FOSS has many challenges. One of these is the balancing act of fostering an active community, encouraging discussion and mutual sharing of knowledge against the requests for free tech support. But there’s overlap between the two. In fact, most community discussions are around problems with the software or questions about its installation / usage. So, what makes a community discussion different than free tech support (FTS)?

It’s a binary classification problem and I think a weighted score helps differentiate one from the other:

• What is the ratio of answers to questions of the person? If a person only asks questions and never participates in other discussions, this counts toward a higher likelihood of FTS.
• It this person using the software for hobby or a commercial project?
• Is this person asking questions on company time?
• Has the person took the time to read all relevant FAQs and existing documentation?
• Is this person open to share solutions, datasets, etc. ? For example has this person ever answered himself to share a solution when none else replied?