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ldolse · 01-24-2011, 07:36 PM

I'm happy to help out with the docs/subforums, conversion is probably where i can provide the most value. That said, I've read through the thread, and I do have a few comments that haven't really been covered.

Calibre's seen a LOT of new users in the last couple months. The newbies that actually sign up for this forum to ask questions are a tiny fraction of those new users. I've recommended Calibre to several friends over the last couple months myself, and the only comment I get back from them is that Calibre is the greatest thing since sliced bread - no tech support requests at all. I haven't told them about this forum as a support resource and none of them have signed up to ask for help. Anyway my point is the extra requests for help are just a part of Calibre's increasing popularity, probably not anything to get too excited/worried about. There are a lot of happy users out there who will never create a mobileread or bugtracker account.

I don't know how we get new users to upgrade, but one of the other issues I see is that most new users have no idea how fast Calibre moves - I don't think there are many/any other software projects that improve as rapidly as Calibre. A lot of questions/problems recently are from users using old versions of Calibre and don't bother informing the people trying to provide help here of that fact. Probably one of the things that needs to be front and center in the forums is that you really should check your version number and upgrade before asking for help.

One thing I really liked in 7.42 is that Kovid linked the new panels directly to the relevant documentation - this is probably worth doing for many of the different GUI panels, and will probably reduce a lot of the 'how does this thing work' type threads since the relevant docs are a click away and don't require any searching/Internet navigation.

I'd also like to stress that it is very easy for people to contribute to the actual Calibre docs. You do need to get involved to the degree that you need to sync the source code, instructions are here:
http://www.calibre-ebook.com/user_manual/develop.html

Editing the actual docs isn't hard, though how to do that isn't particularly well documented in and of itself. Is this something that needs to be made easier for people who wish to contribute?

01-24-2011, 07:36 PM	#75
ldolse Wizard Posts: 1,337 Karma: 123455 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Malaysia Device: PRS-650, iPhone	I'm happy to help out with the docs/subforums, conversion is probably where i can provide the most value. That said, I've read through the thread, and I do have a few comments that haven't really been covered. Calibre's seen a LOT of new users in the last couple months. The newbies that actually sign up for this forum to ask questions are a tiny fraction of those new users. I've recommended Calibre to several friends over the last couple months myself, and the only comment I get back from them is that Calibre is the greatest thing since sliced bread - no tech support requests at all. I haven't told them about this forum as a support resource and none of them have signed up to ask for help. Anyway my point is the extra requests for help are just a part of Calibre's increasing popularity, probably not anything to get too excited/worried about. There are a lot of happy users out there who will never create a mobileread or bugtracker account. I don't know how we get new users to upgrade, but one of the other issues I see is that most new users have no idea how fast Calibre moves - I don't think there are many/any other software projects that improve as rapidly as Calibre. A lot of questions/problems recently are from users using old versions of Calibre and don't bother informing the people trying to provide help here of that fact. Probably one of the things that needs to be front and center in the forums is that you really should check your version number and upgrade before asking for help. One thing I really liked in 7.42 is that Kovid linked the new panels directly to the relevant documentation - this is probably worth doing for many of the different GUI panels, and will probably reduce a lot of the 'how does this thing work' type threads since the relevant docs are a click away and don't require any searching/Internet navigation. I'd also like to stress that it is very easy for people to contribute to the actual Calibre docs. You do need to get involved to the degree that you need to sync the source code, instructions are here: http://www.calibre-ebook.com/user_manual/develop.html Editing the actual docs isn't hard, though how to do that isn't particularly well documented in and of itself. Is this something that needs to be made easier for people who wish to contribute? Last edited by ldolse; 01-24-2011 at 07:38 PM.