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Just a help rant

Off-Topic discussions about science, technology, and non Debian specific topics.
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vbrummond
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Just a help rant

#1 Post by vbrummond »

Nothing to do with this board.

I have spent well over 10 years helping thousands of people with their computer problems, for free. Any time I have a question, no matter how simple, I get rude and snobby responses back. I only ask for help after I have tested and researched and tried just about every thing I know how to do. I give a well researched paragraph and the problem and appropriate pleases and thank yous.

I was banned from the dolphin forums after I asked why performance on Mac OS plummeted as of the 5.0 release. They told me "use windows" and I told them, no I want to fix the problem myself so I can use it on Mac OS. They told me, use windows. They treated me like I was an angry customer and not a fellow developer and enthusiast. I offered to fix the problem by coding a metal backend (the problem ended up being needing opengl 4.5). Eventually I got rude and I did earn the ban, but that was my choice after they treated me like crap.

I asked a simple question about an iPhone problem and was told to ask someone else. I went to where they specified to ask and was told to ask someone else. Eventually I lost patience and told them to just not answer if they didn't have anything helpful to say.

Maybe I am just a selfish jerk, but I always used a lot of effort to find and reproduce problems and reply with well researched answers, at least until I finally burned out. I think maybe I deserve the same. Arrrrgh.
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HuangLao
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Re: Just a help rant

#2 Post by HuangLao »

:roll:

sounds like your average tech support. :idea: use GNU/Linux instead.

vbrummond
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Re: Just a help rant

#3 Post by vbrummond »

Im a certified Linux admin, so this has nothing to do with what I am using. The same problem exists on Linux boards.
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bw123
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Re: Just a help rant

#4 Post by bw123 »

For me, things like this fall under the early training I was lucky enough to get before email and forums became popular.

http://www.fidonet.us/policy4.html
9.1 General

The FidoNet judicial philosophy can be summed up in two rules:

1) Thou shalt not excessively annoy others.

2) Thou shalt not be too easily annoyed.
We used to remind each other that, "email is AT BEST, a flaky form of communication" when we got annoyed at each other. It's easy to be short, sarcastic, condescending or just plain rude at people you communicate with this way. I wouldn't worry about it, because even after all these years, IMHO this is still at best, a flaky way to communicate.
I was banned from the dolphin forums
Oh well, we can crash their board if you want revenge, or we can let it go? up to you?
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kedaha
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Re: Just a help rant

#5 Post by kedaha »

vbrummond wrote:Nothing to do with this board.

I have spent well over 10 years helping thousands of people with their computer problems, for free. Any time I have a question, no matter how simple, I get rude and snobby responses back. I only ask for help after I have tested and researched and tried just about every thing I know how to do. I give a well researched paragraph and the problem and appropriate pleases and thank yous.[...]Arrrrgh.
Seems obvious to me that the rude and snobby responses come from members who don't know the answer to such questions but who—for motives only known to themselves—have nothing better to do than pretend to themselves and others that they do, with the concomitant satisfaction, maybe, of increasing their post count.
DebianStable

Code: Select all

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GarryRicketson
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Re: Just a help rant

#6 Post by GarryRicketson »

by kedaha »-----snip--- maybe, of increasing their post count.
That is a big problem on those kind of forums that give "prizes" , for the most posts, and
others that require x number of post before you can do this or ask that, etc,...
"little kiddie games",..
Most of the posters are only posting "kiddie nonsense", trying to get a prize, or
a more "important" title,..
Fortunately we do not have that here. But like any public forum, there are all ways some people that can be outright annoying,...
In any event, I try to solve all of my technical problems myself, and not ask on any forum, but here, when I first started using Debian, I did have a couple of questions, and was surprised to get relatively quick responses, and no nonsense,
even though some of my questions could have been solved by reading documentation, and searches, I did make a point, and take the time to explain why I had not yet done a search, nor read anything.
I posted my questions early in the morning, and when I got off work in the evening , and was able to check in, there were answers, or at least links to where
I could get the answers,.. which was great, that way I was able to get busy trying the things suggested, or reading the documentation I was referred to.
I avoid forums that are mostly MS windows users, they have nothing to offer anyway, sometimes I get discouraged on this forum, because it seems like there
are so many that really, the only thing they seem to care about is getting the MS malware to work, after they install Debian, which does not make sense to me,
I mean why would one need that garbage, when they have a good linux system installed ? , unfortunately for them they can not live with out Microsoft,... but any way, that is another topic, besides that , not my problem.. I have done just fine without microsoft mal-ware for over 15 years,... so I do know one thing for sure, nobody really needs it, Of course at work, if that is what they have on the computers, one does not have much choice,...or needs to look for another employer. anyway, sorry, that would be another topic,...
by vbrummond »I asked why performance on Mac OS plummeted as of the 5.0 release. They told me "use windows"
That is the common mentality of MS malware users,...they have no clue that there is other, better options,..most do not even know what Unix is, nor Linux.
So that is all they can suggest,... reminds me of a idiot in the "technical support" for a the USB broadband device I have, when I told them I was using Linux,...
the response, "Oh,..no,...it only works on Windows, you have to use windows,..."
I did get it working,...and I did not have to start using windows,... However on that one, I did "cheat" a little,.. I took the device to a computer repair shop, explained to the guy the problem,.. we plugged it in to a computer with windows, activated it,..and after that it worked fine even on my Linux system.
You would think the "technical support" people would know that,...and be able to just tell a person, "Oh, you can not activate it on a linux system, you will need to use a computer that has windows on it to do that",... Once activated it does not care what the OS is.

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bw123
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Re: Just a help rant

#7 Post by bw123 »

You would think the "technical support" people would know that,...and be able to just tell a person, "Oh, you can not activate it on a linux system, you will need to use a computer that has windows on it to do that",... Once activated it does not care what the OS is.
Just to digress a bit, the problem we are going to face is that the 'operating system' is now actually an "advertising delivery" system, and a way to sell things directly from user space. If your printer is low on ink, it connects and offers you a link to buy more ink with a 'click' and similarly, if you search on the net for "bullcrap" then you will get a lot of offers to sell you some bullcrap at very affordable prices. Deals so good you can even smell the bullcrap!

I don't know for sure, but I seem to recall that KDE was once considering a version that would be usable on windows, it was conceived as a "cross-platform" desktop. There are a lot of things about linux that disturb me, like 'cross platform' apps and proprietary doodads that basically just want to slipstream ways to try and sell you stuff directly from the desktop. These large packages like pulseaudio and systemd IMO are all about providing common interfaces to large commercial apps that have a goal in mind, possibly a financial goal. The bleating from the herd reminds me of 'Animal Farm' where the sheep always repeated "four legs good, two legs baaad' and that's how the takeover begins.

Anyway, I still wouldn't worry about it. It's just flaky communication, nothing a voice phone call can't resolve. No, wait, you never talk to the people you email with? Isn't that a little bizarre to even care what people think that you don't even know?
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vbrummond
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Re: Just a help rant

#8 Post by vbrummond »

bw123 wrote:Oh well, we can crash their board if you want revenge, or we can let it go? up to you?
Thanks. I've let it go. :P It was just one person really. I agree though. Maybe I just get really annoyed when I get one "ask elsewhere" or "use windows" type of reply.
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edbarx
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Re: Just a help rant

#9 Post by edbarx »

If my memory serves me right, the case vbrummond is talking about, was mentioned in some other thread where he complained he didn't get constructive feedback even when he offered to improve the existing code. I suggest him, but be aware I have never coded anything to do with graphic libraries, to examine if the graphics function he needs can be emulated by using a GPU instead of using a CPU as a GPU. If what he needs can be broken down to a few functions that can be computed by a GPU, with some light processing by a CPU, his problem should be possible to solve.
Debian == { > 30, 000 packages }; Debian != systemd
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