svn commit: r1165441 - /incubator/jena/site/trunk/content/jena/help_and_support/index.mdtext

[ij...@apache.org]

Author: ijd
Date: Mon Sep  5 22:36:48 2011
New Revision: 1165441

URL: http://svn.apache.org/viewvc?rev=1165441&view=rev
Log:
First draft of getting-help page

Modified:
    incubator/jena/site/trunk/content/jena/help_and_support/index.mdtext

Modified: incubator/jena/site/trunk/content/jena/help_and_support/index.mdtext
URL: http://svn.apache.org/viewvc/incubator/jena/site/trunk/content/jena/help_and_support/index.mdtext?rev=1165441&r1=1165440&r2=1165441&view=diff
==============================================================================
--- incubator/jena/site/trunk/content/jena/help_and_support/index.mdtext (original)
+++ incubator/jena/site/trunk/content/jena/help_and_support/index.mdtext Mon Sep  5 22:36:48 2011
@@ -1 +1,64 @@
 Title: Getting help with Jena
+
+We are always happy to help you get your Jena project going. Jena has been around
+for many years, there are many archives of past questions, tutorials and articles
+on the web. A quick search may well answer your question directly! If not, please
+feel free to post a question to the user support list (details below).
+
+## Email support lists
+
+The *main user support list* is `jena-users@incubator.apache.org`. To join this
+list, please send an email to: <a href="mailto:jena-users-subscribe@incubator.apache.org">
+`jena-users-subscribe@incubator.apache.org`</a> from the email account you want
+to subscribe with. This list is a good place to ask for advice on developing Jena-based
+applications, or solving  a problem with using Jena. *Please see below for notes
+on asking good questions*. The list is archived at
+[mail-archives.apache.org](http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox#incubating) or
+[markmail.org](http://markmail.org/search/?q=list:org.apache.incubator.jena-*)
+
+The *developers* list is `jena-deval@incubator.apache.org`. To join this
+list, please send an email to: <a href="mailto:jena-dev-subscribe@incubator.apache.org">
+`jena-dev-subscribe@incubator.apache.org`</a> from the email account you want
+to subscribe with. This list is a good place to discuss the development of the Jena
+platform itself, including patches you want to submit.
+
+
+## Other channels
+
+Some Jena developers hang out on `#jena` on `irc.freenode.net`.
+
+## Other resources
+
+The **old** Jena users list was `jena-dev@yahoogroups.com`. Please use the above lists
+in preference to the old list. The
+<a href="http://tech.groups.yahoo.com/group/jena-dev/">archives of the old list are available</a>.
+
+There are curated collections of Jena questions on [StackOverflow](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/jena)
+and [answers.semanticweb.com](http://answers.semanticweb.com/tags/jena/).
+
+## How to ask a good question
+
+Asking good questions is **the best way to get good answers**. Try to follow these tips:
+
+  - Make the question **precise** and **specific**. *"My code doesn't work"*, for example, does not help us to help you
+  as much as *"The following SPARQL query gave me an answer I didn't expect"*.
+
+  - Show that you've **tried to solve the problem yourself**. Everyone who answers questions on the list
+  has a full-time job or study to do; no-one gets paid for answering these support questions. Spend
+  their goodwill wisely: *"Here's the code I tried..."* or *"I read in the documentation that ..."* shows that
+  you've at least made some effort to find things out for yourself.
+
+  - Where appropriate **show a complete test case**. Seeing where your code goes wrong is generally
+  much easier if we can run it our our computers. Corollaries: **don't post your entire project** - take some
+  time to reduce it down to a minimal test case. **Include enough data** - runnable code is no help if
+  critical resources like `*.rdf` files are missing. Reducing your code down to a minimal test case
+  is often enough for you to figure out the problem yourself, which is always satisfying!
+
+  - **Don't re-post your question** after only a few hours. People are busy, and may be in a different timezone
+  to you. If you're not sure if your question made it to the list, [look in the archive](http://markmail.org/search/?q=list:org.apache.incubator.jena-*).
+
+  - **Adding lots of exclamation marks** or other punctuation will **not** move your question up the queue. Quite the
+  reverse, in fact.
+
+  - Ask questions **on the list, rather than emailing the developers directly**. This gives us the chance to share the
+  load of answering questions, and also ensures that answers are archived in case they're of use to others in the future.
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