Why is āgives free tech support,ā an expectation of being a good person? I spent 7 years of my life doing tech support professionally.
a) I never want to do it again, because honestly fuck computers, but
b) If I have to, Iām certainly not going to do it unless I already like you or you are paying me.
Figure your own shit out. I have a life to live and I donāt have infinite free time and energy to help you unfuck whatever stupid bullshit happened to your computer. Especially if youāre being entitled about it.
thatās fine so long as you donāt just tell people to use Linux to solve problems. youāre free to not offer help so long as you donāt offer sarcastic help that jerks off your own superiority
Suppose someone says āI hate having to change my carās motor oil and I hate the effect oil dependency has on the worldā, then I say āyou should consider getting an electric car, theyāre way cheaper and better than they used to beā.
Am I now on the hook to solve that personās car troubles forever? Do I have to plan every roadtrip for them so they can hit the necessary charging stations?
Likewise, if that person has a problem or it turns out that an electric car canāt meet their needs and they have to switch back to gas is it my fault? Is it the fault of every electric car owner for talking about them and advocating for them?
I donāt think you should be an asshole to someone asking for help on a forum (though thatās not what the tumble post above is even about? They just seem to be complaining about their technical issue being too hard or the explanations being too verbose?), but I do think that if someone went onto the electric vehicles community and posted āI live in the middle of Alaska and drive 400 miles uphill through the snow at -40 every day! How DARE you think EVs are ready for the mainstream!?!ā once a day like people do to Linux coms the EV people would start to get annoyed pretty fast.
Honestly, you shouldnāt just advise someone to get an electric car like that either. They might very well not be able to and know they arenāt able to. They may prefer we just get rid of cars all together in favor of rail travel.
Youāre kinda missing the point in the same way that people who suggest Linux do. People expressing frustration often arenāt looking for answers. Unsolicited advice is not wise to give, especially if you donāt articulate how it affects you. If youāre annoyed that people keep complaining, express that you are annoyed instead of trying to point to what you think is the solution. You might be wrong about problem or even the solution, but you wonāt be wrong about your emotions.
See, this is something I think I might be too autistic to understand.
Iām supposed to welcome people to niche communities, which I assume includes helping people with their problems, or else Iām being exclusive and elitist. But also sometimes people post about their problems without actually wanting help, and if you try to help them youāre being annoying. So, donāt help anyone unless they explicitly ask for help, even though in 99% of other situations someone implicitly asking for help means they want your help and its extremely rude to ignore them. I sure hope nobody having their problems ignored takes that as rude or elitist or exclusive.
If youāre annoyed that people keep complaining, express that you are annoyed instead of trying to point to what you think is the solution. You might be wrong about problem or even the solution, but you wonāt be wrong about your emotions.
The emotion I get as an autistic person trying to trying to interpret people saying the opposite of what they mean then being considered an asshole when Iām neurologically incapable of interpreting coded messages is that I want to kill someone and then myself.
I get that. Iāve always found it hard to not just tell people what to do, especially when I known Iām right. What helps me is framing things in terms of my own experiences. I donāt know other peopleās circumstances, but I do know my own. Outlining why something works for me helps them understand better than any advice I can give.
Is it āfuck you got mineā when youāre already burned out from work and your uncle that you donāt like asks you to unfuck his computer for free? You buy little pastries because you get a guest and your mom taught you well, spend 3 hours unfucking his PC that his new stepchildren fucked and all you get in return is a k thanks bye. And a few months later you get the request to unfuck his PC again and sit there like āwhy would I do that?ā.
Itās free labor lol, what do you expect? Iāll point you in the right direction and answer questions as best I can, but I wonāt do it for you.
If I setup something a little complex on your behalf, say a Minecraft server, then Iām also on the hook to continue maintaining that thing indefinitely. Theres only so much time in the day /shrug
honestly Iāve used my ability to fix peopleās computers as a way to integrate myself into new communities and offer my time and attention to people who need it but couldnāt afford my consulting rate or who are at enormous risk. it makes me happy and helps them not get pwned, I think thatās enough value for me. maybe Iām naive, though, and tbh thatās fine in this case.
Why is āgives free tech support,ā an expectation of being a good person? I spent 7 years of my life doing tech support professionally.
a) I never want to do it again, because honestly fuck computers, but b) If I have to, Iām certainly not going to do it unless I already like you or you are paying me.
Figure your own shit out. I have a life to live and I donāt have infinite free time and energy to help you unfuck whatever stupid bullshit happened to your computer. Especially if youāre being entitled about it.
I donāt think itās an expectation of being a good person.
I do think that āfree tech supportā is a way some people like to give back to the community that gave them a completely free operating system.
thatās fine so long as you donāt just tell people to use Linux to solve problems. youāre free to not offer help so long as you donāt offer sarcastic help that jerks off your own superiority
IDK, apply that logic to anything else.
Suppose someone says āI hate having to change my carās motor oil and I hate the effect oil dependency has on the worldā, then I say āyou should consider getting an electric car, theyāre way cheaper and better than they used to beā.
Am I now on the hook to solve that personās car troubles forever? Do I have to plan every roadtrip for them so they can hit the necessary charging stations?
Likewise, if that person has a problem or it turns out that an electric car canāt meet their needs and they have to switch back to gas is it my fault? Is it the fault of every electric car owner for talking about them and advocating for them?
I donāt think you should be an asshole to someone asking for help on a forum (though thatās not what the tumble post above is even about? They just seem to be complaining about their technical issue being too hard or the explanations being too verbose?), but I do think that if someone went onto the electric vehicles community and posted āI live in the middle of Alaska and drive 400 miles uphill through the snow at -40 every day! How DARE you think EVs are ready for the mainstream!?!ā once a day like people do to Linux coms the EV people would start to get annoyed pretty fast.
Honestly, you shouldnāt just advise someone to get an electric car like that either. They might very well not be able to and know they arenāt able to. They may prefer we just get rid of cars all together in favor of rail travel.
Youāre kinda missing the point in the same way that people who suggest Linux do. People expressing frustration often arenāt looking for answers. Unsolicited advice is not wise to give, especially if you donāt articulate how it affects you. If youāre annoyed that people keep complaining, express that you are annoyed instead of trying to point to what you think is the solution. You might be wrong about problem or even the solution, but you wonāt be wrong about your emotions.
See, this is something I think I might be too autistic to understand.
Iām supposed to welcome people to niche communities, which I assume includes helping people with their problems, or else Iām being exclusive and elitist. But also sometimes people post about their problems without actually wanting help, and if you try to help them youāre being annoying. So, donāt help anyone unless they explicitly ask for help, even though in 99% of other situations someone implicitly asking for help means they want your help and its extremely rude to ignore them. I sure hope nobody having their problems ignored takes that as rude or elitist or exclusive.
The emotion I get as an autistic person trying to trying to interpret people saying the opposite of what they mean then being considered an asshole when Iām neurologically incapable of interpreting coded messages is that I want to kill someone and then myself.
I get that. Iāve always found it hard to not just tell people what to do, especially when I known Iām right. What helps me is framing things in terms of my own experiences. I donāt know other peopleās circumstances, but I do know my own. Outlining why something works for me helps them understand better than any advice I can give.
Big āfuck you i got mineā energy here.
Classic.
Is it āfuck you got mineā when youāre already burned out from work and your uncle that you donāt like asks you to unfuck his computer for free? You buy little pastries because you get a guest and your mom taught you well, spend 3 hours unfucking his PC that his new stepchildren fucked and all you get in return is a k thanks bye. And a few months later you get the request to unfuck his PC again and sit there like āwhy would I do that?ā.
Itās free labor lol, what do you expect? Iāll point you in the right direction and answer questions as best I can, but I wonāt do it for you.
If I setup something a little complex on your behalf, say a Minecraft server, then Iām also on the hook to continue maintaining that thing indefinitely. Theres only so much time in the day /shrug
honestly Iāve used my ability to fix peopleās computers as a way to integrate myself into new communities and offer my time and attention to people who need it but couldnāt afford my consulting rate or who are at enormous risk. it makes me happy and helps them not get pwned, I think thatās enough value for me. maybe Iām naive, though, and tbh thatās fine in this case.