Motion - Why Not Replying Private Support Emails

Why not replying private support emails?

For years I have had the text at the bottom of every web page here on the Motion wiki saying: Please do not email Kenneth for support questions. Use the Support Requests page or join the Mailing List.

And still many people send private emails, usually with some explanation that they do not want to register on the wiki or join the mailing list.

With the exception of security related emails all these mails are ignorred. In rare cases a rejection email is sent. But normally the mails are ignorred. Here is the explanation why.

Motion is an open source project written and supported by a few private individuals that program for free in our spare time and do it all for fun. There is no money involved. Not consultancy company making money on support. No selling hardware boxes. It is all volunteer work for the fun of it.

Maintaining and supporting Motion takes time. Each time a support question is answered it takes maybe 0.5 to 1 hour to find the answer and write it. Each bug can take days to fix.

  • It means a lot to us that the time we spend on the project benefit the whole community
  • It is important that the community can share the work load of supporting and fixing Motion

Think about this.

Each time you ask a support question...
  • A private email will benefit only the one person that receives the answer
  • A mailing list reply or a wiki reply will benefit 1000s of users. Also future users that may run into the same problems.

Each time report a bug or ask a question...
  • A private email means that only the receiver of the email is made aware of the question or the software bug
  • A bug report on mailing list or wiki means that the whole community around Motion is sharing the load of answering questions and fixing the bugs. And fixes made available in public are available to the whole community so you do not have to wait for the fix to be in the next release

So please. Register on the wiki or join the mailing list if you want to report bugs or need support. Private emails will normally not be answered.

And when you join consider giving other people a hand with things you know. Motion is a community driven project. Free and open for you to enjoy and improve.

If you are worried about spam remember that you can always create an email account different from your normal account. There is Google mail or Hotmail and many others. You can even use a pseudonym if you want to protect your privacy. There is no excuse for not asking your questions or reporting bugs through the Motion wiki or the Motion mailing list.

Both the wiki and the mailing list are very nice places to be. We talk very nicely to each other. We do not give critique if you do not quote the right way on the mailing list. We do not care if your English is not perfect. The Motion mailing list claims to be the nicest mailing list on the Internet. Trolls are silently but firmly warned by Kenneth and unsubscribed from the list if they continue.

You are very welcome in our community. With questions, advice, suggestions, bugs, patches anything.

Kindest regards

Kenneth Lavrsen - and the Motion community
Topic revision: r1 - 11 Feb 2010, KennethLavrsen
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Please do not email Kenneth for support questions (read why). Use the Support Requests page or join the Mailing List.
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