On Sun, 20 Jul 2003, Richard A. Hecker wrote: >> I encounter this all the time. If someone asks me "Why does your >> product version x.y not support foo?" and I delete their mail, >> they are none the wiser. They are unlikely to flame me, or to >> even know if I got it. > >I will add my own Rant here. Ignoring email from Joe Public who >bought his 'Puter from Walmart' might work, but I feel 'Dissed' >when a person insults my intelligence with this respose.
It isn't an insult to intelligence at all. I don't delete every mail I get, but I don't respond to every one of them either. If I responded to every Red Hat customer or user question and every email I received from someone in the community asking for help or asking what is or isn't supported, I would never get any work done, and would likely not have a job. It is not my job at all in any way, to provide end user technical support via email, telephone, mailing lists, bugzilla or otherwise. Any response to a user or customer that I give, is done as a volunteer because I feel like it. Sometimes I have time to do that, and some times I do not. Sometimes I point people to the appropriate web page on our website or the XFree86 site or wherever, or point them to google, and sometimes I forward their email to someone else inside or outside the company depending on the situation. Other times I don't have the time and hit delete. If you received 30 messages a day asking you "I cant get i845 video to work", would you respond to each of them by hand? Not likely. You might write an FAQ however. Been there, done that. Nobody reads or wants to read an FAQ, and you still get the questions, just as many of them. What's worse, is saying "Did you read the FAQ? http://...."; no matter how it's worded is often blown off or even in some cases considered rude. I've had people read the first page of an FAQ, not find what they wanted, then email me, or nail me in IRC and waste my time, to be pointed to the FAQ, and tell them to read the table of contents nad find their question and then read the answer to be told "I don't like to read". Should I cater to these people? If I delete their question, do you still think I am insulting their intelligence? I help enough people out there every day, for free, without it being part of my job, that I don't have any commitment to _anyone_ to answer every email sent to me directly and hand hold a person. That is definitely not my job. Really, if someone wants that level of commitment, purchase a support contract, and call your technical support liason and you can get that level of support. Volunteerism goes so far, and when the volunteer doesn't enjoy it, they're not obligated to give it. Is foo supported? Really it comes down to: Read the release notes. Read the XFree86 support documents on the XFree86 website. Read the Red Hat Hardware compatibility list. Ask on a mailing list, etc. Don't email mharris. ;o) <grin> >> time doing so. Also, your company is paying for your time, so if >> you're responding to 5000 users a day to listen to them argue, >> that is hardly worthy usage of your time. >> >> Fortunately, it is Saturday, so I can argue with you until >> Monday. After that, I'll have to delete your mails. ;o) > >My threshold was 300-500 daily emails. Less than 300 was a light >day, and more than 500 kept me from finishing the work I was paid >to do. I have no idea what your data point looks like but I suspect >you use multiple addresses and understand how to sort things into >various folders. I rarely respond and spend 10X to 20X more time >reading than writing email. I would write more code if I did not >get as much email but the spammers make that unlikely :( Your assumptions are fairly accurate. I'm on over 100 mailing lists, maybe more, I don't count anymore, and use 2 mail clients (pine) simultaneously across 5 mail accounts. I've no idea how much mail that is, but probably 5000-10000 a day. I don't read them all of course, nor respond. I have prioritized mail folders so I get the most important stuff right away, less important stuff later, and the rest are generally archived for snooping through or searching when I'm bored or need to search for a problem or whatever as I prefer to archive lists locally that I use than to use the klunky web based unreliable search engines. >If you cannot or choose to not respond, that is fine. But own up >to your decision and do not pretend you never received the message. Actually, I've tried that too. I've responded to people as nice PR-speak as possible something to the effect of: "Hi <name>, I'm sorry that I am unable to personally help you to find an answer to your problem, however I can try to direct you to other places where you might find help. Some things you may find useful are: $mailinglist1 $mailinglist2 $mailinglist3 $webURL1 $webURL2 $webURL3 I hope these resources are helpful to you, and that you're able to find an answer to your problem. " Or something to that effect, only to be told off, spit on, bitched at, or for the person to ignore me, and continue to proceed to try and get me to help them. After having this happen 50 billion times, I asked other people both internally and externally both at other companies and just people in the community in general how they handle these types of emails, in particular when the volume of them is often 20-40 per day. The almost unified response I got from everyone was "Respond to whoever you think you can help and have the time to put into it, and just delete the rest, and the ones you think will be a waste of time or negative experiences." So... as I said.... I now respond to some if I have time, and I redirect some people still too, but I now delete a lot of them unread, because frankly, my typing fingers are not scalable, and there are only 24 hours in the day, and I'm not paid a cent to help people via email. Anyone who is offended by that, can contact me for $60/hour on the weekends and I'll help them, because just like all open source development that occurs, it is either motivated by volunteerism satisfaction or other personal motivations which are a positive experience, or it is motivated by money. -- Mike A. Harris _______________________________________________ Devel mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://XFree86.Org/mailman/listinfo/devel
