its limitations as well as or better than I do.
Oh, I know. I'm not a huge fan of the SDB either but it's the best thing we have.
The knowledge base I am suggesting would complement, not replace, the SuSE knowledge base (and operate independently of it, except possibly for shared software).
I think Togan's unofficial faq is probably going to be like what you describe eventually. It's only been around for a few months now and it's already pretty rich I think. -- -ckm
On Friday 05 July 2002 06:07 pm, Christopher Mahmood wrote:
* Paul W. Abrahams (abrahams@acm.org) [020705 14:55]:
The knowledge base I am suggesting would complement, not replace, the SuSE knowledge base (and operate independently of it, except possibly for shared software).
I think Togan's unofficial faq is probably going to be like what you describe eventually. It's only been around for a few months now and it's already pretty rich I think.
One great advantage of the user-created knowledge base is that it wouldn't depend on the efforts of one person or a small group of people. Much of the power of this list lies in the fact that many people contribute to it. Even the best search engine will only turn up information in a diffuse form, while the user knowledge base would concentrate that information. Of course, much of what would be in the user knowledge base would be extracted from posts to this group. That extraction, however, is something that only an extraordinarily intelligent computer agent could achieve -- and AI isn't there yet. Paul
participants (3)
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Christopher Mahmood
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James.Rocks@equant.com
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Paul W. Abrahams