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conulySince I'm not making any complaints, I'm leaving this open. This is just advice I have based on my very minimal experience volunteering.
1. Try to spell and punctuate correctly.
People really do have trouble understanding strange spelling and punctuation. The easier your post is to understand, the faster somebody will be able to help you.
2. On the part where it says "summary", please summarize your problem.
Summary means just that. If you're having a problem updating your journal, don't say "help me please", say "problem updating". If you're having trouble understanding how to make your journal friends only, say "trouble with friends only" or "how to make friends only". This way, people don't waste time clicking on requests that they won't understand how to help. The more accurate you are, the faster you're helped.
3. Read the FAQ first.
Everybody says they've read the FAQ, or they've looked everywhere. This is usually not true. Nobody ever reads the FAQ, and I fully agree that many times the answer to your question will be hidden under an obscure FAQ category, but at least browse the thing and see if you can find something. It feels a little rude when the ONLY thing you can say to a question is "well, here's the FAQ that explains it".
4. Try to say exactly what it is you want.
This happens a lot. Somebody wants to know "how they get their journal in their profile". There's two problems with the question. First, we don't know if they're asking how to get the link to the journal or how to embed their journal, and second, they don't explain what they mean by profile. Do they mean their AIM profile? Their dating service profile? Their LiveJournal userinfo? (Not that it matters with the first two, since you're not allowed to help with that, but this is just an example). The more exact you are, the better help you'll receive.
5. Don't ask for help with something else.
If you're at LiveJournal, you can't get help with AIM. Or ad-aware. Or spybot. Or anything EXCEPT LiveJournal.
6. Okay, this is just a question of my own.
Why is it that when people see that their friends have a cool new thing, they don't just ask their friends how to do it? One everlastingly sees: how do I do this cool thing? I know it can be done because my friend does it. Why ask the support staff? It's faster to ask your friend, isn't it? *shrugs*
Five bucks says this holds true for EVERY site in the world. Hope it's helpful, or that you already know all of this.
1. Try to spell and punctuate correctly.
People really do have trouble understanding strange spelling and punctuation. The easier your post is to understand, the faster somebody will be able to help you.
2. On the part where it says "summary", please summarize your problem.
Summary means just that. If you're having a problem updating your journal, don't say "help me please", say "problem updating". If you're having trouble understanding how to make your journal friends only, say "trouble with friends only" or "how to make friends only". This way, people don't waste time clicking on requests that they won't understand how to help. The more accurate you are, the faster you're helped.
3. Read the FAQ first.
Everybody says they've read the FAQ, or they've looked everywhere. This is usually not true. Nobody ever reads the FAQ, and I fully agree that many times the answer to your question will be hidden under an obscure FAQ category, but at least browse the thing and see if you can find something. It feels a little rude when the ONLY thing you can say to a question is "well, here's the FAQ that explains it".
4. Try to say exactly what it is you want.
This happens a lot. Somebody wants to know "how they get their journal in their profile". There's two problems with the question. First, we don't know if they're asking how to get the link to the journal or how to embed their journal, and second, they don't explain what they mean by profile. Do they mean their AIM profile? Their dating service profile? Their LiveJournal userinfo? (Not that it matters with the first two, since you're not allowed to help with that, but this is just an example). The more exact you are, the better help you'll receive.
5. Don't ask for help with something else.
If you're at LiveJournal, you can't get help with AIM. Or ad-aware. Or spybot. Or anything EXCEPT LiveJournal.
6. Okay, this is just a question of my own.
Why is it that when people see that their friends have a cool new thing, they don't just ask their friends how to do it? One everlastingly sees: how do I do this cool thing? I know it can be done because my friend does it. Why ask the support staff? It's faster to ask your friend, isn't it? *shrugs*
Five bucks says this holds true for EVERY site in the world. Hope it's helpful, or that you already know all of this.
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Re 1-6:
Date: 2004-06-15 10:23 pm (UTC)I love you.*
*More specifically-possess a strong fondness or enthusiasm.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-15 11:40 pm (UTC)I am also very fond of this one. (http://www.livejournal.com/community/grocery_hell/38761.html#cutid1)
;)
no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 12:12 am (UTC)Thus is the way of the silly.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 09:15 am (UTC)and it is a common problem in the support industry that people rarely ask questions to the correct people. for example, i work at a computer store. we do NOT do phone technical support. yet, a good portion of our telephone calls are from people looking for phone support, often for something we don't even sell. (sometimes it is a question involving a repair they recently picked up from us; this is OK)
anyway, occasionally people end up calling us because they had gotten the runaround from other tech support peoples, but too often they end up calling us before considering any other resource, sometimes including explicit instructions printed *on the screen.* more often than not though we end up helping them anyway, and that probably contributes to them calling us next time they have a problem. so it's a bit our fault too.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 02:06 pm (UTC)I don't get it. The first thing I do, ALWAYS, is read the instructions.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 09:26 pm (UTC)Re 1-6:
Date: 2004-06-15 10:23 pm (UTC)I love you.*
*More specifically-possess a strong fondness or enthusiasm.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-15 11:40 pm (UTC)I am also very fond of this one. (http://www.livejournal.com/community/grocery_hell/38761.html#cutid1)
;)
no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 12:12 am (UTC)Thus is the way of the silly.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 09:15 am (UTC)and it is a common problem in the support industry that people rarely ask questions to the correct people. for example, i work at a computer store. we do NOT do phone technical support. yet, a good portion of our telephone calls are from people looking for phone support, often for something we don't even sell. (sometimes it is a question involving a repair they recently picked up from us; this is OK)
anyway, occasionally people end up calling us because they had gotten the runaround from other tech support peoples, but too often they end up calling us before considering any other resource, sometimes including explicit instructions printed *on the screen.* more often than not though we end up helping them anyway, and that probably contributes to them calling us next time they have a problem. so it's a bit our fault too.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 02:06 pm (UTC)I don't get it. The first thing I do, ALWAYS, is read the instructions.
no subject
Date: 2004-06-16 09:26 pm (UTC)