Hi Paula,
do you know when this happened and what channel, if there is something
we can review and learn from that would be great.
On 27/07/11 12:40, Paula Graham wrote:
Apropos - and sorry, don't want to whinge to people who're freely
giving their time - but thought you'd want to know - I just got an
email from one of the people we taught last week to come to the IRC
channel for help because BT can't help her as they don't support
Linux. This is what she said (and by "forum", she means IRC):
"The chap on the Ubuntu forum who's responded to my plea for help has
just given me technical jargon answers I simply don't understand and
he's putting me off Ubuntu."
we *really* don't want that to happen, what is referred to as "technical
jargon" is normally the accurate and correct terminology for the
situation, but if someone doesn't understand a term they should feel
that they can ask for and get a more full explanation. If this isn't
happening then we have an issue.
This woman is by no means an idiot but she's left a larger
organisation, where she had tech support, to start her own non-profit
and now has to DIY - she was pretty enthusiastic about Ubuntu at the
session we did and the welcome she got on IRC at the session was great
- so she has gone ahead and installed her own laptop. But she's
bringing the laptop back here for a Fossbox volunteer to look at. It
sounds like it's a simple problem with wifi on a BT hub - but she has
no prior understanding of networks so she needs simple step-by-step
support.
actually I believe I have seen reports about the BT Home Hub 3 being
unusable with Ubuntu after a firmware upgrade BT rolled out a few months
ago. This might not be a simple problem at all. Sometimes there just
isn't a "do this, then it will work" kind of answer to support
questions, and when it doesn't work sometimes there is a need to get
more diagnostic information to add to a bug so that the problem can be
solved at some future point.
This isn't the first time someone boomerangs off Ubuntu-UK back to
Fossbox wailing that they don't understand what's been said to them. I
know it's often frustrating having to explain the most basic things to
people and translate to plain English, but that's what it takes to get
beyond the techie-sphere with Ubuntu . . .
chuck them back again :) in fact tell them to say they are a Fossbox client.
Again, don't want to carp about the fantastic work done here - I don't
know if it's an issue to lose people this way but thought you'd want
to know the feedback I get here.
it is, and we do.
Paula
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