From: Alan Friedman <alan@greatarrow.com>
Date: December 5, 2007 11:15:54 AM MST
To: Astro_IIDC@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Astro_IIDC] Re: Astro IIDC Autoguiding Help!
Hi Milton,
I'll chime in with a few thoughts on this. I think it is challenging to moderate a discussion group and I would guess even more so when the moderator and owner of the product central to the discussion are the same person. Some company principals that sponsor tech groups have chosen to ask another group member to moderate. I participate in the Astro-Physics user group which uses this structure. When the topic gets out of control, the moderators step in to redirect and when an issue arises that is clearly in need of one-on-one customer support, Marj or Roland step in to refer them to private email. It seems to work out well.
Personally, I monitor a handful of discussion forums (based on the size and activity of the group) and usually opt to have the posts forwarded to me as email rather than reading them on the Yahoo website. I generally read them all and don't find it a hardship to delete those that are not germane to my interest. I don't find this group cluttered and enjoy following the questions and the answers.
best wishes,
Alan
On Dec 5, 2007, at 11:52 AM, Milton Aupperle wrote:
Hi Don;
On 5-Dec-07, at 9:13 AM, Don Singer wrote:
All:
Personally, I find this stance nutty.....it stifles group discussion
and learning to the extent that I learn less about using the software
and hardware in this group relative to any other yahoo group I belong to.
I asked Alberto about 25 questions so that I can get a feel for what his issues are. I don't see any need to cluttering up the list with that sort of back and forth traffic. And if it's a bug it gets fixed and if its something else that people need to know, then I get back to the group with a synopsis of what is to be avoided.
On any other group, be it Stark Labs or Maxim, you learn a lot from
the technical give and take between Craig Stark or Doug George with
their user base.
I see, so I have contributed nothing to the group then?
And, it leads to increased membership and increased
discussion....notice that the membership on this group has been
stagnant, and I am sure this is one of the reasons.
Actually, the group has grown by 20% this year, again. And that is despite the fact that I had to implement the "approval" process to join to keep the spammers out. I asked the group for your feed back on this too if you recall.
Why belong if the
author of the program declines, or worse yet, refuses to give
constructive feedback to the group rather than the individual?
Constructive feedback on what ? We don't even know what the problem is yet other than "it loops"? It could be turbulence with a low pixel setting, it could be uneven balancing of the mount (is he doing OAG or Guide Scope - we don't know), it could be not filling in the declination filed correctly, it could An Apple Bug in Leopard (we don't know what OS he's using), it could be a camera issue, is could be a driver issue with KeySpan (assuming he is using a keyspan controller - we don't know that) it could be an interaction with some other software that we don't know is running etc. etc.
Guiding is NOT a simple thing and it's often very difficult to determine what the issue might be. So it will take at least 3 e-mails before I even know what his set up is and I really don't see any need to clutter the list with this back and forth over several days because of the time difference.
And this is the second time that I have had to bring what is a support issue and what isn't in 3 years. The first time was when someone had a registration issue and there is non one here that is going to solve that sort of problem. And I don't make unlock keys or other private information public - so there is no way that should be brought to a yahoo group.
What
good does that do?
How many people have asked for camera advice and have I EVER refused them or ignored them? How many people had Firmware issues and I have told them EXACTLY what they need to do? I have NEVER refused to help anyone.
I am very interested in what Alberto is doing, what
he is experiencing, and how the two of you may resolve the issue....it
may happen to me and I would then have a resource to refer to rather
than flailing in the wind!
Why not ask him directly? Alberto is a good guy and does nice work.
Personally, I think Milton should re-consider this stance...it is
frustrating and reduces the users reference points for learning to use
the software to it's fullest potential - and, that is what it is all
about, isn't it? To learn and grow one's interest in astrophotography?
Actually the only growth Astro IIDC is having is in Microscopy, which is a very good thing.
Milton J. Aupperle
President
ASC - Aupperle Services and Contracting
Mac Software (Drivers, Components and Application) Specialist
#1005 - 815 14th Avenue. S.W.
Calgary Alberta T2R0N5
1-(403)-229-9456
www.outcastsoft.com
.