Shall respond with incomplete answers or not at all?

Hi,

I would like to know the general sentiment, reading the Covenant did not give me answer, about responding.

Is it better to:
A.) Give partial answer or guess the solution for OP or give some general direction for OP to try
B.) Keep my keyboard shut, because I don’t have the answers or never experienced the issues exactly

I am more of the A person but I think some people might have issues with this. I want to keep this place professional and want to help.

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I’d say it depends on the complexity of the issue, but IMO the problem with B is it greatly restricts the amount of people able to help, and potentially greatly increases the workload of those people.
I am also a A, and i sometimes provide search results on “simple” problems outside my usual knowledge. Sometimes it solves, sometimes it doesn’t.

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Well I do face this sometimes and find myself resorting to B. But I feel A is probably better and i have been trying to be more A sometimes. But I still go B if I feel my A can potentially harm.

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If someone ask for something what might break system in the future I would warn this person if even I know solution (for example installing nvidia 340 drivers on kernel 5.8 is this type of problem, I know how to do it but I’ll never advise it). Main problem is whether you know what may harm system and what not.

Generally I’m more A person on Polish forum, but here I’am more B person because I’m not very good at English and give solution for problems which I know.

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Sometimes people just need a nudge in the right direction, so even a partial answer can be the solution they are looking for.

I’m an A person myself.

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What is the Covenant? Is it a book of the Indiana Jones film?

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Don’t worry I don’t like the word either.

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Does this mean that people on this forum are contributors who are bound to a legal agreement? This is the first time I have seen this on any forum so forgive me if I am wrong! :sweat_smile:

I am thinking now that if I am bound to an agreement I must be careful to give the correct information…

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I have no clue.
Why it has to be so complicated.

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It’s the pinned post on the forum.

  1. a usually formal, solemn, and binding agreement
  2. a written agreement or promise usually under seal between two or more parties especially for the performance of some action

I mean… whenever you make an account on ANY website, you are signing an agreement. You know… those things people never read when they sign up for a credit card, website access, program access, etc.


I am in group A. I know partial answers to some things, and able to push OP in the right direction to see where they could get the full answer.

e.g. How to get OpenCL support?

I have never used DaVinci Resolve. But I can link OP where they can find all the answers they need to get OpenCL working with DaVinci.

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I have never heard of this being used for any other forum so this is new to me and if what you are saying is correct then by being part of this forum it comes with a formal and binding agreement although if this is binding for everyone then that might be OK as long as there is some way to enforce it.

I think this is different as in those examples you are signing up with a company that is taking information you are providing in exchange for a service you are paying for rather than being a community site for people who are interested in an open-source project or want to help other people. This makes me start to think that you are saying that the Manjaro forum is not a community for an open-source project but is instead something for a company and I hope that is not correct as Manjaro is an open-source project?

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You are aware that when you sign up for an account for the forum, there is a Terms of Service right? Every forum has that. Even GitLab and GitHub has one, which are used for open source projects. You’re signing to agree with the TOS.

At the bottom of signing up for an account, it says:

By registering, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

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Yes and how are those linked to the covenant which has been posted above?

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Please make a new topic if you want more answers. As this conversation is currently derailing OP.

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These questions seem to be related to the OP which is asking about the status and meaning of the covenant which is a “formal and binding agreement” but which people do not understand the meaning of. It does appear that the “strict forum rules and guidance” is there to cover the behavior of the Manjaro team but this is not clear and it is not clear how it would be enforced if that is the case.

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Over 200000 open source projects have adopted it, the covenant. There is a list of the major projects and organizations adopters:
https://www.contributor-covenant.org/adopters/
This forum is part of the Manjaro project, hence members, contributors, and leaders are also protected by the covenant, but also share the responsibility to treat the members, contributors, and leaders according to the covenant.

Regarding A and B.
If the OP is not presenting clear what the issue is, or describes more than one issue, you can address to one and point out to open a new topic for each issue. You have to be careful tho, some might take it as off-topic comment, even if you ask for clarification or point something else out (for instance if one of the issues is unrelated to Manjaro repository but is about an AUR package) …

Also, i see this and might be easier to define a couple of things about it:

Well, nobody here is hired to give technical assistance. From that point of view it can’t be professional because is not a profession. But, since most of the community members do wonders by providing technical assistance voluntary, then this forum has a considerable amount of technical content, hence has the professional value in that regard. Because of that is already driven by a professional conduct. :wink:
From the covenant, what would make a conduct an issue :

So, if technically a comment is not 100% on the spot, is not an issue and none of you will be desconsiderad for that. The OP should still appreciate it. If the OP is unhappy and goes by the way of insults … then:
An insult, can “reasonably be considered inappropriate” - hence not welcome in the forum.

From what i can tell, you all do great so far and we appreciate you getting involved.
Cheers!

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This is good to hear, and so it means that all Manjaro team members are also to be held to this which is good! There is lots of talk about how in some projects team members are defensive and aggressive toward people they think are “newbies” so it is good that there is an agreement in place for Manjaro so that will not happen! :hugs:

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