NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] New Google and YouTube Q&A/Discussion Forums: Will They Reduce the "Google Mail" Deluge?
New Google and YouTube Q&A/Discussion Forums:
Will They Reduce the "Google Mail" Deluge?
http://lauren.vortex.com/archive/000703.html
Greetings. First, the Executive Summary: I've created some new forums
for questions, discussions, opinions, and related matters associated
with Google, YouTube, and other Google-related services. They can be
accessed via "Google, YouTube, and More (GYM)":
http://www.gctip.org/google
The forums are unmoderated, but are subject to the usage
guidelines at:
http://bit.ly/cZuf9W
Registered users can reply to previous threads, create new threads,
and even add discussions to FAQ entries. I hope the new forums can be
of some value to the community.
Now for the longer explanation. Here are some stats that you haven't
seen before. On any average day, I now receive close to 1K legit,
non-spam e-mail messages. About one-third of these are from mailing
lists or other sources that can be reasonably sorted via at least
partly automated techniques, then perused as time permits. The
remaining two-thirds (what I call the "action group") need some level
of more immediate personal attention -- the majority merit some sort
of reply (at least to acknowledge their receipt).
More than half of the "action group" e-mails now typically involve
Google in some manner -- that's usually hundreds of Google-related
messages each day -- day in and day out.
They cover a wide range -- from the straightforwardly logical to the
bizarrely conspiratorial, from issue-oriented queries, to requests for
assistance understanding how to use particular Google services, to
pleas for help from persons having real or assumed problems associated
with Google services and/or who have been unable to get any response
from Google despite repeated attempts to contact Google directly.
A logical question at this stage would be -- uh, why do they come to
me? The reason usually seems pretty clear. People start to Google
Search about their Google-related thoughts or concerns -- sometimes
even specifically looking for a Google Ombudsman
( http://bit.ly/av3Oav [Lauren's Blog] ), and find references to my many
essays, discussions, quotes, and other materials where I've attempted
to illuminate and analyze a wide range of Google-related issues over
what's become a quite significant period of time. They find my
contact info (always easily available by design) and send their
comments and queries to me, in the hope that I can do something useful
to explain, help, or whatever.
Sometimes I can be of assistance, and sometimes I can't. But I have a
policy of trying to respond to every single such message in a
substantive way. Some messages I can answer partly or completely from
my ever-growing collection of pre-written texts that I've composed
over the years on different Google topics. More often than not I need
to write a specific reply -- sometimes researching new aspects of
issues in the process.
None of this is my job. In fact, the time spent this way now greatly
impinges on my time available for the very important -- nay,
critical -- goal of finding paying work. On the other hand, I am
unwilling to just "blow off" persons who have taken the time to compose
sometimes extremely detailed messages and are often pleading for
explanations or assistance in their dealings with Google.
But the volume of Google-related queries continues to increase, and
without a significant change in my overall circumstances, I need to
find some way to offload some of this for now at least.
That's where I hope that the new "Google, YouTube, and More (GYM)
forums ( http://www.gctip.org/google ) can especially help. By
providing a venue where Google users can pose queries, offer comments,
and engage in open discussions, my goal is to build up a resource that
will be able to help answer many routine queries without my direct
intervention -- though I will always be staying on top of the
discussions and certainly will be participating in many of them. And
I'll continue to deal with as many direct e-mail queries related to
Google as I can (though I may refer some senders to the forums as
appropriate if good answers are already there).
A number of different sub-topics are currently defined in the GYM
forums for various sorts of Google-related questions and comments, and
as I noted above an FAQ section is present as well (which I've only
begun to seed with entries from my large collection of writings in
response to individual queries over time).
Ideally, none of this should be necessary, certainly not on the part
of an individual not employed by Google. But it's the best compromise
I can come up with for now.
We'll see how it goes.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@vortex.com
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
http://www.pfir.org/lauren
Co-Founder, PFIR
- People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Co-Founder, NNSquad
- Network Neutrality Squad - http://www.nnsquad.org
Founder, GCTIP - Global Coalition
for Transparent Internet Performance - http://www.gctip.org
Founder, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein