Please IM me...

BuzzLY

... NOT!

<soapbox class="irritated" style="firm_but_gentle">Look, I am a nice guy, and I love to help people out. But lately, I have been innundated with far too many IMs and emails asking for help with PHP related issues. I appreciate the fact that you think I am a PHP guru (I wish), and that your problem is very simple (not usually), but if I let one person email or IM me, I have to let everyone. And that just doesn't work. I don't want to be a jerk via IM and tell you to go away, but it's getting to the point where I almost have to.

These forums are here for a few very good reasons:

They allow you to search for a solution to your problem, that hopefully someone has already researched and solved.
You can post your problem, and many different people of varying abilities can try to help you solve it.
We as a community can pick and choose a time convenient to us to answer your question, instead of being interrupted in the middle of something important (like a poker game).
Because your problem (and hopefully, solution) are immortalized on these pages, others will benefit from it.
[/list=1]

If you want to IM me to say "whazzup," that's cool. Just be aware that I might be in the middle of something, and might ignore it or tell you I'm busy. If you want to email me and tell me how you loved our book and couldn't put it down, and that you want to share your wealth with me after making millions designing a website based on one of my designs, that's fine too.

But please, do not ask me for support. I answer support questions in two places -- the Wrox book forum, and here on phpbuilder. On my time, when it's convenient for me. Please don't abuse the email or IM links in my profile, or any other members' profiles, for that matter. We're here to help, but we're not at your beck and call.

Of course, if you want to pay me for my time, that's a different story. Email me or IM me at will!

Thank you
</soapbox>

piersk

\m/ Go Buzz!! \m/

I agree wholeheartedly. Generally, you're gonna get an answer far quicker if you post on the board rather than PMing people. Think of the timezones!

BuzzLY

Oh yeah... PM too. For the record, when I say IM, I am including AOL, AIM, Yahoo IM, MSN, ICQ, and IRC as well. If it's instant, it's inconvenient for the askee. Might as well call my cellphone in the middle of dinner for help.

piersk

Originally posted by BuzzLY
Might as well call my cellphone in the middle of dinner for help.

Ooooh, can I?? I always fancied bein a bit of a stalker!

dalecosp

This is a big issue in this line of work. I have people call me quite often; I occasionally charge for the calls. If I charged for all of them, I'd be the owner of a shiny new something-or-other by now.

I don't get that many emails; maybe it helps to have an ugly web site (but I kinda doubt it, really...)

I feel for ya. I know I emailed you once or twice a while back; AFAIK, it was before the book and wasn't necessarily a cry for help.

Unless I ever come to Cinci for a "meetup", I hope to never bother again, except of your own volition 😉

H.A.N., Q., P., R. D.

vaaaska

I think I IM'd somebody once. They were pretty nice and answered a question in like 1 minute - something I had been trying to figure out for a long time. I felt pretty stupid and I still cringe when I remember that I did that.

Why give out your IM though? Or are these clients (not forum people) bugging you? Then, send them a bill...

LordShryku

Amen Buzz. Amen. My pm box here just doesn't seem to stay empty for long, and I've shut down most of my IM products. I don't mind helping people, but it really defeats the purpose of using this forum.

BuzzLY

To be honest, I'm really not against an occasional IM. It's actually a bit of an ego boost to think that someone took the time to figure out how to contact you, because of all the people on the site, you were the one that seemed most knowledgable.

But, then I'm told "hey, I have a quick question about print()." I figure I can just give them a quick answer, then point them to the manual. But then they say "I have this 300 line code, it's not working, would you mind looking at it, blah blah..." At that point I usually say that I can't really do much without looking at the code, please post it in the forum and I'll take a look at it. Again, that would be cool if it ended there. But no, invariably they ask if they can email me the code.

The problem I have is that no consideration is given to any inconvenience it causes me. I have had people ask me "I'm sorry to bother you, but can I ask you a quick question...", and that's great. It shows they respect my time. But when they keep badgering me, without any regard for what I might be busy with at the time, and keep coming back with "one more quick question" after I have already told them to use the forum, that's when I get peeved.

You know who they are? These are the same people that ask a question in the forum, then post a bump 30 minutes later: "can't anyone help me????" They want instant gratification, and they want it for free.

I guess I am more sensitive to it now since I am having trouble finding work, and giving away free tech support at their convenience just rubs me the wrong way.

I post my IM because I like to chat with people. You want to IM me and chat with me about poker? Cool. But frankly, if I don't know you, I'd rather converse with you on the board for a while first. The board is like a bar. IM is more like a date. So, dalecosp, feel free to IM with me -- but you better be willing to put out.

Weedpacket

New Zealand Telecom are advertising many of their services that enable you to (in their words) "work anywhere". The problem of course is that once you can do that people start expecting you to work everywhere.

But I have to admit it's a bit better than one of their previous, where an actor is going on about how great it is that she can go to her holiday bach and "it's like I never left the office".....

...like that's a good thing.

IM? Bah, humbug.

The_Chancer

<sniff>

Noone ever PM's me.... 🙁

</sniff>

Oh well, guess it seems like I don't know much....

The_Chancer

OOO I got 2...

Hey guys I'm popular.... 🙂

onion2k

More people should use the IRC channel. That way I can be mean to people in real time.

piersk

NOOOOO!!! The IRC channel is for chatting, not for help with code. Can you imagine someone pasting code into that??? It would all get incredibly confusing.

If you need help with your code, use the board.

bubblenut

.. and it's bored contributors

Elizabeth

Originally posted by BuzzLY
The board is like a bar. IM is more like a date. So, dalecosp, feel free to IM with me -- but you better be willing to put out.

OK, I just read that for the first time. HA!

Mith

Unless I ever come to Cinci for a "meetup", I hope to never bother again, except of your own volition 😉

H.A.N., Q., P., R. D. [/B]

does this mean you live in Cincinatti, Ohio? Thats kewl, i live in northen KY.

BuzzLY

I do, as do Elizabeth and Goldbug. Next time we have a meetup, you should come along. Go to webdesigners.meetup.com and sign up.

We were going to have one on Thursday, but apparently someone :glare: can't make it, so we're gonna have to wait until next month 😉

LordShryku

Yeah....you should maybe read the thread while you're at it. Might learn that we don't want to be IM'ed/PM'ed with "do my work"/"help me" sort of stuff.

Mith

hey, Buzzly showed this to me AFTER i PM'd you, so sry ,lol. No hard feelings?

goldbug

I had to remove my IM link because of random posts from people on the forum needing help.... not because I didn't want to help them, .. I just couldn't tell the difference (based on opening/introduction) between real forum people and spam/porn/etc IM-spam. 🙂

Originally posted by BuzzLY
We were going to have one on Thursday, but apparently someone :glare: can't make it, so we're gonna have to wait until next month 😉

Hey, I couldn't go either. However, if you are reeeeally bored Thursday night, you can come over and help me run the rest of the Cat-5e and RG-6 through my attic. 😃 (nothing is as fun as wading through 2 feet of blown insulation </sarcasm>)