Author: Dann Corbit
Date: 11:04:45 10/24/98
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On October 24, 1998 at 13:44:17, Bruce Moreland wrote: >On October 24, 1998 at 05:51:44, Bert Seifriz wrote: > >>I'd like to contradict you. Information like this is very >>helpful for many people. In fact I am collecting these >>mails sometimes in order to use it for others. How would anybody >>learn anything if all went on in private email? > >No problem. When I buy software and there is a problem, I look through the >documentation and do what it says. Or perhaps I'd go to the web site and do >what it says there, perhaps others have had the same problem and there is >something there that might even solve my problem. I don't understand why people >feel the need to conduct the discussion in public. But if I am wrong about >this, no problem. I agree with Bruce [see my other post]. I think a solution to a difficult problem might be posted. But most software companies I have dealt with have technical support staff dedicated to problem solving of this nature. Here is the *real* problem that I see: Someone like Ed (or whoever) is dragged into technical support, when that is very unlikely to part of his actual job. That's what technical support is for. Once in a while, a newsgroup *becomes* a technical support forum. JCC's Rdb page springs to mind as an example of this. But asking Ed to help fiddle with your config.sys file or install device drivers or whatever thing of that nature might be needed is simply inappropriate. Some guys (like Ed) seem to be very nice about it and assist anyway. I work for a software company, and do programming and analysis. We have a large technical support staff (about equal in size to the programming staff). I solve problems only when they have been identified as in my area and only after the normal technical support staff is unable to solve them. This directly benefits the customer, because my time is spent improving the product's functionality instead of helping customers figure out how to do SQL queries or whatever. What I am really driving at here is this: Would you rather see Ed (or other Chess programmers) holding the hand of persons who do not want to go through normal channels, or instead see him cooperating with other chess experts to produce superior algorithms? Another thing I would like to point out is that technical support is a special skill, just as programming is. Those who have been trained in it and have many years of experience are better at it than an ordinary programmer or systems analyst. It seems counter intuitive that someone who wrote the system is not the best person to help you use it, but I believe this is usually the case. I know that our technical support staff is better at technical support than I am.
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