[vtkusers] [vtk-developers] Getting 0 response for all my questions

[Andras Lasso]

On VTK-users list, only 60-70% of posts get responses on average (I’ve just checked recent posts on nabble).

Maybe  those 30-40% of questions shouldn’t have been asked. Considering the outstanding textbook, examples, and API documentation of VTK, asking easy questions is generally not justified. Some other questions may be too difficult or too broad or too specific. However, the person who asks the question may not realize that the question is bad. Just getting some boilerplate text answer that explains what the problem with the question is, would be great help. It would give a chance for the user to give more details, to know where to start looking for that information instead of just waiting, etc.

Quality of questions could be also improved by adding “Read before posting” info to https://www.vtk.org/mailing-lists/ page to improve quality of questions (http://www.cplusplus.com/forum/beginner/1/ could be a good starting point).

In addition to emails, offering a modern, rich web interface (such as Discourse; instead of mailman and nabble) would also make reading and answering questions more pleasant experience for many.

What users could do: Others in this thread had some good suggestions. Also, check out “Read before posting” guidelines of other mailing lists. Finally, you may write to more specific forums. For example, forums of applications that are based on VTK. If you do medical image computing then you can ask on 3D Slicer, MITK, ITK-Snap mailing list, how that particular problem can be solved using that that application (you can then either use that application or use their source code as example).

Andras

From: vtkusers [mailto:vtkusers-bounces at vtk.org] On Behalf Of Amine Aboufirass
Sent: Friday, December 8, 2017 7:12 AM
To: Bill Lorensen <bill.lorensen at gmail.com>
Cc: VTK Users <vtkusers at vtk.org>
Subject: Re: [vtkusers] [vtk-developers] Getting 0 response for all my questions

Hi All,

Thanks for your responses. I do make good use of the documentation. Let's see how far I can get.

Regards,

Amine




On Fri, Dec 8, 2017 at 12:12 PM, Bill Lorensen <bill.lorensen at gmail.com<mailto:bill.lorensen at gmail.com>> wrote:
Also, almost of the examples in the VTK Book have been  translated to
C++ and Python. The C++ examples are here:
https://lorensen.github.io/VTKExamples/site/VTKBookFigures/<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Florensen.github.io%2FVTKExamples%2Fsite%2FVTKBookFigures%2F&data=02%7C01%7Classo%40queensu.ca%7C6b370894441842dd3f2b08d53e34db98%7Cd61ecb3b38b142d582c4efb2838b925c%7C1%7C0%7C636483319100550508&sdata=aUM25X7X05wiobH4Hqs%2Fw7QRytLMM0VmKK7BPRrH1X0%3D&reserved=0>

he VTKExamples has hundreds for examples, mainly C++ and Python.
https://lorensen.github.io/VTKExamples/site/Cxx/<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Florensen.github.io%2FVTKExamples%2Fsite%2FCxx%2F&data=02%7C01%7Classo%40queensu.ca%7C6b370894441842dd3f2b08d53e34db98%7Cd61ecb3b38b142d582c4efb2838b925c%7C1%7C0%7C636483319100550508&sdata=0XVZwzuiF2GVXGpGccMqUu1Ds7C9%2BH5anaoOjAKUbIA%3D&reserved=0>

Enjoy,

Bill

On Fri, Dec 8, 2017 at 4:56 AM, Todd via vtkusers <vtkusers at vtk.org<mailto:vtkusers at vtk.org>> wrote:
> Hi Paul
>
> My response was not intended to be heartless. I was merely pointing out that
> people on the mailing list may simply ignore questions which are not
> specific and that is what appears to be happening. I made no judgment on
> whether that was reasonable.
>
> On 8 Dec 2017 10:18 p.m., Paul Korir <pkorir at ebi.ac.uk<mailto:pkorir at ebi.ac.uk>> wrote:
>
> Dear Amine,
>
> While Todd's response is logically correct, I think it is heartless and
> undermines the whole point of an open source community.
>
> I can understand your disappointment that you have not received any
> response. It might even be because, as Todd stated, that your queries are
> too broad. However, I think with a bit more info you can put yourself if a
> better position by going through the examples in the now freely available
> documentation which is of a very high standard. It seems to me that within
> the documentation you can find good enough hints to your questions to solve
> them or ultimately frame them in a way that invites more responses.
>
> Don't despair. Keep at it. For every heartless comment there will be some
> that spur you on to keep going.
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Paul K. Korir, PhD
> Scientific Programmer
> EMBL-EBI
> 01223494422
>
> On 08/12/2017 08:30, Todd via vtkusers wrote:
>
> Hi Amine
>
> Since it is a mailing list and not a support service, no one is obliged to
> respond at all.
>
> I would suppose your questions are too general.
>
>
> On 8 Dec 2017 8:43 p.m., Amine Aboufirass <amine.aboufirass at gmail.com<mailto:amine.aboufirass at gmail.com>>
> wrote:
>
> Hello,
>
> In the last month or so, I have sent over 4 detailed messages with
> legitimate queries on vtk functionality to the vtk users mailing list, the
> vtk developers mailing list and also the kitware support line. The kitware
> support always either 1)  refer me back to the mailing lists or 2) propose
> paid support. I am getting no support from the users/developers mailing
> list.
>
> Some of the questions I hve been sending include the following:
>
> subject: ExtractByLocation (sent on 01-Dec-2017)
> subject: write unstructured grid vtk file to query-able database format
> (sent in 11-Nov-2017)
> subject: trying to extract points by location (sent in 11-Nov-2017)
>  subject: Extracting selection from UnstructuredGridDataset using python
> (sent in 16-Nov-2017)
>
> I believe my questions are appropriate for the mailing list and I do not
> understand why they are not getting any response. I have also checked the
> mailing list options to make sure I am not blocking responses and I don't
> think I am.
>
> Is vtk an open source tool? or does one need to be part of some special
> community to receive support for basic functionality which comes with the
> free package?
>
> Thanks for your consideration and look forward to hearing from you.
>
> Regards,
>
> Amine
>
>
>
>
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