An ordinary user contacts me, says they have a problem with their maemo device, and explains some details of it in a non-technical way. I can't help them but I know that they have a genuine specific problem.

What do I do next?

a) Nothing, ignore them, let their data points go unrecorded, let them get annoyed by maemo's apparent inadequacy.

b) Send them to bugzilla (which they won't understand)

c) Send them to this forum (where they may or may not get a useful answer)

d) Send them to the nokia.com "support" forum (where they will get no official support from Nokia)

e) Tell them about some mailing list (which they probably won't join)

f) Tell them to ring the Nokia customer care phoneline (which may or may not be any use, and will lead to duplication as the advice is on a one-to-one basis)

g) Tell them to take the product back to the shop (which won't help if it's a non-hardware problem)

h) Tell them to buy some other device (which isn't going to help Maemo)

i) Something else... what though?

Technically, the Maemo Greeters initiative should be able to take care of this. But yes, this is an issue - and one that I deal with in my day gig.

Step 1:
I would refer them to this forum, specifically the General area to post their topic. After they have posted, you post that you see the issue and relay in the (safe) confines of the thread the technical issues at play. Then simply hope for a response - and that the mods would be able to keep the discussion fairly on topic.

Step 2:
This item would hopefully be filed in Bugzilla by someone more familiar than the person who posted the issue with a fuller description of the problem; this thread then referenced within it.

Step 3:
I'd assume that at some point in the discusison that the issue would make it to a wiki entry, so that the thread could then be closed and the wiki would be the place for looking for this issue. However, I'm suggesting this as something that I do with my current client, not in effect as something I've seen done here.

Step 4:
Because you noticed the issue, follow up with the person towards their experience and rely that information to a council member so that such feedback can go into community improvements.

Just curious: what was the question?

I think you can safely send any kind of users to this forum. Unanswered threads are minimal or inexistant for basic question and here they will find the peers and a learning path according to their interests.

Just ask them to use the Power Search before starting a post, maybe they are lucky...

I'm wondering if a "Maemo Community Support" button somewhere in the official apps / preloaded bookmarks would be useful?

There IS maemo community support. It's allready happening. Yesterday we had two 'bricked' n900s reported to the n900 forum and both were given good, solid support by people who knew what they were doing at a level they could understand (they were at different levels so the support was pitched differently!)

I realise that the good members of the community won't be able to do that forever - hopefully after it's happened a few times those of us who're quick learners will learn what to copy/paste and which theads to direct people to. That's certainly part of what I see the greeters programme doing.

So send 'em down the the seventh level of hell that the n900 forum currently is - and we promise they won't get lost among shipping, cancelled cards and a few serious whining threads. Mind, they'll need to be able to explain their problem in a better manner than "OMG it is teh suck!"

And a word to the clever techie people - though I'm sure you don't need me mentioning it. The next few days and weeks are going to see a bundle of problems arising as n900s arrive in people's stucky paws and they goof them. Some extra tech eyes on the n900 forum would be good. (Yeah, you can ignore all those shipping threads!)

Thanks for the guide ARJWright. I was having the same issues as well.

Regards,
Rachele
Ordinateur portable pas cher