--On 5 August 2005 14:57:24 +0200 Jakob Hirsch <jh@???> wrote:
> Ian Eiloart wrote:
>
>> Really, so if my wife gives me emotional support when I get sacked, she
>> should expect payment? When a building is supported by its foundations,
>> some kind of financial transaction between the two is to be expected?
>
> This discussion is becoming pedantic and became off-topic long ago,
> anyway.
>
> Nevertheless: Support in general is not necessarily something you have
> to pay for. But the things people say or write also has to be seen in
> context. This is not a self-help group to give people emotional support,
> and the only things we build here are mail systems.
>
> Technical support is almost always something that implies a
> vendor-client relationship and therefore flow of (real or virtual) money
> is involved.
Well, you see I think you're wrong. Of course, you're right if you define
technical support as something that you pay for. However, if you define it
as "help with a technical process", then there are lots of ways that people
give and receive that for free. This list included.
> Somebody talking about a "support process" clearly refers
> to such a relationship.
But the reference to this as a support list clearly did NOT suggest that
there was payment involved. Or do you think that someone has been conned
into paying for membership of this list. I don't think so.
> People help here each other out of fun,
> interest, personal satisfaction or whatever, but surely not for getting
> money. That's why people are sensitive about the bad s-word.
I think they're sensitive about it because they forget that 'support' means
more than one thing.
> People come
> here legitimately to discuss and of course to get help (which often
> comes after some discussion). Of course some people come to get
> "support", but they don't get many friends here... no big surprise.
> I'm only astonished with how much self-esteem some people have - they
> even believe that the thread they started belongs to them and nobody is
> allowed to push the discussion(!) into another direction.
--
Ian Eiloart
Servers Team
Sussex University ITS
