Should AskMe be used as tech support for products that already have support? October 26, 2006 10:21 AM   Subscribe

Should AskMe be used as tech support for products that already have support?
posted by pieoverdone to Etiquette/Policy at 10:21 AM (27 comments total) 1 user marked this as a favorite

I totally agree with you (I assume your answer to that question would be no), but the precedent is set I think
posted by poppo at 10:27 AM on October 26, 2006


It's not really against the guidelines.
posted by dead_ at 10:28 AM on October 26, 2006


See a product therapist.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 10:29 AM on October 26, 2006 [2 favorites]


You get one question a week; sometimes the answer is really obvious, but it was obviously not that obvious to the oblivious poster, so chill. Problem solved. No harm done.
posted by Mister_A at 10:30 AM on October 26, 2006


Before You Ask

Please try using Google to answer your question


I don't see much difference between that and 'Please check your product's documentation/knowledgebase'.
posted by pieoverdone at 10:34 AM on October 26, 2006


Yeah, it'd be nice if the low-hanging fruit could be solved by support forum searches or google searches, but sometimes you really want a question about common software answered and you turn to the people that are likely to have figured it out before.

I think the "how do I make firefox do x?" questions are way better than a few gnarly "I have a Weedmaster XJ3200 from Black and Decker that lost its inner spiral nut (part #340293) and was wondering where to find a new one?" questions that are so insanely specific that the only people on earth that can answer them are employed by the company that creates the product.

But those solve themselves, by sitting around with zero answers for months on end.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:39 AM on October 26, 2006


I get that someone could be frustrated by this, but what is your solution? To delete any questions about products?
posted by smackfu at 10:41 AM on October 26, 2006


It's a no-brainer!
posted by Floydd at 10:46 AM on October 26, 2006


The answers to tech support type questions are also useful for people other than the OP in many cases. As a matter of fact, the way I stumbled onto MetaFilter in the first place was via a search for the answer to a computer hardware compatibility question. The solution I discovered was different and better than the one that was presented in the hardware's's documentation. That inspired me to lurk for like 2 years til I could scrape up $5.
posted by Mister_A at 10:51 AM on October 26, 2006


The solution I discovered was different and better than the one that was presented in the hardware's's documentation.

But you looked in the documentation first and were asking for alternative input instead of being too lazy to bother at all.

Maybe it should be added to the guidelines along with the Google statement. OR askers should be required to mention that they did search documentation and a. couldn't find the answer or b. are looking for an alternative solution than what's presented by the manufacturer.
posted by pieoverdone at 10:54 AM on October 26, 2006


Be serious. You can't force people to search. Adding more rules doesn't mean people will follow them, and will just lead to more bitching in threads.
posted by smackfu at 11:00 AM on October 26, 2006


I ask and answer these kinds of questions. The dearth of trustworthy real-world experience and information is invaluable.

There's a lot of no-nonsense, very pragmatic and experienced nerds here, there'll be a lot of tech/support questions and answers.
posted by loquacious at 11:01 AM on October 26, 2006


*Al Gore sigh*

Pieoverdone, whether I checked the documentation first or not is immaterial. The point is that there was information in the replies that was useful to the OP and to other people. I am sure some people will be too lazy to look for the info, whereas others will look and fail to find it - or to grasp its meaning. You can get the answer in plain English here, and that is the value of this service. I don't think it's appropriate to upbraid people for asking questions that some perceive as being "easy".
posted by Mister_A at 11:03 AM on October 26, 2006


I think tech support and product documentation is really crappy for many products. I'd love it if products were documented in such a way that people could solve their problems easily, but the reality (in my experience) is that you can't find the help you need in the help files or the support pages, and you have to hold and/or pay if you use phone support, and chances are the people you connect with have no idea what you need anyway.

I have no problem with people thinking of AskMe as filled with people who might have just the piece of expert knowledge you need. Kind of like calling your geek friend or relative when you can't figure something out.
posted by jasper411 at 11:04 AM on October 26, 2006


Be serious. You can't force people to search. Adding more rules doesn't mean people will follow them, and will just lead to more bitching in threads.

Perfectly summed up.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:23 AM on October 26, 2006



I think tech support and product documentation is really crappy for many products.I'd love it if products were documented in such a way that people could solve their problems easily, but the reality (in my experience) is that you can't find the help you need in the help files or the support pages, and you have to hold and/or pay if you use phone support, and chances are the people you connect with have no idea what you need anyway.


Another good summation. I write product documentation for a living, and I know exactly why it is usually so bad (the stuff I didn't write, of course). Knowing that doesn't help me get the answer to how to fix the misbehaving widgets. Need I point out that there is "support" for Microsoft products?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 11:35 AM on October 26, 2006


AskMetaFilter: We only do the hard questions.
posted by timeistight at 11:35 AM on October 26, 2006


I always find it strange to get a picture of how people view AskMe. Is it a wide open road where anything goes or a highly regimented series of hurdles that I must overcome before my question is deemed worthy? I think its presumptious and arrogant to assume we may have some control over another person's behavior prior to posting a question. That's not to say I haven't seen a few of those questions and rolled my eyes but in the end, they usually turn out to be quite educational and/or helpful.
posted by KevinSkomsvold at 11:47 AM on October 26, 2006


Should AskMe be used as tech support for products that already have support?

Yes. AskMe is often faster, cheaper, and easier to understand. Tech support is not going to suggest hacks or third-party software. "How can I get my music off my iPod?" is a perfect example. Like Mister_A, I've searched for my tech problems on the green with a lot of success.

AskMe is great when you don't know enough to properly phrase your question, which is why I don't mind questions that can be answered by a quick google or wikipedia search.

AskMe is staffed by volunteers. If you think an asker is being lazy, you don't have to answer the question.
posted by hydrophonic at 11:49 AM on October 26, 2006 [1 favorite]


This reminds me of a digital photography forum where a poster (let's call him Poster A) asked whether Adobe RAW update 3.4 for Photoshop CS1 supported the Canon 30D. Immediately some jerk (we'll call him Poster B) jumped in and started berating the poster about not checking the Adobe site, and how Poster A was wasting everyone's time, etc.

As it turns out Adobe says the 30D is supported by the update, but it doesn't work. The rest of the thread basically consisted of people saying as much, and (rightly) called Poster B an asshole.

The lesson I took from that was that you shouldn't assume that the official docs will answer your questions. Or that the information contained in them will be right. Or, frankly, that the guy who wrote them can write intelligibly. I've been in the technical writing business for long enough to know that all too many user guides are written by the most junior, least knowledgeable guy on staff because "the people who would know are too busy" and "anybody can write".
posted by clevershark at 4:53 PM on October 26, 2006


Couldn't this have been dealt with by contacting Mathowie directly?
posted by blue_beetle at 5:41 PM on October 26, 2006


Should AskMe be used as tech support for products that already have support?

Yes.
posted by Bugbread at 6:16 AM on October 27, 2006


For another point of view: I do tech support here, there and everywhere. These kinds of askme questions are extremely valuable to me because I encounter them IRL as well, and I find that the answers given here, by those with experience in the matters at hand, provide real-world solutions that documentation cannot alone supply.
posted by Lynsey at 10:32 AM on October 27, 2006


documentation alone cannot supply :P
posted by Lynsey at 10:33 AM on October 27, 2006


Make MeFi Tech Support a separate entity than AskMe. :D
posted by IndigoRain at 1:06 AM on October 28, 2006


Make MeFi Tech Support a separate entity than AskMe. :D

A joke? In any case, no, don't.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:31 AM on October 28, 2006


I've seen the tech support questions split off at a forum or two, and it doesn't go particularly well. It's usually a ghetto of unanswered questions, because the technical people who use to answer them don't bother to read it anymore.
posted by smackfu at 9:49 AM on October 28, 2006


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