Linuxcnc support

There have been a number of times when I have needed help with linuxcnc when it has taken weeks for me to get answers on the forums or more often than not weeks later I need to bump a thread again just hoping it will catch someones attention.
It makes me wonder if linuxcnc might see more growth and activity if there was more activity and support to begin with. Then it has me wondering if linuxcnc is growing at the rate of this new DIY, maker, revolution that is taking place or if there are just a few crusty old farts who are sick of answering noobie questions? Is linuxcnc supposed to be part of this new revolution or is it really just for the tech savy who can do everything on their own or the patient DIYer who can wait for a month for a response?

I know there is the IRQ and sometimes this has helped me but it takes a serious effort for me to do this. I don't use chat and don't have it setup on any of my computers. I have gotten on through web browsers before but it's a PITA for me to get on and get setup. It's hard for me to believe that this antiquated method of communication seems to be the most popular for this group. Personally I don't like if tor troubleshooting because either there are a lot of people active and 5 different conversations going on or it's dead. If there is going to be a chat group wouldn't it be easier to have a live chat tied into the forum? This way at least I don't have to figure out how to set up the IRQ and instead I just come here to the forum and type in a chat box. Then I could just link to the thread I started and everything would be in one place and simple.
It looks like the board runs on Joomla so I would think that would be very easy.
www.google.com/search?q=joomly+live+chat...la+live+chat&spell=1

Or maybe just integrate the IRC with the website?
www.google.com/#q=joomla++irc

I feel kind of bad saying that linuxcnc needs more activity and support when I check in so rarely but as a new business owner hanging on by my shoelaces I have to be very strategic with where I focus my time.
With that said it is worth a little money for me to have quick and easy access to support. The thought of switching to something like mach 3 and god forbid Windows is the last thing I want to do but if that price comes with enough support it may be worth it. For those who don't dislike windows as much as I do I am sure that is a no brainier.
With that said, I could pretty easily justify paying $60 a year for a linuxcnc Pro version or something like this that had better support or even if the support was just quicker responses on the forum and that money could go toward quicker development and increased effort on the progress of linuxcnc.

Fortunately in my current situation it is just a matter of me getting my new computer setup with 2.7 and my old computer is still working on 2.6 so today I will go swap computers again to get my work done but at the same time this is obviously some sort of bug with 2.7 and I am willing to put time and effort into getting this resolved and fixed but no one seems the least bit interested which kind of bothers me on it's own. I am sure everyone is just as busy as I am and for that I don't expect same day answers or fixes but to see no response for weeks kind of sucks.

I think that increased support and community activity as well as ease of access to that activity such as bringing the IRC to the forum would do wonders for the growth and activity of the community. I know growth doesn't mean the same thing here as with a business that makes money off it's customers but more people coming in could mean more people putting effort into the development of it.
I also wonder if there could be the opportunity to make peoples lives better by having an income based side to linuxcnc ir if that's something that interests anyone on the development side of things. I love the fact that linuxcnc is FOSS and it should stay that way but for many people like me there may be some value to having a paid tier that has a higher level of support and or even just contributing to help the cause. At the same time if I gave an annual donation/subscription and still had to wait weeks and bump threads to hope for a response it would be even more frustrating so there would need to be some return on the support side as well.

Hopefully this thread doesn't sound too negative. I am trying to be positive and look at ways to improve things for the better from a positive point of view but it is definitely originating from some frustration that I have had for some time which I'm sure is apparent as well.

I did not realize that but this seems ridiculously outdated to me. The last mailing list group I was in was probably 2003.
I have been researching linuxcnc since probably 2007 and using it for about two years now. I had no idea the forum was such a small part of the linuxcnc community.
This makes me wonder if the mailing list is actually the preferred method of communication or if no one has bothered to transition to anything newer.
Heck in the other communities I am in the forum is the outdated and dying medium that everyone has left for facebook or other instant gratification forums where they can ask the same question that has been asked a thousand times before and feel like they are the first person who has ever had the idea. Not that I think that is the way to go. I like forums because they are easy to access, easy to use and most importantly easy to search.
Mailing lists while having some of the above seem very outdated to me and I already get too much email as it is.
I think moving the linuxcnc primary sources of communication into the 21st century would do a lot to make it more popular and more successful. If that has any importance to anyone.
Even knowing this now I have zero desire to use a mailing list or IRC to try and get help. I guess I will if I have to but I'd rather go up to the top of a mountain and try to use smoke signals.

I would be interested to hear how other people feel about this though. Am I the only one who feels this way?

mozmck wrote:

I'm sure you don't use that ridiculously outdated mode of communication where people move air past their vocal cords and create funny noises that other people pick up with their ears.

IRC is about as instant gratification as you can get, and quite a few sane people despise fakebook and other things of that ilk.

Forums take many times longer to use than mailing lists, and the only reason I see or read any posts here is because I'm a moderator and the forum emails the posts to me. If one is busy and has better things to do with his time than browse endless forums and facebook, mailing lists are quite nice, IRC even better.

Older is not necessarily worse, newer is often not better, you're not the only one that feels that way, but I'm not the only one who feels this way either

Like I said above I don't like the IRC for the same reason I don't like facebook groups. The information is here one second and then gone forever. Important conversations are swallowed by people shooting the s and the next person looking for the information is not likely to find the answers that have been already asked so they will need to ask them again.

I know how you both feel. I am currently a moderator on club4AG. I have moderated many other forums in the past and I know it's a thankless job.
The best thing that you can do is get the forum popular and busy enough that it is mostly forum members answering each others questions allowing you to only pop in and contribute when no one else does.
The only way that will happen is if your forum is popular, easily visible, helpful and useful.
I also spend hours a day on facebook involved in a dozen groups because it's turned out to be one of the best marketing tools I have found. I used to like FB. Now it's work. I still do it because it's related to doing what I love to do and because it benefits me and my business.

Google linuxcnc running slow, naturally all the information that has ever been documented in the email list is not there. No use to general public searching for the information. Same with the IRC. In fact after the official documentation other forums and discussions pop up long before the linuxcnc forum because none of the information is here and the forum is dead.
www.google.com/search?q=linuxcnc+machine...ow&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

Google 4AGE running slow and the forum I moderate is the first to pop up and does so with many links. Why? Because it has decades of activity recorded and easily searchable.
If someone searches and doesn't find the exact answer they are looking for they are very likely to post on club4AG because it's at the top of the list and they are pretty likely to get an answer because the forum is active. Best part is that if I don't respond to the thread chances are someone else who is very knowledgeable will. Unfortunately this forum has slowed down a lot as well due to facebook and other things but it's still one of the best resources you will find on the subject.
www.google.com/search?q=4age+running+slow&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8

IRC and mailing lists are a great way to keep conversations, private, forums are much better for drawing in people, making information and answers public and easy to find and making people feel like they have easier access to the answers.
As people get involved and read other threads they learn and start contributing. The more active the forum is the less work the moderators should feel obligated to do. Yes there ends up being a little more moderating but in a non childish community like this one it should be very minimal.

Mach3 illustrates my point well.
Look in a thread and you will see many posts by forum members and often very few by moderators.
The community has gotten big enough and popular enough to support it's self. It's not just on the founders, developers or moderators to help everyone with every little question.

www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,29573.0.html

www.machsupport.com/forum/index.php/topic,29524.0.html

I'm just trying to help and make suggestions that I believe would actually make linuxcnc more popular, more user friendly and ultimately easier for the developers and admins.

If I wasn't so devoted to staying on the linux platform as well as supporting open source whenever possible I doubt I would be here. I know that most people won't when something like mach 3 is so much more user friendly just as far as finding information, getting help, searching and using what many would consider more convenient and more modern media.
Now I know that linuxcnc doesn't have the same investment in success or popularity since it's not driven by money but like I have pointed out there are other benefits to gaining more users, growing the community and being more attractive to new users.
Andypugh I am not suggesting you be responsible for how individuals interact with the project. I am just saying that I don't think in it's current configuration it's very attractive to new users and I think there is a lot the linuxcnc development team could do to change that if they desired.

On the subject of that easy access the fact that I have to know where these special locations are to be able to search the IRC and mailing list is exactly what I'm trying to point out. If you know where to look you are already in the community.
A new member is not going to go digging around for this information. If they are thinking about whether or not to use linuxcnc or mach3 they aren't going to join a mailing list and unless they are already big into IRC they won't do that either.
I have seen the community section and saw the thing about the mailing list but honestly I figured it was an old page that hadn't been updated as far as a mailing list being the main form of communication. I can't even remember the last time I heard someone mention using a mailing list. I assumed it was a lingering vestigial link

mozmck it's not even about linuxcnc running slow. The threads that came up on club4ag weren't specifically about 4ages running slow but they were the most related topics on the internet.
I typed linuxcnc in google and the first suggestion that wasn't something I typed was pendant so I went with it.

The forum doesn't even show up. Neither do any other discussions from the IRC or the mailing list.

If I search the same for Mach3 their forum is the first link on the second page.

If I am a new user trying to decide which system to use I would count that as a major mark for mach 3 because even though linuxcnc has a couple great writeups on pendants in their documentation I know that if I have questions and need help personally it will be easy to find in the mach3 community.

I'm not trying to bag on how things are right now I'm just pointing out how the accessibility comes across as a little private and defensive.
My mom used to run her business out of a old building that looked a lot like a cabin. It had a nice white fence out in front of it between the sidewalk and the building. For years we tried to convince here that the fence made it look like a residence more than a place of business but she could never see it. No one else saw the business because they just saw a fence and assumed it was a home.
I'm just trying to say that some of these things make linuxcnc appear more like a fenced off community than a public park or business.