Local User Groups unite to give back support!!

Events happening in the community are now at Drupal community events on www.drupal.org.
Michael Hofmockel's picture
Start: 
2008-11-24 19:00 - 21:00 US/Central
Event type: 
User group meeting

The Iowa Drupal Users Group is declaring November "Drupal Hand-Up Month". Join Us!!

The Iowa group meets the last Monday of the month. In November, instead of having a presentation and discussion like we usually do, we will have an IRC #drupal-support sprint. For 2 hours we will give high quality support on the freenode #drupal-support channel. This is a great way to help new Drupal users on-board, expanding the community. Everyone can participate! We need newbies to ask the questions and we need experienced users to answer them. Ask what you need to know and answer what you can. Our group will still physically meet but maybe at a more comfortable social setting (bar w/wifi) than usual.

The Ann Arbor Drupal Users Group has already pledged to join us. Their November meeting agenda, like ours, will be a working meeting on the IRC #drupal-support.

I am calling all "local user groups" to join us. If your group meets monthly and particularly you are planning to meet some time this November join us! Set your local user group meeting agenda to be an IRC #drupal-support working meeting.

Local group leaders willing to join our support sprint, comment below so we can see who is participating and pledge to spend at least 2 hours on IRC #drupal-support answering questions in the month of November!

Help me spread the word and post this to other local user groups. I only posted to the largest groups.

IRC information:
http://drupal.org/irc
http://groups.drupal.org/node/2326

Comments

I hang out in the IRC

anthonyoliver's picture

I hang out in the IRC channel everyday and try to help, not sure if I will be there physically but can probably make it virtually for sure.

its a physical/virtual meeting!!!

Michael Hofmockel's picture

Unfortunately, you can only select on event type. I selected physical but I could have easily selected virtual in addition!
Personally I'm excited to physically go to a virtual meeting. hehe.

Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
iMed Studios

Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind

Regards,
Michael Hofmockel

Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind

Your Message - xamox

merf's picture

Hey xamox,
Your message keeps going out on email every few hours. Please stop.

xmaox

dbershad's picture

I keep getting the same message from you every hour or so. Are you able to stop this?

STOP THE SPAM XAMOX!

pgiblin's picture

I know you hang out in the IRC channel everyday....please stop the blasting!

Diggity Doer
451 Degrees

Please stop the duplicate postings...

omar's picture

This exact message was posted 7 times yesterday.

Omar

Email the webmaster not Xamox

Michael Hofmockel's picture

The issue of Xamox's comment (posted once) but being sent as mail multiple times is not Xamox's fault but seems to me to be a bug in GDO cron! There is only one post on the site. So it seems that there is a problem with cron not marking his comment as having been sent already!

This issue can only be solved by the Site Admins. Posting here does nothing to solve the problem and only generates more unwanted email.

recognize this for what it is a bug not a person generating Spam. I have sent a message to Moshe about this and hopefully he can shed some light.

Thanks for your support and comment Xamox - keep up the good work!

Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
iMed Studios

Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind

Regards,
Michael Hofmockel

Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind

Haha, thanks mike. Yeah I

anthonyoliver's picture

Haha, thanks mike. Yeah I wasn't sure why everyone was like, dude what f*@# is your problem? Why are spamming? I had no idea what they were evening talking about. At first I was thinking, "Gees, sorry to offer free help." but didn't realize it goes out to the mailing list, I'm subscribed via RSS otherwise I probably would've caught it. Hopefully the bug is fixed now.

Also props to you mike for trying to organize something like this.

Hi!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

abcprabhu's picture

Hi !

I'm Prabhu.c from chennai. Need any help just mail me.

Bye

:Lord_c

Post Your Drupal-Support Sprint as a GDO Event

ebrittwebb's picture

This is a wonderful idea. It would be helpful if lead groups/people created an event for each timeslot they plan to run a support sprint. Then, people can sign-up to show their intent to participate and everyone can track when they're happening through the GDO Calendar of virtual meetings (e.g., IRC meeting, Drupal Dojo).

Erik Britt-Webb
drupal@ebrittwebb.com

Exactly!!

Michael Hofmockel's picture

Exactly!! There are always lots of people in the #drupal-support channel but sometimes newbies get frustrated because they get ignored. My idea is to leverage all the local user groups and try to out number the newbie questions and get them all answered (if just for one month).

Please do make your own event as I have done here. Unfortunately you can only select one event type where this clearly is a physical meeting as well as a virtual meeting.

Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
iMed Studios

Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind

Regards,
Michael Hofmockel

Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind

neat idea

Chris Charlton's picture

I'd ask that user groups try to hang out in both their own channels and the #drupal-support and #drupal channels to help folks. There's also #drupal-themes, and for group organizers #drupal-groups.

www.DrupalChat.net connects to all of these, plus #drupal-dojo.

Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant

I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us

Hang out where you can help most.

Michael Hofmockel's picture

My original idea was to assist the newbies with the most basic questions that often get ignored. #drupal-support is usually the first place newbies go and I just wanted them to feel like the first place they tried to get help was truly helpful (even if for just one month). But by all means hang out where you can help the most. It's simple enough to hang out in many channels at once.

I also wanted to find a way for local user groups to unite under a common cause and this seemed simple enough.

Imagine: If I had a question and someone tracked me down to give me the answer rather then me having to look for someone to ask my question to.

Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
iMed Studios

Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind

Regards,
Michael Hofmockel

Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind

UTC

loloyd's picture

If you want this to have a worldwide influence and possibly ignite a worldwide phenomenon, please post a UTC time or GMT neutral time for the start of the event. It would be easier for us 5.7 billion people outside the USA (Drupal users subset of that figure :-D) to reference a definitive time event based on UTC and GMT. The recent Firefox download day "fiasco" didn't clearly post a definitive timezone frame so many users got annoyed and pissed. At least, you referenced this event based on US/Central, but it would be easier for us if you can put that on UTC/GMT.

Only local images are allowed.

You pick the time, just some time in November.

Michael Hofmockel's picture

I'm not looking to flood the #drupal-support channel all at one time but many groups work on the channel across the month of November. I am just promoting a strong showing in the month of November (particularly by local geographic user groups).

Our group - groups.drupal.org/iowa - meets monthly so on 24Nov08 from 7pm -11pm GMT-6 we will all answer questions on the #drupal-support channel then.
Your group might naturally meet at a different time and that is PERFECT. Then we as a community get more coverage over the month of November instead of just one night or time. You pick the time and date, just make it in November.

If you are the leader of a group, consider setting your meeting agenda in the month of November (what ever day or time that is) to provide support on #drupal-support IRC channel.
If many local user groups across the globe participate we could have unprecedented support coverage for the month of November.

Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
iMed Studios

Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind

Regards,
Michael Hofmockel

Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind

Stop the Spam

merf's picture

Ok, I'm going to leave the group until after the Chicago Drupal Camp. There is too much spam going around. It might be unintentional, but it is definitely annoying.

The intent was to bring

dldege's picture

The intent was to bring local groups together - I think a technical issue and some downsides of cross group posting the initial thread have resulted in the "spam" problems.

Lets move past that - the goal is for local groups to find a way in November to give back to Drupal in the support area. The Iowa and Ann Arbor groups are doing this by using our normal 2 hour meeting to partrol various Drupal IRC channels and give the best one on one support we can to help others.

If your group has other ideas please share them.

Dan DeGeest
Lead Software Developer
iMed Studios
http://www.imedstudios.com

Dan DeGeest
Software Developer
Somewhere or Another

Chat moderators during user group meetings

Chris Charlton's picture

I would ask that maybe some of us groups try a little Meetup 2.0 idea. If we organizers request, in our event posts that we'd like at least one volunteer to be logged into the that at least 1 person planning to attend (and has a laptop) can moderate Q&A in mentioned IRC rooms, like local group channel, #drupal-support, etc.

Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant

I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us

Code

dabwao's picture

Donatus
Hi, are you conversant with javascript? I've always tried validate some fields and not succeding, can I send you the code you help me out?

Donatus

any groups up for this?

Chris Charlton's picture

Any other LA Drupal groups up for these ideas?

Chris Charlton, Author & Drupal Community Leader, Enterprise Level Consultant

I teach you how to build Drupal Themes http://tinyurl.com/theme-drupal and provide add-on software at http://xtnd.us

Philly in the hiz-ous!

alex ua's picture

We're down to participate and host a Philly version of the sprint. I'm not sure if the rest of the Philly group will be interested, but I think it's a really great idea!

Alex Urevick-Ackelsberg
ZivTech: Illuminating Technology

Alex Urevick-Ackelsberg
ZivTech: Illuminating Technology

Michael Hofmockel's picture

Interestingly, I grew up just outside Philly in King of Prussia. So glad to hear your on-board with our "Drupal Hand-Up Month".
Thanks for helping me make this idea a reality. We (local user groups) could help a lot of newbies over the learning curve. Thanks for stepping forward.

I bet if you suggest bringing beer and snacks to the event, those Philly folks will get on the bus. Let us know how it turns out!

You got me thinking about Philly, Now I want a steak from Pat's and a string of those chewy wet pretzels in a brown bag sold out of a stolen grocery cart on your way into the game.

Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
iMed Studios

Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind

Regards,
Michael Hofmockel

Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind

Arizona State University is in!

kdmarks's picture

The ASU DUG is meeting Thursday, November 27, and we'll be on #drupal-support IRC channel from 10-12. Have a lot of newbies of our own who will be experiencing IRC for the first time, but what a great way to be introduced to the spirit of community and giving back that keeps Drupal running. Thanks, Mike, for the coming up with "Drupal Hand-Up Month"!

Michael Hofmockel's picture

Arizona State University Drupal Users Group has joined the fight against Drupal illiteracy. You can to!
No one should go wanting for Drupal knowledge when we have so many capable people willing to help.
Join us for "Drupal Hand-Up Month" and know that you are part of the solution.

Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
iMed Studios

Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind

Regards,
Michael Hofmockel

Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind

Michael Hofmockel's picture

For our Support-Sprint, we thought it would be great to meet in a public space were we can have food and beer. It actually is not simple to get free WiFi and Beer in the same place But we did find atleast one in Ames. Here's the coordinates:

Cafe Beaudelaire
2504 Lincoln Way
Ames, IA
Google map

Hope to see you all then. Please do use the sign-up function so I know how big a table to acquire.

Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
iMed Studios

Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind

Regards,
Michael Hofmockel

Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind

Keep stats

Michael Hofmockel's picture

If your group is planning on joining us in a support-sprint, I encourage you to keep stats. So we can quantify our impact.
How many people attend?
how many questions answered in what amount of time?

Regards,
Michael Hofmockel

Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind

Michael Hofmockel's picture

I'm excited to see everyone tonight. I'm getting my answers and even a few questions in order for tonight's IRC Support Sprint.
Please do sign up if you intend to come.

Regards,
Michael Hofmockel
iMed Studios

Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind

Regards,
Michael Hofmockel

Open Source || Open Access || Open Mind

Drupal Event Organization

Group organizers

Group categories

Event type

Group notifications

This group offers an RSS feed. Or subscribe to these personalized, sitewide feeds: