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time -- RTFM has been replaced by RTFF! SMILE! If support are willing to search the FAQ or discussion threads and find the answer, why not just post the answer instead of posting the URL?!
trent! -- Thanks for the fine comment on my blog! Your insight and experience carry great weight and I appreciate you!
atthe404 --
I'm with you! It's great to have Trent on board with us! His positive nature and selfless willingness to help are refreshing!
@atthe404
I would like to congratulate Trent and thank him for his very long record of support in the com forum.
I think you've made a bit of a mistake in your post regarding how long Trent has been over here at wordpress.com. Perhaps you typed .com where you meant to type .org.
@boles
I'm delighted trent came over from wordpress.org to wordpress.com to co-moderate with drmike. Reading the article that you posted into my thread was a real eyeopener for me. In fact, it did the trick. It convinced me not to answer questions on the forum.
I predict that we're witnessing the end of an era here and that wordpress.com will soon be paying Moderators as described in your blog article. That will also be great for drmike's financial situation and stress level.
I love happy endings. :)
I am sure that if Automattic wanted to pay me I wouldn't shy away, but just like the other 3 major forum's that are run for them, they are all volunteer and will most likely remain that way! Everyone is encouraged to help out if you can because that is what support is about. Someone like you TT with all kinds of good referencing skills is what a forum like this needs! Not helping would be a dis-service to all those who have posted and will post with questions on this forum and I hope you are not serious.
Regardless of what people really think, these forums are a way to help others with similar problems and it is the community that makes it great and it is the people that make the community!
Keeping this on point, this is how all Automattic forums are run and will continue to run! Everyone is encouraged to help out and drmike and I are around to just help keep things running smooth without any "special" status really meant to be involved. We just like helping people like the rest of you and we all have to remember that!
Cheers,
Trent
@trent
Did you read the article?
Provide a Path to Private Paid Support:
Some end users don’t want unknowledgeable end users not answering their vital questions. For those users who have the means and the need, provide a private path to expert support that you can charge them for in the end on your end. That makes you money. It makes those users happy because they are guaranteed to have an expert answer without wading through the chaff of ego that volunteer end user support creates.
time -- After 20 years of providing online support -- I can tell you the best way to go is paid effort from whatever angle you're seeking -- because the volunteers always do the dirty duty and are first to get the blame when things go wrong. That's why I retired my ongoing voluntary efforts -- too much havoc for too little personal reward. We're all do-gooders or we wouldn't be here, but having someone on staff or approved by staff giving the right answers -- takes the rest of us off the hook when it comes to end user support and the ensuing wrath when things go wonky and we can enjoy each other instead of searching for answers that might later blow up in our faces because we don't have the necessary authority or access to answer authoritatively.
Trent! -- You have a long a luscious history of providing prime support for Automattic and you and drmike should be paid staff instead of official volunteers. I'm sure that will come in time for you both. At least I'm holding thumbs that happens for you both sooner than later. Paying you both means you are right, you have authority and you are vested in the company you are supporting with your wisdom and insight.
Yes I read the article and I said it was very insightful and really is! The point being, this forum, wordpress.org, bbpress.org and mu.wordpress.org are all free! They provide free software and rely on volunteers that love those products to help other users using these products! In my opinion, that might be the case if you are offering a paid service with people paying a fee and get support as part of that fee.
In a case like this, it is free and people generally realize that no one gets a free lunch! There are many software forums out there for free software where the users get help from a variety of people and have no one that is paid! Every circumstance is different and no 2 are the same.
I might be stepping out on a limb here, but people trying to help other people can't always be wrong. Of course, all this is just my opinion and nothing more, said as a user of this free service!
Trent
@Trent
Gosh you sound like the someone I used to be when I was volunteering to help fellow bloggers. Although my skills were limited to pointing out resources and expecting that bloggers would read them rather than embracing the understanding that what they were really seeking was the "quick fix" from an unpaid professional volunteer, I'm convinced now that I was wrong.
And we'll have to agree to disagree when it comes to "trying to help other people can't always be wrong though". It seems that if you're not a professional providing top-notch service that this inclination could be at most a sign of "unhealthiness" or at least a descent into a state of "unhealthiness" as boles pointed out in his article.
Train Volunteers:
If you plan to use an all-volunteer support system where end user supports end user, you must train those volunteers. Be Warned: People who have all day to sit around and answer tech support questions for free are not ordinary people. They crave attention and seek power they do not have in their real lives and so they seek that authority virtually and they use that authority-by-false-proxy on your users. Do not allow those people to answer every single question without answering anything. Cut them off! Anyone can point to discussion threads and paste FAQ URLs all day long — but few can just answer a simple question with a simple solution. If you don’t reign in the false helpers they will, in the end, always turn on the paid staff by using guilt and insolence to curry favor and to bully adoration: “I do and do and do for you kids and this is how you repay me?”
IMO a non-professional volunteer in a place where there is no professionally developed and administered "training program" should think twice about trying to help, lest they be deemed to be "false helpers" with serious psychological disorders. In fact, I consider this article and drmike's outpouring to be a real wake-up call.
Moreover, I believe we'll have to agree to disagree when it comes to "trying to help other people can't always be wrong though" on another point too. When it comes to expecting volunteers to "fix" borked themes and the like in return for a free blog with no strings attached I think I forsee a drawing back happening already. So without becoming disagreeable I'm sticking with my prediction that we are seeing the end of an era.
TT, please reread the first half of my post. It appears you may have missed it.
@Trent
Everyone is encouraged to help out if you can because that is what support is about. Someone like you TT with all kinds of good referencing skills is what a forum like this needs! Not helping would be a dis-service to all those who have posted and will post with questions on this forum and I hope you are not serious.
I am serious. I will answer no questions.
@drmike
Will you please remove my personal name from your post?
@timethief
There is absolutely no need for you to even think about tidying up my posts by presuming that you understand what I meant to say and correcting it. Do not even go there. I mean it.
@atthe404
If I have in any way offended you that certainly wasn't my intention.
Welcome Trent! I'm going to close this thread since I think it's gotten a little personal. I hope everyone enjoys the long weekend.
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