What is Digg?115 Comments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -11/+52TechSupport: Hello.
User: Yes, I would like to know how to configure my printer for linux.
TechSupport: RTFM N00b!!!! - professorhojo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+30These guys only kicked off 3 days ago, but they apparantly have a new twist on the old ask-an-expert service.
It looks like they pop up help requests from their site directly in the Jabber-friendly IM client of experts, bypassing the need for them to visit forums daily or lurk in IRC. From the site: "We use Jabber instant messaging to connect -- in real time -- people who have software or tech-related questions with experts who are passionate and willing to help."
Since they only launched a couple days ago they're a bit thin on experts so far, but if you're a Jabber IM user or have a multi-protocol IM client like Trilian Pro or Adium consider taking a look and donating a few help sessions. You tag yourself with your areas of expertise and go from there. (List of Jabber-friendly clients: http://www.jabber.org/software/clients.shtml ... Qunu's setup instructions: http://www.qunu.com/wiki/index.php/Documentation)
DUGG! - halr9000, on 10/12/2007, -2/+23Note that this service is not Linux specific--you can get support on any topic.
- Sairgem, on 10/12/2007, -3/+17"Very cool idea, but what does the experts reap from it? I can see people joining and helping some people out but after a few weeks what is going to keep the experts from leaving?"
Ever go to a linux irc channel? - macjonesnz, on 10/12/2007, -4/+14n00b: My computer runs Vist....
Operator: I'll have to stop you there.... Whats you're address we're mailing you an emergency Ubuntu CD.
n00b: Will that fix my...
Operator: Yup ! - Blindbeard, on 10/12/2007, -2/+12Well they probably deserve a little compensation for this service, not a lot mind you, because they aren't paying the experts. This is from the FAQ section:
"How do you intend making money?
We have a bunch of great ideas that we're playing with, none of which involve pushing ads down your throat, but the basic service (giving help and getting help) will always be free."
I don't mind that the Digg creators make money either, as long as it remains free on my end and the service remains good. - qunu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11>But it makes me wonder how many people will sign up and offer "bogus" support
good question. we have a feedback mechanism built in so that you rate the quality of the help you get from the expert. let's say the expert was a scammer or a con-artist? you would not rate them very well. a couple bad ratings and experts will start to drop in the search results and eventually will not show up in search results at all. our feedback machanism is still a work in progress, but we are keeping our eye on just this issue.. :) - Blindbeard, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10Hopefully with the large readership Digg gets, they'll get a lot of new experts to sign up. I'd imagine there are a lot of Digg users who really know their stuff and want to help out.
- philmunt, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8I like helping, but I'm not comfortable with them making a profit off my work. If this was a non-profit organisation I'd be all for it, but as it stands.
- xserver2003, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10Yeah its great for newbies who are always scared of the IRC word and want to get a quickhelp for running linux. Its less complicated and very user-friendly. I m enrolling my self as an expert for providing techsupport when i have jackin time. Its really good to know new people and help them for free.
- happbando, on 10/12/2007, -4/+10since when is linux about getting paid? maybe i'm missing the point...
- GlassCasket, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Very neat!
+Digg for trying to help others! - qunu, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Just a little further information -- if you'd like to be a Qunu expert and donate a support session or two, you can register using your Jabber-friendly IM client. There are a few easy ways into the system, depending on what client you have:
- Add quser@qunu.com to your roster, or
- Register with quser.alpha.qunu.com as a "service", or
- Add quser.alpha.qunu.com to your roster via a subscribe request
Request authorization from your new contact and it will start talking to you. You can talk to it, and tag yourself with your areas of expertise like this: "tags linux ubuntu gentoo cups kde". You'll then show up in Qunu results as an expert in those things. Any help requests will get routed straight thru to your IM client as an invitation you can accept or reject. Do unregister, simply unsubscribe from the Qunu contact.
Hope this makes sense.. :) - ThisIsJames, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Just what I needed! I was having linux installation problems, but now I'm saved! The guy I talked to was really nice and went to the site and looked for what I needed when I told him what was wrong.
It's a shame I can only give this one digg :(. - qunu, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8thanks guys - it's great to have your support!
- nubtard, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5This is neat. Sort of a real-time wikipedia for PC support. Dugg and added to bookmarks.
- qunu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7I'll have to stop you there. Find the box your computer came in and pack it up and then....
- Shinichi, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5bogus helper: type this into your terminal: sudo rm -r / *don't do it by the way*
helpee: OK
bogus helper: later, praise to billy g - redxii, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7"since when is linux about getting paid? maybe i'm missing the point..."
Food and shelter cost money, and so does the electricity to run your computer. - I922sParkCir, on 10/12/2007, -4/+8Awesome, I'm going to help.
- Sharkee, on 10/12/2007, -3/+7I just used it now to get help on fixing a grub/ubuntu/winxp problem! Thanks "sami"!
- bayonetblaha, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4I don't get it... I've figured out how to give help through Gaim Jabber, but can I do the whole thing through Gaim? The web interface is kinda awkward compared to using familar Gaim
- Noah0504, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6This is a great idea. I may point myself to this service in the future or may even attempt to help out myself. (Also, does their site design remind anyone else of Skype?)
- qunu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6hey hey all - if you want to try it out - feel free to search on Qunu and chat to "murray" (that's me!)
http://alpha.qunu.com/index.html?search=qunu
and fyi -- the next version coming in a few weeks will allow experts to set granular parameters on for when and for how long they're available for giving help. for instance, you might only have time between 4 and 5 in the afternoon. that's fine - just set your profile for that window and Qunu won't bother you at any other time. the experts are the most important people to us and we're working hard to give you the controls you need to protect yourself. - FiveFiftyOne, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5I just signed up to help. So far, I've just been getting people from here not needing help, but just testing it. It works. :)
- qunu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4thanks for the question and the feedback. we'only 3 days old and before we got dugg today we didn't even know if people were going to even LIKE the service, let alone have a complete revenue model planned out! :) but, to be totally honest, we have a few ideas but we're not nearlly far enough along with them to even begin committing to anything in public yet. does this make sense? the basic service as it stands today will always be free though.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3its not accepting fullstops in jabber ids.
abc.xyz@gmail.com won't work (Invalid JID Error)
abcxyz@gmail.com works.
just a bugreport ;) - bayonetblaha, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3i'm trying to figure out if I can ask questions and get help through Gaim... I'm also not seeing qunu on my buddy list, but maybe that's gaim's fault or a gmail thing.
- xswag, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I signed up for an account on your site qunu. I used that for my account name and password. I keep getting the error
Host Unknown
Host Name: My username on Qunu
Server: jabber.qunu.com
Resource: Home
Password: Qunu Password
My Account name ends up looking like
username@jabber.qunu.com/Home - qunu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4hi klytus, you have a point. our expert feedback system has 2 axes right now. 1) how knowledgable were they? 2) were they an asshat? we take the 2 scores and use them to compute new rankings on the search results.
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -4/+7Oh my gosh! Best idea ever! Digg++
- qunu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3you can list yourself as an expert under any tag you like!
- bayonetblaha, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I am so tired of those soviet union jokes...
- judderman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4This is a really neat idea, there have been many instances where I wished i could get instant live support now i can :D. But it makes me wonder how many people will sign up and offer "bogus" support. People will have to be careful, whats to say they don't recommend a program which is a RAT so they can do harm?? Good idea and I can see a lot of good uses tho. DUGG :)
- qunu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3yes, please.. or better yet - if you want to check it out, feel free to bother me at http://alpha.qunu.com/search/qunu if you wanna try it out.. i'd love to say hi :)
- Lazaryn, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3I tried a search for "hacking" and received a "We're sorry..." page. What a useless site! Everyone knows you use Linux for hacking.
;-) - qunu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3yeup. we already are i18n ready. just busy translating the language packs is all. have russian and german almost done. this also means you'll be able to specify what language your tags are in :)
- Devz0r, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2i want to know what this web site has against opera and why they won't let opera display it properly?
- kuyman, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4This is the ultimate digg ever, I totally agree. This is like being given free icecream or Beatles CDs any time you want. I was reading digg, found the link, clicked the link, typed in that I was havin problems with my wireless Internet in Linux (who isn't?) and had the problem fixed in less than three minutes after I clicked the link! Greatest free service ever! Digg!
- qunu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3digg effect, baby.. we think it's cool again now though. :)
- qunu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3you're absolutely right. the IM factor *is* going to be 'so what' for some people. and we're cool with that. :)
- Technopundit, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3In the "RTFM n00b" world of Linux, this could be like calling Triumph the insult dog.
- qunu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3no - we remove you from the results when your presence changes like that.
- Halvy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Thank you for an absolutely WONDERFUL & much needed service!!
I hope the emphasis is put on the USER, in lieu of anything else.. as there are MANY people hurting, seriously, from the crimes of M$ the last quarter century.
Good experts will already be successful, and should want to come and help.. like a good doctor who will not worry about when you will pay before he helps you.
Experts who need to make money, should not look to a service who provides a free service, other than them doing a great job with the user for possible future references.
A listing on qunu site of any experts who have a business would seem very appropriate.
* Some alternative ideas for this already great idea:
- repository of chats so that peeps can see what has and has NOT been discussed recently/ever. This will aid people in 'off' hours when there is little or no help online, or when the experts are extremely busy during the day with helping other users in qunu.
- have proprietary IM programs like MSN, Yahoo!, etc. be able to patch in some how. i know this sounds hard and has been an issue for years.. but maybe having a separate system for each program which is not 'cross platform' will help.
- most importantly, i think, is to come across to people, that OSS (Linux specifically) and it's followers, are not just cool, smart and against The Machine, but they we are nice tooo :) - qunu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3hey there -- nice point. our expert feedback system has 2 axes right now. 1) how knowledgable were they? 2) were they an asshat? we take the 2 scores and use them to compute new rankings on the search results. experts that don't know what they're doing (and get rated that way) will quickly sink in the rankings and will soon not appear at all. does that answer your question?
- qunu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3oh i see. no - to get help you have to go thru the website at this time.
but yes, it IS theoretically possible to get help using an IM client (our website is actually a specialized jabber IM client itself), but some extra extensions would need to programmed into them. - qunu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3bad news. Google have not implemented the Jabber Groupchat protocol yet unfortunately. hopefully soon! most other jabber-friendly clients have it though..
- qunu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3nice ideas. and noted. :)
- qunu, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3you don't have to choose one or the other.
you can request anonymous help from the website any time you need help... and to provide help, you simply register your JID with us with your Jabber-friendly IM client and tag yourself with your areas of expertise. the instructions are here: http://www.qunu.com/wiki/index.php/Documentation ... ping me on http://alpha.qunu.com/search/qunu if you need a hand setting up. :) - qunu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4first, thanks for signing up as an expert... i can't believe the huge positive reaction we're getting here on digg... and second -- i'll pass that on your bug report. thanks!. :)
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