Help forum blues
Back in November I mentioned a few prolific forum contributors. Time marches on and the stats still prove that there are some really committed and knowledgeable folks out there, like below, on the Apple forum.
At the time of writing the last article, the Apple forum was a playground for me, and I was happy to help the poor saps struggling with silly little niggles. 90% of computer issues are solved with tiny adjustments and as I am from the school where you learn by making every small mistake in the book, I had my uses dishing out glorified placebos.
After one episode, though, I accepted I am more artist than technician and would never progress much beyond enthusiast. Basically I had pointed someone in the right direction and to solve the issue he had to launch a utility and go through a few easy-to-follow stages, all prompted by the utility. It seemed obvious to me that if he had never used it before, he would read the warning text. Oops.
I was blown away when he wrote back calling me all sorts and for some reason, he must have called his friends and little old Ed was dragged over the coals for failing to point out in big bold letters that if the person I was helping did this one particular move, it would solve the issue but wipe the hard drive!
Thereafter I leave it to the big boys to cope with the cringing noobies.
I don't know if it is healthy to spend 4 hours a day as a volunteer on a help forum, especially when it helps out the customers of a company that makes hundreds of millions selling reliable hardware and software, but each to their own. I rate the internet on what it has done for me and overall, it has been a great platform for the helpful out there.
So, to end on a helpful note, if you are like me and have copied files from one hard drive to another and need to change all permissions in a folder, I recommend BatCHmod! Yawn.
The prolific forum contributors rarely fail to help the real desperadoes whose bombproof Mac is dying, or more likely, crippled by hundreds of useless programs. ( The Windows switchers tend to download willy nilly once they realise they cant get a virus!)
The forum generates competition between helpers, and the good ones clock up lots of bonus points for Solved questions - as you can see above, the more they help, the more points they get... this is great for their kudos, and great when us saddoes are on our knees praying for assistance.
I know enough to be dangerous
At the time of writing the last article, the Apple forum was a playground for me, and I was happy to help the poor saps struggling with silly little niggles. 90% of computer issues are solved with tiny adjustments and as I am from the school where you learn by making every small mistake in the book, I had my uses dishing out glorified placebos.
After one episode, though, I accepted I am more artist than technician and would never progress much beyond enthusiast. Basically I had pointed someone in the right direction and to solve the issue he had to launch a utility and go through a few easy-to-follow stages, all prompted by the utility. It seemed obvious to me that if he had never used it before, he would read the warning text. Oops.
I was blown away when he wrote back calling me all sorts and for some reason, he must have called his friends and little old Ed was dragged over the coals for failing to point out in big bold letters that if the person I was helping did this one particular move, it would solve the issue but wipe the hard drive!
Thereafter I leave it to the big boys to cope with the cringing noobies.
To help or not to help
I don't know if it is healthy to spend 4 hours a day as a volunteer on a help forum, especially when it helps out the customers of a company that makes hundreds of millions selling reliable hardware and software, but each to their own. I rate the internet on what it has done for me and overall, it has been a great platform for the helpful out there.
So, to end on a helpful note, if you are like me and have copied files from one hard drive to another and need to change all permissions in a folder, I recommend BatCHmod! Yawn.
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