in reply to CPAN::Forum opens its virtual doors

I'm always glad to see some one applying a bit of JFDI rather than having interminable discussions about things. But as a module author/maintainer, this puts me in a bit of a spot - it's probably easier just quote what I said when asked about this somewhere else:

I can't see what niche this fills: if there are bugs in a module to report then the author will probably have indicated where these should go, either to http://rt.cpan.org , to a mailling list, direct to the author or whatever.

As a module author and/or maintainer I don't want to have to monitor another site to pick up support issues anyway, but having it as a web forum just makes it even more inconvenient - the majority of the free time I have when I might be able to offer support to my modules is those times when I will not be able to use a web site. I prefer e-mail.

There is no option on the site to opt your modules out of it - so if this achieves some semi-official status, then people who have problems with the modules I support are going to perceive that they are poorly supported when they don't get a response.

/J\

  • Comment on Re: CPAN::Forum opens its virtual doors

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Re^2: CPAN::Forum opens its virtual doors
by grantm (Parson) on Feb 09, 2005 at 01:08 UTC

    You don't have to monitor the site - just register to have it mail you if someone posts about your module.

    You could also pre-emptively post a message that links to whatever FAQ, mailing list, project web site, tutorial article etc documents already exist.

Re^2: CPAN::Forum opens its virtual doors
by zby (Vicar) on Feb 09, 2005 at 11:40 UTC
    It is not all about bugs. There can be usage advice, examples. And also you could post there something that you don't know if it is a bug or not. Generally - a place where other module users can help each other.

      Fine, but I am not sure what value it will have if it is not being read by the modules authors and/or maintainers/

      /J\

        Fine, but I am not sure what value it will have if it is not being read by the modules authors and/or maintainers/
        The same value perlmonks has.

        I'm fond of bug reports (I ask for those), but I'm not particulary fond of user asking me questions (SOPW style, especially without having RTFM'ed) via rt.cpan.org or email.

        CPAN::Forum could be a place for users to confer with other users to verify if they've got a legitimate bug, and it doesn't hurt that its linked to from search.cpan.org/cpan.uwinnipeg.ca.

        MJD says "you can't just make shit up and expect the computer to know what you mean, retardo!"
        I run a Win32 PPM repository for perl 5.6.x and 5.8.x -- I take requests (README).
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