When developers do support
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Apparently I should have signed up for that online seminar, "PROTIPS: How to Be Sarcastic on the Interwebs"
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@izzion said in When developers do support:
Apparently I should have signed up for that online seminar, "PROTIPS: How to Be Sarcastic on the Interwebs"
I enrolled once, but missed all the classes. I was never sure if the times listed were real or sarcastic.
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@izzion I still don't like seeing such a harmful attitude ("developers are immediately disqualified when something contains end-user-related matters") being perpetuated.
People who don't give a fuck about their users suck and developers can be condescending, ok. But there's plenty of non-devs that are also bad at treating their users well.
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@izzion said in When developers do support:
NO HELP FOR YOU!
I can't count the number of times I've put in unpaid time to help people with support. Including when I did a contract job.
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@CrazyEyes said in When developers do support:
Ugh. I absolutely hate holier-than-thou open source devs. Not that I have anything against open source software -- heck, I love coding fun stuff, it's the boring stuff that I get paid to code -- but, especially on open source projects that have been around for a long time, devs within a project frequently think that they are somehow on a higher moral plane than other people because they use their spare time to code shit. I mean, it's not even like VLC is the only free media player available that's even good. I use MPC-HC and I think it's great. It even plays fucking .swfs without a plugin.
Feels like we're reinventing the wheel here.
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@izzion said in When developers do support:
@boomzilla
Apparently I should have signed up for that online seminar, "PROTIPS: How to Be Sarcastic on the Interwebs"Apparently so.
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@anonymous234 As much as I like this post, it's unfortunately a little tainted by how much I dislike Zed Shaw, although I suppose the irony inherent from the fact that he is himself an overly-arrogant dickhead simply because he manages to make money selling bad coding tutorials adds a little to it too.
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@aliceif said in When developers do support:
@izzion I still don't like seeing such a harmful attitude ("developers are immediately disqualified when something contains end-user-related matters") being perpetuated.
People who don't give a fuck about their users suck and developers can be condescending, ok. But there's plenty of non-devs that are also bad at treating their users well.
Unfortunately the stereotype seems to exist for a reason.
I like to think I'm pretty good at getting myself in the users' heads and asking the right sort of questions; I always try to remember they're not stupid, just not as educated as me in this particular field. But unfortunately I do seem to be in the minority and there's also a decent chance I'm fooling myself and I'm not as good at it as I think
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@Jaloopa I think a lot of ours are stupid but just don't treat them like they are.
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@RaceProUK said in When developers do support:
@kt_ And that's why I say IP bans don't work.
Oh, they work. But have a mechanism where someone can submit a form saying "Um, actually, that's someone else's dynamic IP. Plz unban?"
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@Lorne-Kates said in When developers do support:
@RaceProUK said in When developers do support:
@kt_ And that's why I say IP bans don't work.
Oh, they work. But have a mechanism where someone can submit a form saying "Um, actually, that's someone else's dynamic IP. Plz unban?"
A system which is totally not open to abuse, no way, not at all, not in any way, shape, or form, no sir.
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@loopback0 said in When developers do support:
@Jaloopa I think a lot of ours are stupid but just don't treat them like they are.
I don't think they're stupid, just that they don't have any incentive to put as much effort into understanding the software.
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@xaade which is fine. When someone in accounts starts talking about double entry bookkeeping I just nod and smile and wait for the functional change they need. Similarly, I don't expect them to understand what an exception message means. I just tell them any workaround and when the fix will be in place
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@aliceif said in When developers do support:
@izzion I still don't like seeing such a harmful attitude ("developers are immediately disqualified when something contains end-user-related matters") being perpetuated.
People who don't give a fuck about their users suck and developers can be condescending, ok. But there's plenty of non-devs that are also bad at treating their users well.
You can also respond like a dev, and not be an asshole about it.
To use this example:
: VLC broken
: <list of settings>
: Tried #1, worked, then didn't. Can't try #2 & #3
: Hmm. Well if I had to guess, this is probably caused by #2. Here's a link to the issue in our bugtracker (the user will never visit the link, and even if they do, they won't get anything out of it, but it shows that you care because you pointed them at a link). Unfortunately no workarounds exist
 Oh. That sucks. Well thanks for trying to help!Same outcome, but the developer doesn't come out looking like a huge asshole.
I've had to do this as a member of a mod team (similar, we're "working" for free), and even though users ask stupid questions, responding like that really kills your PR. Even if you're a FOSS project, you can't afford to piss people off like that.
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@xaade said in When developers do support:
@loopback0 said in When developers do support:
@Jaloopa I think a lot of ours are stupid but just don't treat them like they are.
I don't think they're stupid, just that they don't have any incentive to put as much effort into understanding the software.
I have some stupid users.
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@aliceif said in When developers do support:
People who don't give a fuck about their users suck
Unless their users are in marketing. Then not giving a fuck is the proper response.
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@boomzilla said in When developers do support:
@xaade said in When developers do support:
@loopback0 said in When developers do support:
@Jaloopa I think a lot of ours are stupid but just don't treat them like they are.
I don't think they're stupid, just that they don't have any incentive to put as much effort into understanding the software.
I have some stupid users.
Well, inevitably, someone has to be stupid.
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@xaade said in When developers do support:
Well, inevitably, someone has to be stupid.
That explains why I have some personal projects that still have a stupid user.
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@anonymous234 said in When developers do support:
@Polygeekery Also worth reposting the classic "turd cookies" post here:
Psst, "Larry" the fly represents WTDWTF
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@CreatedToDislikeThis Where did he find Blakey's chatlogs?
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Read the topic title as: When do developers support?
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@RaceProUK said in When developers do support:
@kt_ And that's why I say IP bans don't work.
I'd say they work too well. Very well, I feel you're an antisocial open source dev that hates their users.