Shoutbox

As those who are active on the IRC side know, the support chat channel (#msgplus) does get a lot of questions, but most of the time there is nobody to answer them. I don't know if this is just a single incident, but if one person thinks the same way as him then maybe some brainstorming would be in order to improve the support.

[14:29:04] <Tim> god this place sucks def wont be downloading messenger plus, lack of support

This is after Nitro (Thor) tried to help him, but then had to leave.

Obviously I realise myself that it's done by volunteers and that nobody can expect us to be able to answer questions 24/7, but I don't think the users who need help understand it (another very common thing is people entering, saying HELLO IS ANYONE THERE I NEED HELPPPPP and then leaving the minute after, so even if someone who is willing to help checks the channel he most likely will have missed the person, as I doubt anyone sits with that channel open all the time).

i try and help whenever im not busy and that... and if they actually ask the question i will normally help... i just think its rude how they go like "hello" "hello...." "i need help with my messenger... anyone there" "/ragequit"...

Support forums are in topic, if they are too stupid to think "hey, maybe other people have a life, I'll post on the forum so they can reply at their convenience!" well then obviously they do not have the sufficient intelligence to use Messenger Plus ;<

I agree with Sam, if they can't get instant help on irc then they should make a thread here. Not to mention some people need to learn to wait more than 10seconds before quitting out..

As you have already stated, volunteer support for free software can often be problematic, but given the people and resources we have, I think it's safe to say #msgplus has served a decent number of people. According to my statistics, in the past 3 years, out of circa 10000 users, more than 6000 have received help, out of which more than 3500 from me.
I've tried to make various improvements to the support system, some of which were successful. I set up a help database on Effexor (my IRC bot) with one-line solutions to common issues and frequent answers, links to relevant forum stickies and tutorials. This system alone has offered support to more than 70% of requests. Relevant thread: Attention all helpers: help build a knowledge base!. During busy times (new WLM or Plus! releases, etc.), the bot notices each and every users who joins with a relevant message.

It's quite ironic that this is coming from you, given you have rarely took the time to actually help users in #msgplus, and it expresses a great deal of disrespect towards the few individuals who dedicated their free time and effort to offering support.
I do agree that we don't have enough manpower for all users, or to cover all timezones, but we do our best. If you want to help, feel free to advertise this and try to convince more forum regulars to offer a bit of their free time to #msgplus.

Up until recently, I was quite active myself. New job, different working hours and warmer weather has seemed to change that recently.

quote:

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Originally posted by mezzanine
It's quite ironic that this is coming from you

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My intention wasn't to blame the helpers for anything, I just wanted to get some discussion going.

It's a pretty thankless thing, helping endless people in #msgplus. 90% of them are idiots who take the support for granted and are demanding. Once upon a time I did help but it is a mind numbing prospect to ever consider doing it again. How do you truly promote awareness of the fact that the support chat is run by volunteers who aren't available every nanosecond? An impossibility, I think. People will always be people and the statistics mezzanine quotes are impressive and the community should be happy with that level of support.