I must admit that I hadn't been a member of the list for a long time, but I believe that the problem your are referring to is something you can see on any product list. Be it an open-source product, or a closed-source product.
I do admit that some of the questions re-appear here and there, but I believe it's a good thing. If a certain questions re-appears it means that the subject at hand is, most probably, not covered enough in the documentation, or the current product support for the subject is problematic to understand.
For example, we all know that RADIUS integration is something which is built in to GnuGK, however, the actual integration process isn't straight forward. In addition, the modules that are available with most RADIUS servers will not give you what you want exactly. Now, this is just a small example, but I can find many other issues which are not covered by the manual, nor are they explained in the list entirely.
I think that the main problem with the current status of things is slightly related to RTFh323RFC. But lets me logical, I don't think that many people here sat down to read the H323 RFC documents, which clearly state what a GateKeeper function is supposed to be, and how it should work. The questions people usually post to the list are ones that show that they didn't read the RFC (I don't claim that all should), or they simply didn't understand the manual (hell, I didn't understand the manual at first - I still don't understand parts of it).
My suggestion is this, anyone who has a working GnuGK installation, which had deviated from the "standard" installation, is welcome to write a test-case document, describing the problems encountered and the solutions devised to handle the installation. These documents will be sent to a special moderator (or moderator group) who will evaluate the document, and will post it to the GnuGK website, or a seperate website - Linked from GnuGk.org. This way, the newcomers can have a first-place of referrence where they can dig up primary information.
I've been dealing with the Linux Telephony world for the past year, and with GnuGK for the past 6 months. I can honestly say that without people like Mark Spencer (Digium), Jeremy McNamera (Nu-Fone), Aivis (DataTechLabs), Jan (GnuGK), Michal (GnuGK), I wouldn't been able to do what I do today. I believe that all the people on the list are wonderful, and they usually contribute to it when they can, and have something productive to say.
Kind Regards, Nir Simionovich
iTS Consult@ncy wrote:
Dear all list members,
This letter is meant to challenge you all. Don't get offended if you don’t like to read what I have to say. Just throw it in your trash can.
I am a proud member of the list since some time now in this forum and enjoyed it very much and I learned a lot from EVERYBODIES comments.
I see a slight change in the way questions are being answered. It all comes down to 1 or 2 persons who give excellent support and excellent answers out of a list of more than 600 persons. In my opinion the goal of a forum is bypassed when only a selected amount of people answers questions. Than it is not a forum anymore but a support list.
My question is; what are the other 598 list members doing with their experiences?
Sharing experience is the main goal of this list and typical questions like "I am behind NAT and I have only 1 way audio" and "How many endpoints can gnugk support" and How is proxying affecting the CPU load on my system and what is max amount of proxied users I can have" and how do I setup a good parent child environment" as also " how do I create a good billing application" and "how do I setup a good radius environment" are only some of the repeating issues that where planned to be picked up by some workgroup to be bundled in a readable FAQ. Nothing happened since ...
Than of course the fierce discussions between founders and code writers about standardization and above all the irritation with some of the members of this list that was caused by non standard arrogant answers.
This product is "open software" and used in some large organizations that of course like to protect their add-ons and pieces of code they wrote. I wonder if this is the right attitude.
GnuGK can be a much bigger evolved product if EVERYBODY should try to put a little more effort in answering questions and sharing experiences, delivering ini file samples and code samples to solve particular situations etc.. Etc.. . There are so many unanswered questions and stupid questions simply do not exist.
Maybe my mail is not worth reading but I for sure miss the old enthusiasm that once made me a fanatic GnuGK user.
Kind regards, Tjapko. --- Outgoing mail is certified Virus Free. Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com). Version: 6.0.551 / Virus Database: 343 - Release Date: 11/12/2003
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-- __________________________________________________________________ Nir Simionovich IT Manager m-Wise Ltd. e-Mail: nirs@m-wise.com cell: +972-54-482826
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