On 1/26/07, M. Fioretti <mfioretti@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > On Fri, Jan 26, 2007 11:58:05 AM -0800, Dean Blackburn (deano@xxxxxxx) > wrote: > > > Looking at this thread, and then the last paragraph of the wiki > > page, I just have to shake my head... > > > > "Last, but not least, contact the SquirrelMail Project Team, which > > can give you advice for free. Please note that this free service is > > "best effort only", i.e. you can't demand answers within a certain > > timeframe in the same way as when you have a commercial support > > agreement." > > > > If this really was Steve's best effort, then Steve shouldn't do > > support, period (though he may be great at other things!). Leave it > > to someone else, or don't reply... And definitely don't trot this > > out as a "funny ha-ha" to the members > > or, even worst, make it more known through Digg. > > I agree 100% with Dean here. The original post of this person: > > > Not sure if you can help me. My company currently uses Squirrel > > Mail for our email. We are having a problem that our email system > > gets full quickly. I believe we only have 10 meg. How can I upgrade > > to higher megs?? Please inform. > > is polite, acknowledges that she's not sure she's asking in the right > place and demonstrates that she is a perfectly normal member of the > human race: that is, she belongs to that 99.995% of human beings who > has no idea whatsoever what software is, doesn't want to know and > isn't worth less for this. Is every FOSS developer a competent > accountant, fiscal lawyer, surgeon or car mechanics? The point is, I think, that this person crossed the line between asking for help in the right place and the wrong place. Support emails are not invited at the personal email addresses of any of the developers (although the prominence of the "About" page might make that slightly hard to understand to a layperson). > When a person has (politely) asked for help and demonstrated that she > has not understood what is written on a website because she has no > software knowledge, giving an answer like Steve's: The act of sending to Steve personally is a pretty big no-no, however, which is the point you are entirely missing. Steve's personal email is just that, and he is free to respond to his personal email in any way he sees fit. As the inquiry was uninvited, and not unique, I can understand why his response came out the way it did (let's not over-dramatize his response, either -- while perhaps harsh and probably incomprehensible to the recipient, it certainly is true -- the person was intelligent enough to find both his and Marc's email addresses, but was apparently unable to look around the website any more than that). As you say, FOSS developers are not all lawyers and car mechanics -- they are normal people. SOME are car mechanics, SOME are lawyers, and ALL of them have factors in their own lives, just like that of the original person, that make them stressed out, that contribute to making mistakes and so forth. What FOSS developers have that people like the original person MIGHT (not) have in other aspects of their lives, is a willingness to take big chunks out of their lives to create things that the rest of us use in on a daily basis -- with relatively little thanks. And so sure, while putting the exchange up on Digg might be in poor taste, I think the reaction by many people on Digg and here to show this as a shining example why FOSS is inherently flawed and all FOSS developers are the same anti-social geeks who should never come out of their holes is just totally out of proportion. Once in a blue moon, someone will post a thread on our lists that says "thank you guys for what you do", and those rare moments are truly invaluable to those of us who get a constant barrage of emails that are sometimes much worse than the original one in this case, lambasting us for something or other that we actually have nothing to do with. Most of those emails get answered with quiet, polite responses, but yeah, sure, sometimes some FOSS developers get frustrated and let some of it show in responses so some of the more "clueless" inquiries. We're all human after all. We could all probably use some stress-relieving in our lives. In the case of unpaid FOSS developers, why are people so quick to jump on bandwagons about how wrong they are and how they are all assholes? Can't you just go buy a Microsoft product instead and stop with the negativity when you don't pay us a single euro? Exactly what do we owe you after all? That said, constructive feedback (and yours, Marco, isn't really out of line, but some on Digg were) is always appropriate, but in general I think the level of understanding could be higher. We probably DO owe you an effort to be as human and civil as possible (just as every human owes the same -- NOTHING to do with FOSS), but you owe us some slack sometimes, everything considered. (just as we probably owe you slack too...) - Paul > > This is a long shot since you obviously don't know how to read a web > > page on how to get help or how to read a manual, but: > > http://www.netapp.com/ > > that is one which is ruder than the initial message, and (on purpose) > *surely* incomprehensible for that receiver, is not polite nor > mature. It would have been much better to answer something like "I'm > sorry, your problem surely cannot be resolved from Squirrelmail but > only from the company which runs your website". > > I agree with everybody else that the _following_ answers from that > woman are unacceptable and I wouldn't want anybody with that attitude > working for me, but this is absolutely NO excuse or reason for Steve's > initial reaction (for the terribly simple reason that came _after_ > it), so it really doesn't make sense, or help your position, to repeat > it all around the net. > > Ciao, > Marco > > -- > The right way to make everybody love Free Standards and Free Software: > http://digifreedom.net/node/73 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Take Surveys. Earn Cash. 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