[ros-users] [Discourse.ros.org] [General] ROS Answers needs your help

[gavanderhoorn]

[quote="fkromer, post:16, topic:5147, full:true"]
[quote="gavanderhoorn, post:1, topic:5147"]
While many are about installation, deployment or integration issues, the ones that make ROS Answers really worth the time are those that ask about advice on configuration of specific packages.
[/quote]

Would it make sense to let a package maintainer know about those that they can be referenced and (later) added in some FAQ section on the packages wiki page?
[/quote]

That is a good idea, and would even not be too difficult to implement. It would just take some time.

Perhaps the easiest would be -- seeing as not all questions are properly tagged -- for someone to browse ROS Answers and collect questions about a certain package which he could then collate and post on the issue tracker of that package / those packages.

Rather low-tech, but perhaps even already enough.

[quote="Tom_Moore, post:17, topic:5147, full:true"]
I have no real feeling for this outside `robot_localization`, but I wonder how many questions that get asked have been answered before. I know from personal experience that I've answered the same non-trivial question on multiple occasions.

Part of this, I think, comes down to search. For example, I often get asked, "Can I use robot_localization with just a GPS and IMU?" If users search for that on ROS Answers, [here's what they get](https://answers.ros.org/questions/scope:all/sort:activity-desc/page:1/query:robot_localization%20gps%20imu%20only/). None of those initial results are all that relevant to the search. If we search using Google, [we get this](https://www.google.com/search?ei=gg0qW8bICYrzgAaC47mIBw&q=site%3A+answers.ros.org+robot_localization+gps+imu+only&oq=site%3A+answers.ros.org+robot_localization+gps+imu+only&gs_l=psy-ab.3...6880.11606.0.12292.23.23.0.0.0.0.98.1654.23.23.0....0...1c.1.64.psy-ab..0.19.1344...0j35i39k1j0i67k1j0i131k1j0i131i67k1j0i20i263k1j0i10k1j0i22i30k1j0i13i10i30k1j0i22i10i30k1j33i22i29i30k1j33i160k1.0.8PMJOdGyaGg).
[/quote]

This is definitely true. The number of duplicates or near-duplicates is just about bearable at the moment.

The search is rather sub-par at the moment: I've even opened an issue about that: [ros-infrastructure/answers.ros.org#155](https://github.com/ros-infrastructure/answers.ros.org/issues/155) (which you `+1`ed).

I *always* use Google: `my search terms site:answers.ros.org`.

@tfoote: is this an opportunity to revisit [ros-infrastructure/answers.ros.org#155](https://github.com/ros-infrastructure/answers.ros.org/issues/155)?

[quote="Tom_Moore, post:17, topic:5147, full:true"]
Obviously, part of this is a failure of the package documentation, too, and @fkromer's idea to reference the questions in their package wikis is a good one. I'm just wondering if there's anything we can do to make previous answers easier to find.
[/quote]

Would this perhaps warrant a post over in the #quality category? 

[quote="Tom_Moore, post:17, topic:5147, full:true"]
Regardless, I learned a lot from ROS Answers when I started using ROS, and I think we owe it to new users to give them the same level of help that we received. I'll try to carve out more time to answer questions, and will encourage my team members to do the same.
[/quote]

Great, thanks :+1:. And thanks for the support for `robot_localization` @Tom_Moore.





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