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Subject: Re: This business about tech support in CCC....

Author: Roberto Waldteufel

Date: 11:32:15 10/27/98

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On October 26, 1998 at 09:30:28, Robert Hyatt wrote:

>On October 25, 1998 at 10:01:21, Steven Schwartz wrote:
>
>>On October 25, 1998 at 07:04:26, Bert Seifriz wrote:
>>
>>>I disagree with you:
>>>1) You always write about support staff. Do you realize that
>>>chess software is very often a 1 man company. How
>>>could anybody have STAFF??? People would be happy
>>>to make a living for 1 person out of their work.
>>>There is NO support staff anywhere in the chess software
>>>world from what I see.
>>>2) You cannot even CONTACT some persons. Nobody
>>>on this forum knows where Richard Lang lives. I do not think
>>>that he has an email address, and if so he does not
>>>want to make it public. Same with some others. Now go to his
>>>producer and ask there, sometimes they can/will help, sometimes
>>>not.
>>>3) You get answers from some programmers or
>>>some dealers sometimes, but very often you get nothing.
>>>ChessBase IS a company. On RGCC I read that they do
>>>not answer emails very often.
>>>Mindscape IS a company. Now ask them something about
>>>Chessmaster, and you will not find much help from
>>>the support staff there.
>>>
>>>4) And by the way, the support staff of other
>>>non-chess companies is very often also very bad!
>>>
>>>So I see no reason why a problem which affects
>>>many OR ONLY 5 people in the world should not
>>>be discussed here as long as it is chess software
>>>related.
>>>Bert/gambitsoft.com
>>
>>I agree with Bert here. I have seen 20 years in this business,
>>and the collective support offered by the majority of computer
>>chess manufacturers is very sub-standard.
>>
>>That, of course, has put the full burden of support on the
>>retailers like us who have had to dissect the problem and devise a
>>solution without any help from the people who actually
>>manufactured the chess computer or chess software in the
>>first place.
>>
>>Ed is a breath of fresh air. It is obvious that he cares about
>>his programs and wishes to solve their problems as they arise.
>>He is even willing to come to our CCC forum and help his dealers
>>support his product. I believe that what we have collectively
>>created here is something that can benefit the entire chess
>>community. In my opinion, it would be wrong to put a stop to it.
>>
>>Having said that... I would like to add two more items:
>>     1) By singling Ed out, I do not meant to slight all of the
>>programmers that we see here in CCC on a daily basis sharing
>>their thoughts with us. We all know who they are and they should
>>be thanked as well.
>>     2) I, personally, have no problem with support questions here
>>in CCC, but I am not too sure that I will continue to be in favor
>>of them if we start getting dozens of questions like "Ed, which way do
>>I hold the CD when inserting it into the CD player.":-)))
>>
>>For the first time in weeks I can clearly see the vision of a good
>>poll question. All we need to do is formulate the possible answers.
>>Proposed question:
>>"To what degree are you in favor of or against the use of the CCC
>>to discuss/respond to technical questions?"
>>Proposed answers:
>>?????
>>- Regards, Steve (ICD/Your Move)
>
>
>I have a problem with it in its present form, because it can easily hit over
>50% of the total volume of posts.  Here is what I would suggest, as a *much*
>better alternative:
>
>How about help "links" for each program, perhaps listed at the top of the normal
>CCC screen, such as "Rebel help" "chessbase/fritz help" "junior help" and so
>forth?  that keeps all the help questions out of here so that we can have a
>"clean" computer chess discussion environment.  Then anyone interested can
>click on "rebel help" to see what kinds of discussion are going on there.  I
>don't mind help questions, but can guarantee you that if we didn't have the
>crafty mailing list and my email address public, it could add another 100+ posts
>*per day* here.  We really don't need that.  If we need a "crafty help" link,
>that's ok.  I'll check it constantly.  But it is painful to have to wade thru
>dozens of such posts here.  Painful enough that it may well tend to cause
>reduced discussion about the actual topic of "computer chess".
>
>Then we might have a "chess programming" topic, a "chess problem positions"
>topic, and so forth, to let folks read what they are interested in without
>having to stomp thru a bunch of other stuff...

I think this would be an excellent idea. I don't know how difficult it would be
to do it, but I am sure that CCC would be a better forum as a result. I
especially like the "chess programming" topic.... :-)

Roberto



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