Fielding support requests for OS project here

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+3 Q:

Fielding support requests for OS project here

I run the open-source project, and maintain a support forum to help answer user's questions. This works tolerably well, except that it turns that at a forum is not actually that good at managing user support requests.

So, on the spur of the moment, I thought to myself, "StackOverflow is a perfect place for answering questions! Why don't I just shut down the forum and tell everyone to post their questions here?"

It's not clear to me, however, if I should actually do that. Comments?

Edit: It's been pointed out that questions could be asked that are not programming related. I should clarify that this particular open-source project is a developer library, so 99% of the questions we see are programming related.

Edit 2: Decided not to move my operations here. Thanks everyone who replied!

+2 A:

Would your goals match those of StackOverflow? For example, a user may ask a reasonable question about your software that is clearly not programming-related. SO users with high rep could edit or close the question, and there'll be nothing you can do about it. All of this would align with the SO goals, but not yours (or your users').

Sounds like a recipe for unhappiness. Certainly, it would make sense for you to watch for questions about your project on SO, but I wouldn't recommend depending on this site for support.

Argalatyr 2009-04-19 23:05:26

Yes, but what you and your users consider programming-related may not agree with the opinions of SO users. What if they ask about trouble with your help files, installation of the library on whatever configuration they have, etc.

Argalatyr 2009-04-19 23:13:35

True; however, I would tend to put such questions in the "extreme newbie" category--I'm sure even SO gets those types of questions occasionally.

Edward Z. Yang 2009-04-19 23:16:45

The difference is that in your own forum you can treat them gently, answer their question as-is. Here on SO, you have no direct control (and people will resent it if you try to steer handling of "your" questions).

Argalatyr 2009-04-19 23:23:37

Good point. Ahhh... if only SO was OS, then I'd just install it on my server.

Edward Z. Yang 2009-04-19 23:24:27

Many of us would like to set up an instance of SO... it's remarkably effective.

Argalatyr 2009-04-20 00:52:42

An easy answer would be to keep your questions and answers in the forum, and move support requests to a dedicated support request system, like Light House, which is free for Open Source projects, or you might try FogBugz's free start-up edition or use an open-source issue tracker, like Trac or Redmine.

John Douthat 2009-04-19 23:11:52

I really don't want to demarcate between Question, Support Request, and Bug Report, because it's really not clear to the user whether or not their question falls into one of those three categories (a bug report might actually just be a support request in disguise; a support request might flush out a bug that needs to be fixed).

Edward Z. Yang 2009-04-19 23:14:35

Oh god, and don't get me started on Trac. I refuse to use it.

Edward Z. Yang 2009-04-19 23:18:01

ansaurus

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Fielding support requests for OS project here

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