Things that customers have yelled at me for while I was working weekends as a sales associate:

1. could not figure out how to set the alarm on his cell phone (20min rant)
2. the manual of said phone should have been written more clearly (another 10)
3. our receipts were too big (10min)
4. the fact that I failed to specify that the customer needed to pay for the internet connection separately from purchasing their new laptop. (30min)

One of these people was a professor at my Uni.

not surprising, given the number of people payed hansomly to do just that.

basically, the worst thing done in home computing was to make people think computers are easy...

Maybe I'm odd... but when I run into something I can't do... I decide how important it is and either hire the professional to do it for me... or spend ungodly amounts of time researching google for the answers myself.

It's not very often I'll even attempt to get someone else to help me.. for free. In fact.. it makes me feel guilty.

I'm not necessarily saying people shouldn't ask questions... they should just be a little more flexible about the kind of service they are going to get when they want it for free... (this isn't a pass to be a prick.. but really: you get what you pay for really.. like anything in life..)

I think one issue may be that Nokia was bigging up the open-source community to the point that people felt that as the experts were readily available you wouldn't need to work so much to find the answer.

Basically it's the choice between spending ungodly amounts of time on google or just asking a community where a lot of people will already know the answer, the second one takes very little effort (on the one part).

Perhaps this is the real issue that is causing the sometimes unfriendly vibes, we need to find a way to deal with these questions to minimize the disruption and annoyance they may cause for the people "in the know". Well that and develop some sort of standardize response to people applauding apps/iPhone, besides the now standard "go buy an iPhone" one.

You hire professionals or do massive amounts of research for EVERYTHING in your life?

You never ever ask someone else for some free advice?

Computers CAN be easy, if they're designed with their target audience in mind.

The Nintendo Wii is technically a computer, it lets you surf the web, play games, send e-mail etc. But it has an interface that is extremely easy to use because it was designed for people who do not know anything about computing.

Krisse-- he also says he researches on his own.

Pretty much... if I ask someone a question it's usually a friend. Not a stranger.

I pay mechanics to change my oil, work on my car, etc. Some people change their own oil, it's not that hard, I choose not to. I pay someone else to do it.

if something in my house breaks.. I don't go ask a stranger or a neighbor to come over and fix it for me.. I'll look up online how to fix it and buy the parts I need.

Give me examples... I'll tell you what I do with them. The only time I feel comfortable asking someone something... is if I know them, and that's usually because I've helped them, for free, in the past with their computers.

(When you're a geek... you pretty much get asked computer questions from everyone from family, friends, weird people that heard your name from random people that heard your name from.... )

So in that aspect it's more of a trade... I've helped them, they help me. *shrug*.

I really very highly doubt I'm one of the people that new users complain about... if you look around I'm (almost) always courteous or provide something helpful in my posts. I do understand people's frustration, however. Too many people want a free lunch without doing any work of their own. If that's what they want.. then I do believe they should pay for it.

And freppas - if you have any ideas on how we can limit that kind of thing, we could use the help and attention over here.

Oh I wasn't thinking that at all!

I was just trying to clarify what you meant.

I know it's annoying if someone seems too lazy to look something up, I just meant there are bound to be some situations where your friends can't help and you can't afford a professional. Especially if it's an obscure technical topic.

Not usually.. not for me anyway. I have found some *really* obscure topics on backwater no where forums before from google (usually after several days or weeks of trying very odd combinations of search strings).

I will admit.. I've joined IRC channels for Ruby, and Perl before... unfortunately, however, by the time I have a problem it's so unique and complex that they can't really help me without looking at my entire application and going through my code line by line with me. I usually find my problem long before someone is willing to put that kind of effort into it for me. And its never before I've spent hours googling myself.

Now, I understand I'm not your standard user and my specific situation should not be used as such. I love computers and everything about them and I love problems - a problem is a way to learn for me and something to lookup online (in fact I break things intentionally sometimes). Helping users is a way to see new problems. Most users, do not revolve their life around computers like I do.

This entire topic, though, is very common in almost *any* open source community. Those helping are donating their time, those inquiring are getting help - but those helping can sometimes feel that the other is impatient, and sometimes stupid or lazy, for not bothering to even try and help themselves - while those getting help can feel talked down to, or that the person "helping" is treating, or making them, feel stupid for asking.

I am Bias, of course, I am usually the one helping.. and it's my opinion when you do ask for something for free... your right to complain is significantly lessened. I make no excuses for people to be outright d*cks though. There have of course been examples here of "experts" being this way - I don't think it's as rampant as people seem to present, however.

The main reason I chime into any of these kinds of topics or debates, is far too often I see people blaming the "experts" - but no solutions are offered to fix the problems on the other side of the transaction as well. Even the nicest guy in the world has his limits..