[wellylug] "The quart-annual top-posting debate"

[Bret Comstock Waldow]

On Wed, 10 Aug 2005 08:15, Phillip Hutchings wrote:
> > Users are never wrong.
>
> Hah! You should spend a few days doing tech support!

I have.

I was sole support for EA System's worldwide customer base on a product that 
(among other things) Oil companies use to design and maintain entire 
refineries.

I am currently the contact point for our customer in the UK, and have been 
playing ping pong with them for weeks because our management didn't specify 
the contract in terms that fit the real world.  They appear to be quiescent 
for the moment...

And, I have been supporting family and friends for years.  My father, who did 
not finish High School, and who is somewhat non-verbal, has been relying on 
me for years, and has reached the point that he can diagnose and correct a 
Linux install (Debian, Libranet, and now Kubuntu) on his own.

A few years back, I bought a computer for my niece for University, checked it 
out, and sent it to my Dad for delivery.  He checked it out, verified it was 
all ok (after shipping) and delivered it to my niece.

Two days later I got a very nice email from him telling me now he understood 
what I've gone through all these years.  He spent over an hour on the phone 
with my niece asking all the right questions until he got her to actually 
check and find out that the printer was hooked up, but not plugged in.

So not only have I *done* tech support - I've *taught* it to someone who then 
successfully practiced it himself without my help.

And I say blaming users is a cop-out.  I'm not saying users are always right - 
that's something else.  I'm saying users are never wrong.

Saying someone is wrong implies there is some way they are supposed to be that 
they are failing to accomplish.  I don't see that this is so.

Mistaken?  Ignorant?  Yes, as I am myself many times.  Choosing a different 
outlook or goal from me?  Not surprising.  Wrong?  Never.

Cheers,
Bret
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