J
John McGhie
Seriously -- Would you like us to give you all the help we can with your
question?
Then post a REAL email address
Seriously!
People come in here because they enjoy conversing with folks all around the
world. I'm in Sydney: I have some people coming to stay this afternoon whom
I met on these groups about ten years ago: they're from San Francisco.
Meeting you as a real person is why we do what we do in here. Nobody gets
paid for this. None of us work for Microsoft. (That's not entirely true
these days: there are three or four Microsoft staffers cruising this group
as part of their official duties: you will see that they identify themselves
quite prominently in their posts.)
Because "meeting" you is the REASON most of us are here, we're not going to
try very hard if you won't permit that. After all, how hard do you try to
please those infernal people who ring up trying to sell you things while
you're eating your dinner? Same principle. There's another good reason:
The Microsoft people in here will address (some!!) issues directly with you,
if you use a real email address.
But when we're handling hundreds (or thousands...) of messages a day,
fiddling around de-coding a Spamangled email address is just too hard
Most folks by now have their inboxes fairly effectively anti-spammed one way
or another. I see maybe three to five spam messages a week, and I post my
real email address in this group ten or 20 times a day.
Most properly customer-responsive ISPs provide anti-spam and anti-virus
facilities these days: the ones that don't, probably won't be with us much
longer. Sometimes you need to turn that on: it wouldn't hurt to have a look
at your ISP's help pages for details. Because I need Industrial-Strength
anti-spamming, so I use a commercial anti-spamming anti-virusing email
provider -- http://www.fastmail.fm -- or you may wish to investigate these
guys http://www.spamcop.net/
My point is simply this: Those of us who do not work for Microsoft who are
in here nearly every day helping folks tend to look for four things before
deciding to go the final mile for you:
1) The explicit versions of your application and operating system. E.g.
"Word version 11.1 (Build 090910) on System Version: Mac OS X 10.3.6
(7R28)". You get get the first from Word>About and the second from
Finder>About This Mac. If we don't know which of the 29 versions of Word
that we support you are using, we sometimes cannot help you at all, because
the answer varies depending on what you're using and what you're doing.
2) A Subject line that tells us what your problem is. "Heeelllpppp!!" is
not a "great" subject line. I know that's how you're feeling, but it makes
us feel that way too. To help you, we need to know what's wrong, not how
you're feeling How about "Disk full error on save" -- that says it all.
Each of us is specialised in one or more areas: for example, I know nothing
about Mail merge and I won't touch questions that concern it. I scan each
group looking for the stuff I do specialise in, and I tackle those questions
first. I won't read the text of your message, only the Subject line. If I
don't see from your Subject line that your question is within my area of
expertise, I will leave your post and move on. If I still have some energy
left after handling the specialist questions, I "might" come back to this
group and read the stuff I left before. I "might"... Then again, I have a
day job AND a life, and neither of them are working for Microsoft. So I
probably "won't". Your call...
3) A description that tells us (in concise detail...) what you are trying
to do, what happened, and what you have already tried to do to fix it.
PLEASE remember that we can't see your screen from here! Put it in words!
Oh -- and please don't send us ANY screen-shots or attachments. Not EVER!
Not even "just this once". We WON'T "forgive the attachment this time."
Truth to tell, most of us won't even know you've done it. Here's why: your
message will go straight into our spam filter, and most of us will never be
aware that you sent anything at all. If we need a sample, we will ask for
it. If your email address works... Your call...
4) A live email address so we can get back to you. If I see your message
and need a little more information to answer, I will simply hit "Reply". If
the email address comes back as "(e-mail address removed)" or some other
anti-spam address -- nnnnnyeah!! Too hard! Move on to the next post. If
you really want an answer, you will post back in a week or so saying "Why
hasn't anyone answered my post?"
Of course, these things are simply suggestions. We would like to help you
better. We would like you to help us do that. But if you prefer to do
something else instead, no biggie... We can help the other folks instead.
Cheers all
--
Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.
John McGhie <[email protected]>
Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410
question?
Then post a REAL email address
Seriously!
People come in here because they enjoy conversing with folks all around the
world. I'm in Sydney: I have some people coming to stay this afternoon whom
I met on these groups about ten years ago: they're from San Francisco.
Meeting you as a real person is why we do what we do in here. Nobody gets
paid for this. None of us work for Microsoft. (That's not entirely true
these days: there are three or four Microsoft staffers cruising this group
as part of their official duties: you will see that they identify themselves
quite prominently in their posts.)
Because "meeting" you is the REASON most of us are here, we're not going to
try very hard if you won't permit that. After all, how hard do you try to
please those infernal people who ring up trying to sell you things while
you're eating your dinner? Same principle. There's another good reason:
The Microsoft people in here will address (some!!) issues directly with you,
if you use a real email address.
But when we're handling hundreds (or thousands...) of messages a day,
fiddling around de-coding a Spamangled email address is just too hard
Most folks by now have their inboxes fairly effectively anti-spammed one way
or another. I see maybe three to five spam messages a week, and I post my
real email address in this group ten or 20 times a day.
Most properly customer-responsive ISPs provide anti-spam and anti-virus
facilities these days: the ones that don't, probably won't be with us much
longer. Sometimes you need to turn that on: it wouldn't hurt to have a look
at your ISP's help pages for details. Because I need Industrial-Strength
anti-spamming, so I use a commercial anti-spamming anti-virusing email
provider -- http://www.fastmail.fm -- or you may wish to investigate these
guys http://www.spamcop.net/
My point is simply this: Those of us who do not work for Microsoft who are
in here nearly every day helping folks tend to look for four things before
deciding to go the final mile for you:
1) The explicit versions of your application and operating system. E.g.
"Word version 11.1 (Build 090910) on System Version: Mac OS X 10.3.6
(7R28)". You get get the first from Word>About and the second from
Finder>About This Mac. If we don't know which of the 29 versions of Word
that we support you are using, we sometimes cannot help you at all, because
the answer varies depending on what you're using and what you're doing.
2) A Subject line that tells us what your problem is. "Heeelllpppp!!" is
not a "great" subject line. I know that's how you're feeling, but it makes
us feel that way too. To help you, we need to know what's wrong, not how
you're feeling
How about "Disk full error on save" -- that says it all.Each of us is specialised in one or more areas: for example, I know nothing
about Mail merge and I won't touch questions that concern it. I scan each
group looking for the stuff I do specialise in, and I tackle those questions
first. I won't read the text of your message, only the Subject line. If I
don't see from your Subject line that your question is within my area of
expertise, I will leave your post and move on. If I still have some energy
left after handling the specialist questions, I "might" come back to this
group and read the stuff I left before. I "might"... Then again, I have a
day job AND a life, and neither of them are working for Microsoft. So I
probably "won't". Your call...
3) A description that tells us (in concise detail...) what you are trying
to do, what happened, and what you have already tried to do to fix it.
PLEASE remember that we can't see your screen from here! Put it in words!
Oh -- and please don't send us ANY screen-shots or attachments. Not EVER!
Not even "just this once". We WON'T "forgive the attachment this time."
Truth to tell, most of us won't even know you've done it. Here's why: your
message will go straight into our spam filter, and most of us will never be
aware that you sent anything at all. If we need a sample, we will ask for
it. If your email address works... Your call...
4) A live email address so we can get back to you. If I see your message
and need a little more information to answer, I will simply hit "Reply". If
the email address comes back as "(e-mail address removed)" or some other
anti-spam address -- nnnnnyeah!! Too hard! Move on to the next post. If
you really want an answer, you will post back in a week or so saying "Why
hasn't anyone answered my post?"
Of course, these things are simply suggestions. We would like to help you
better. We would like you to help us do that. But if you prefer to do
something else instead, no biggie... We can help the other folks instead.
Cheers all
--
Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.
John McGhie <[email protected]>
Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410