Lately there have been fewer help seekers than in the past.  What's going
wrong?  Do fewer people bother to write help because there are not enough
helpers on line?  Is it harder to find out that write help is an option than
it was in the past?  Perhaps there's a software bug that we haven't heard
about.

27 responses total.

I concur. I've had my help permissions on every login for a month and
haven'tgotten even a single question...

About the last 3 I've gotten had gotten into "write help" accidentally,
somehow.

Maybe it means that the average user is becomnig more computer literate ?

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I'm here, but haven't been around as of late.. pro'lly with the onset of
senior-itis, I may appear more often...  {:

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Valerie, I didn't figure out how to add the command to my .login (yeah, some
helper, I know...) so I type it in whenever i log in.  If you see me on and
can check whether it's turned on then, I'd appreciate it.  (One day, when I
have *time* to tinker, I'll learn to get lines added to my .login)

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It's not a good idea to use an editor with automatic word wrap for editing
something like a .login file, since a line break in the wrong place can really
screw things up.

Correct, though gate won't break existing long lines, it'll just wrap any new
ones you try to type.

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I've been getting help requests pretty regularly also. Just a question, do
I _have_ to talk to these people? I know that sounds mean but there are some
peeople out there who don't actually need help and won't stop talking to me
because they wanted to chat. I wasn't sure so... =)

Just tell them you don't have time to chat and do they have any other
questions about grex.

When you turn on your helper flag, you're agreeing to help people with
questions about Grex.  That doesn't mean you have to talk  to them if they
want somethign other than Grex.  Also, if they start being rude to you or
anything like that, then you can probably take that as an indication that they
don't really want help.  You're doing them a favor.

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I tried telling them I don't have time to chat and directing them to
party, but they said party was full of mixed people that they don't 
want to talk to. Eventually I just told him I had to go somewhere and
logged off. Thanks though =)

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Tell them your're a mixed person too....

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grrwoof in #17 said that that persistent person didn't want to talk to
"mixed people". I don't know what they are either, but if being a mixed person
stops pests, so be it. Get it? ;->

I generally pretend that I'm doing vitally important system work and don't
have time to chit-chat with people who don't actually need my help, though
I try to sound very willing to help.  This seems to work fine.  Now, grrwoof
isn't actually on staff so that game may be harder to play, but you can still
say, "I'm sorry I don't have time for a conversation.  If you don't need any
more help with Grex, I have other work I have to get back to."  Sometimes I
get people doing their best to think up new questions about Grex, but mostly
sounding a bit officious does the trick.

Am I the only helper?  I log on and see nobody else with a helper flag 
on.

And, I've been doing it for 4 days without 1 request.

I usually leave my helper flag on, and have had a half dozen
actual help requests and one or two "wrong numbers" in the 
last few weeks.   Usually I don't telnet in, however.

I've been on less, and have had my helper flag on less when I am.

Mostly these days I use Backtalk to conference, and only connect to do
system work, which usually isn't all that interuptable.

I had my first help seeker the other night.  They wanted to know how to 
use a C compiler (I told them to use GNU)

I have my helper flag on.

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- Backtalk version 1.3.30 - Copyright 1996-2006, Jan Wolter and Steve Weiss