(Moving this portion from f-docs-l as something I've been meaning to
talk about in a marketing context ...)
On Mon, 2008-04-07 at 13:52 -0400, Paul W. Frields wrote:
The word "support" is unfortunately loaded with meanings we
may not
intend
As are many other words ... and yet we get along OK with that. What
makes 'support' so bad?
"Don't call it support." This has been a mantra in Fedora for some
time. Despite that, people still refer to 'support'. Our closest
right-thinking has been to call it 'community support'.
Later in the above email, Paul suggests 'help' is an appropriate word,
and I tend to agree. However, people still say 'support/supported',
especially where 'help' doesn't work:
"Is my hardware supported by that video driver?"
"How can I support my installation?
etc.
We can continue to worry about the word support or not. The question I
keep asking myself is, "Would it change the expectation of people
requesting help if they understood from the beginning that there is no
commercial support relationship?"
I expect that it does not change people's expectations. Folks who think
they deserve 'support' are going to feel that regardless.
In the end, I think we cause ourselves unneeded worry chasing down the
way we use the word support, and I'm not convinced we've made a bit of
difference.
- Karsten
--
Karsten Wade, Sr. Developer Community Mgr.
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