Ian Eiloart said:
>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.
The difference is that with real support, paid for or otherwise pre-
agreed upon, one can expect (or at least feel you should be able to) to
receive the actual level and amount of help no matter how unknowing you
start out. With an email discussion list this can obviously not be
expected to happen likewise. It's certainly possible that a question can
be unanswered forever, which can be very sad for the person asking, but
no-one is obligated to give help, though they can if they want to in the
fashion they want to. That is not to imply that just because one answers
it's morally sound to belittle or talk down to the person asking.
However, asking for clarification when one doesn't understand the problem
is neither of those. If one person cares enough to ask for this, then
that is a clear indication that this person is trying to respond in a
useful way. It must be OK to say something akin to "this seems useless to
me. Why do you want to do this? What's the goal?". Few people are
prepared to pop solutions for problems they don't regard as problems, right?
I view email discussion groups as a way to communicate to peers within a
certain area/technology and to be able to learn from people more skilled
than myself and with more experience. Within time, as my own knowledge
builds I can give back some knowledge to those that can make use of the
advice I can give. Typically I give more advice in one list, where the
focus is something I'm more skilled in, and learn in others. In the end I
hope it balances out somehow.
Another way to look at email discussion archives is as knowledge systems,
but nothing is usually guaranteed there either.
>Ian Eiloart said:
>
>>For example, Marc made a wiki entry about the IMAP authentication.
That is a good way to further forward the service one receives.
