Not knowing what to call this issue i thought about the old Star Trek episode ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Trouble_With_Tribbles_(TOS_episode) ) ( for those who do not know Star trek nor do they know the episodes )

i won't even say if this is the best analogy but the "subject" itself sounds good enough to get people to look at this and better yet to respond.

First, allow me to say that i THINK forums that are in_place to help those of us with computer related
issues to post to a general public of people who check in enough where they can respond to these questions is a blessing in a manner of speaking since the time of free "life time support" is long over with.
As good of an idea that that may have been in the begining it must have become obvious fast that it wasn't practical for a computer company to offer phone in support "forever". And in case people do not know what i am talking about it was once SOP ( standard operational procedure ) to offer life time phone in support for those who not only purchased but had ( second hand ) to call in and wait for hours on hold to get tech support for computer related issues. Obviously that sounded good but could never be cost effective especially in a world where some 5 year old computer that someone paid $4,000 for is now worth $400.00 dollars at best And for those of us who have been involved with computers for ten years or more know how many giants bit the dust and can no longer offer phone-in support.

So without attemping to give my impression of the whole computer history etiquette i just want to say that asking for help can be as daunting as giving help. i'm never sure what to look for before i ask and when i do ask i question whether i am asking correctly. To me it is interesting that only one person answered my question about the hard drive ( Patio ) which i really appreciate. But i have a theory which has to do with gender. i think if my computer nick name was Heather or "computer-miss", more people would have
answered the question. i might go as far as to say that if i used a name that suggested a race, color, or creed, the response might be different than if i presented myself as a Caucasian male; in this case a white male gets less response than a white female. From there it's all down hill.
etiquette
Any thoughts about this subject?I can't speak for everyone else, but I don't really take any of these things into account. Unless there are obvious signs to tell me otherwise, I initially assume everyone is male. Not because I'm sexist, but because it's easier than thinking of people as genderless (which I sometimes do because all I see is text). When it comes to pronouns, he/him/his is less confusing than they/them/theirs. And I choose the male persona because I myself am male, so it's just an automatic thing. If someone turns out to be female, it doesn't change how much help I provide. It may, however, change how I help them (my approach, not my steps), simply because I talk to females differently. After all, I have always liked girls more. Ha. But I don't feel that this changes much. It's more about communication than anything.

Race doesn't really make a difference, especially on an online forum. It's not too common for me to know what someone's race is on here. I might make assumptions with people I deal with regularly (like my fellow MODERATORS or people I help multiple times), but for the most part, I think it's too much of an effort to try to give every name a face. This is different over the phone and in person, of course, because this detail is a bit more obvious, but it doesn't change anything for me. And I don't see why it would.

Creed is the same as the above two. Whatever religion, it doesn't matter to me. I've helped Christians/Catholics/Protestants, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Atheists, Shamans, Satanists, Pagans, and even a couple of Universalist Unitarians. I'm what you would consider a heathen, I suppose, so I obviously don't agree with any of these religions, but that's not going to stop me from helping them. I have at least one friend from each of those listed categories, so I certainly don't discriminate. What matters is that we share common interests...and we all like the same movies, so I'm happy. I just don't get into religious discussions with any of them (especially my girlfriend). Heh. And on a help forum, there usually aren't any telltale signs of a person's beliefs anyway. A couple of our well-respected members make their beliefs obvious, but I'm completely in the dark with at least 98% of the people here. Either way, it has nothing to do with how much I respect a person or how willing I am to help.

No matter who/what you are, who am I to deny you help just because of your gender, race, or creed? Or age, for that matter. The help I provide relies primarily on my knowledge of the subject at hand, how the person presents themselves, and my mood at the time.

With that said...keep in mind that this is just what applies to me. In general, I do think that some of these things may calculate into how a person is treated or how willing someone is to help them. And I can understand that because although we have COME a long way, we haven't come that far. I certainly don't agree with it and I don't think it's fair, but it's the truth. But I like to think that for most people, it simply doesn't matter.



"People are just people; they shouldn't make you nervous." - Regina SpektorAs the old farmer said, "Don't make me no never mind". I try to never be prejudicial in trying to help someone. Gender, race, nor creed plays a role in my responses, but attitude does. Maybe/explain.....Well it could be Nathan.

Then again,we are taught to be nice to the ladies
in the South(USA) but, you can treat a guy anyway
you want to.

As for race.....I would be more obnoxious to birds
and nicer to cats and cows. Go Figure!I see no difference in any poster...and i try very hard not to make assumptions....

Everyone gets the benifit of the doubt....until they wear that out.Personally, it makes no difference at all to me.I am more inclined to help somebody if they show a few basic courtesies.

1. A subject line that describes the problem. When I am scrolling down a list of unanswered posts, if I see "LG burner won't work with Tuffdisk dual layer", I might well say to myself, "Hey! That happened to me!" and I can dive in and tell them to use Verbatims in future. Titles that just say "Help!" or "I have a problem!" just put me off answering. (Hello? This is a problem forum! Everybody's got a problem here!) Even worse, are title lines that attempt to "jump the queue" in some way, that seek to GRAB MY ATTENTION eg by using ALL CAPS, by elongating the spelling of words eg "Helllllppppp", or "My computer runs sloooooowwwww" or which have about 2 dozen exclamation points!!!!!!!!!!!!!! or which say "Help needed FAST!!!" etc.

2. A reasonable attempt to use plain English. I don't react well to people who use 133t speak, or who write in text-speak (using figures for words like any1 and "2" instead of "to".)

3. Again, a reasonable attempt to describe the problem. "My comp won't start" won't do much for me. "My Whizzbang 2500 running Windows 3000 gets to the login screen and then I see a message saying "Cromid error - rezone file 226 not found" is more likely to get me helping. I can open another window and get Googling even if I don't actually have personal experience of the error in question. Many of the successes I have had are achieved this way, actually.

4. If I see a problem that is way common, that could have been solved in 20 seconds using Google, or Windows help, again, I think, "That person is too lazy to even try to help themselves, yet they expect me to use up my time telling them how to wipe their own @ss". Courtesy again.

Now to where gender comes into this. I may be thought controversial here, but the failings I have just listed above are very very commonly found amongst adolescent and young adult males. It all comes down to "attitood". Girls and women are much more likely to say "This is what's wrong, please help me fix it". Boys tend to say "Well, actually I'm a computer genius, but I just happen to not know the answer to this "little" problem I have, so I want someone to fix it, like, NOW!!!"

Just my 2 (euro) cents worth.


Quote

Now to where gender comes into this. I may be thought controversial here, but the failings I have just listed above are very very commonly found amongst adolescent and young adult males. it all comes down to "attitood". Girls and women are much more likely to say "This is what's wrong, please help me fix it". Boys tend to say "Well, actually I'm a computer genius, but I just happen to not know the answer to this "little" problem I have, so I want someone to fix it, like, NOW!!!"

Go dress up as heather and we'll see how things go next time you ask something!