Re: Proactive effort to keep newbies at bay with N900
 

Please, don't shy away from answering questions if you think you have an answer. You've already proven yourself an asset to the community, and new users will benefit greatly from your help.

If you're worried about giving an incorrect answer, please try to not be concerned about that. Everyone who participates here has accidentally, and with the best of intentions, given some bogus information one point or another. When that happens, someone else usually catches it quickly and helps steer the thread back on track. In my experience, this generally happens without any belittling of the person who made the mistake. Worst case is usually some friendly ribbing.

As a general note, not directed specifically at everyone's favorite stuffed bear, I hope everyone here can work past the habit of thinking "They really need to fix..." and begin thinking how to help make that needed change happen. As soon as you begin using any part of maemo.org, congratulations, you've become part of the community. Please don't hesitate to beat a wiki page into shape, tag threads, rate downloads, file bugs, brainstorm, or be the start of a Newbie Helpers Organization. Contribute whatever skills and time you have available, and we'll all benefit. Thanks.

Re: Proactive effort to keep newbies at bay with N900
 

I agree.

When the device is out, we'll (hopefully) have one and be able to answer about that too.

At the very least, we may know *where* to look, even if we don't know the answer.

I'd like to suggest we can get this started and get together a list of potential people willing to help. I'm in.

One thing we could potentially do is put a list of these people up someplace (but non-spammable)? Just thinking out loud...

BTW Kathy, I'm not sure I qualify as techie, but tidy, I most certainly amn't! :o I do like to think I can bridge worlds though. Made a career out of trying to think that way, anyway.

Re: Proactive effort to keep newbies at bay with N900
 

As I've said elsewhere, I agree with RevdKathy that most people will come here because they looked for an answer on Google and these forums came up on the top of their list.

For instance, if you wanted to know how to use SSH on your new N900, you'd go to google and type "ssh N900" and your first hit would be talk.maemo.org. In fact, there are so many hits here that Google groups the hits from t.m.o as a bunch, with a "more results from talk.maemo.org >>" link.

At the top left of every page is an "intro" button, and Quim Gil is going to be focusing on this page in the November sprint. I think that button is the single most important button for "newbies" because it will be there every time when they click through from Google to get an answer.

Re: Proactive effort to keep newbies at bay with N900
 

Okay, so how's this for a start: http://wiki.maemo.org/New_users

Time to start editing and ribbing and generally feeling happy about helping others!

Steve

PS I don't want to mess with the front page right now (I'm shy :rolleyes: ), but really think we should promote the New Users link more...

Re: Proactive effort to keep newbies at bay with N900
 

Being a N810 user, I was able to contribute some to the Maemo Basics page but I hope that somebody starts filling up the N900 section.

I would suggest that one major section of the N900 entry (or even a section on the front page) should be N900 software. This should be divided into three sections: what the N900 can do out of the box (ideally this will be a series of links to Nokia documentation pages); what additional software is available for the N900 in the app store (here the documentation starts to get a bit spotty); and what is not yet available but is being worked on. For people who have gotten past the first steps with the phone, I suspect those are the questions they are going to want answered.

Re: Proactive effort to keep newbies at bay with N900
 

I've done wikis, but not this one... So:

Is it possible to have a text box to allow a newbie to type in their burning question without registering, and on submitting getting a 'ticket' and/or having it posted to a sticky thread that they can see but not edit (perhaps moderated too before posting) and then have a 'greeter' or whomever answer the question in that thread?

I ask because we could put that kind of box on the New Users page, or perhaps a link to a 'burning question' page which

1. showed faq
2. showed how to register on t.m.o
3. showed how to search
4. gave the box to fill out to generate a question 'ticket'

Just wondering if that sounds like a good idea or not?

Re: Proactive effort to keep newbies at bay with N900
 

Please admit you are all actually motivated by:

"4. Techie addresses to send beer for appreciation for getting newbies out of trouble with N900."

The mighty power of beer! ;)

Six smiles for a six pack :):):):):):)

Re: Proactive effort to keep newbies at bay with N900
 

Good post... totally agree

Re: Proactive effort to keep newbies at bay with N900
 

Another equally good post

Re: Proactive effort to keep newbies at bay with N900
 

Righto, so who wants to be a member of the Newbie Helpers Organization? PM away...