Question

Why nobody answers questions to issues.  Is this site dead ?

Comments

The participation here seems normal to me. This is a support site for an open source package.

Answer 1

I learn from the view statistics that the site is alive but because of the lack of clear and well defined incentive structure for the users, participation rate is low. this is true for all websites listed in the directory.

Comments

My site (listed in the directory) has quite high participation... I'm not sure what is meant by incentive structure, but I think the problem may be rather that people's expectations of support is too high.  Gideon has done a great job with documenting Q2A's features; if you know PHP, you should be able to solve most of the issues yourself.  If you don't, you should take the time to learn, or accept what is given.

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A4R is true but what NoahY says is right Gideon is a great programmer and have provided with the best of documentation if you don't know PHP then buy some premium themes like this one http://www.question2answer.org/qa/13030/anyone-interested-in-premium-theme  or go to hire some professional.

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100% sure that I am not questioning technical talent of Gideon, NoaH and other guys. I am just asking if people's expectations of support (say answer) is too high and you have ability to answer (as Noah said), why not allow people to pay for the answers they get? Q2A source is open source and free but it does not necessarily guarantees that answers will be also free of charge. Am I wrong?

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Nobody's stopping people from paying for answers... but I assume most of us are here because we have our own sites to administer and not because we're looking for paid work.  Unfortunately for people looking for commercial solutions, I think that's the situation for most open source software.  OS programmers believe in free exchange of information and tools, that's why we support such projects whole-heartedly and are happy to take the time to learn what we can and contribute what we can.  

For those just looking for a product they can pay for and leave, I'd venture a guess that that sort of outlook is not so sought for in open source projects, but that might just be my own opinion.  It seems fair to say open source software is more than just the product, it is a part of a larger philosophy of participation and exchange of ideas, tools and information - money is nice, but much nicer as a donation than as a salary, though I suppose that may seem idealistic by some standards.  

Hope that's not too much of a rant, just some thoughts.

Answer 2

Many of the "issues" posted are actually customization requests that have well-documented answers on the wiki; I think it is important for people to realize that if you don't know PHP and/or are not willing to read the API documentation, you shouldn't be looking for customizations to the script.

Comments

This is a very good point. I wonder if there is some way the documentation could be made easier to discover and understand? IMO it's extensive enough, but maybe not for people lacking programming knowledge.

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I guess I am biased because I took the time to teach myself PHP from sample code and php.net, never had any formal training; I forget sometimes that other people don't have the time, energy or inclination to do so.  Still, I think it is good to encourage A LITTLE exploration of the site now and then :)

Answer 3

This is a free program.  If you want support go and pay someone to build something for you or buy a supported program.  You should be more than happy with the quality.  I don't understand why people complain about something that is FREE!

Answer 4

This site and espcially the software itself are not dead by any means.

I think the problem is there aren't enough users here who know about the internals of Q2A and what is possible with the software. Gidgreen (the developer), NoahY and myself and maybe a couple others are the only ones who seem able to answer questions.

Personally I like answering and helping people but I can't do it indefinitely and often I just don't care enough about a feature or request that a user wants to do, to answer it.

The other problem as NoahY mentioned is the lack of programming knowledge amongst those installing Q2A. Most of the questions can be answered with "use an advanced themes". Just because you can download and install Wordpress with hardly any PHP knowledge doesn't mean you can (or should be able to) do the same with Q2A.

Comments

Dear DisgruntledGoat as you said "Personally I like answering and helping people but I can't do it indefinitely and often I just don't care enough about a feature or request that a user wants to do, to answer it'. You are true. answering indefinitely has opportunity cost for the expert and I would like to know who should pay for this opportunity cost?

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It's not about paying, it's about having more people who know the software, or at least are good at PHP, to visit the site and be part of the community.

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Agreed, I think part of the problem is people are stuck in the pay-to-play attitude; these projects are more of the DIY and we'll help you attitude, which is so much more rewarding.

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I always found myself asking question in the beginning because I had no "guide" to help me. Quickly I found out that a lot of functions are explained in the source code, that helped a lot. Then I learnt the most from plugins of NoahY and Scott.

Maybe I should do some videos on q2a? I open a request...