Why Team Members Don’t Give Private Support

[Mack The Knife]

I am NOT running a parallel consultancy on this board...so please do not PM me with questions of a non-personal nature as they will be ignored.

Have a look at Rules 5f and 5g. http://indiansforguns.com/app.php/rules

Thanks.

Mack The Knife

[mundaire]

For those who won't be bothered to read the rules, allow me to quote Rule 5. (f):

Support is offered only via these forums. Do not contact team members privately (via any method) to ask for support. Users found to be contacting team members asking for support will be warned.

And rule 5.(g):

Before posting a question users are asked to try and find information themselves. This includes reading relevant documentation for example the Arms Act and Arms Rules, the Knowledge Base (coming soon) and using Search. Users who persistently ask questions without showing any desire to help themselves should expect to receive at best a delayed response and at worst no response at all.

Now these may seem really stern, but the logic is indisputable. Allow me to quote from the same topic being dicussed on another forum:

Most people who contact team members for private support do so because they figure they can get a faster response and that doing so will take very little time for the team member to answer because they “know their stuff”. Now, either of these cases may be true if only one user is doing it. Let’s now consider the scenario where multiple users a day (maybe even 5-10 or more) have this reasoning and choose to do so. That’s 5-10 PMs that must be answered or handled per the rule above. Now repeat that again for 50+ team members. Assuming each PM takes 2 minutes to deal with (this is a very sparse estimate), that’s 8 hours 20 minutes of time spent dealing with these PMs instead of helping other users (not to mention the time the Moderator Team spends issuing warnings).
Just consider for a moment what we could do with that time. Most users PM team members because they think their response will be quicker — in fact, by doing so, you are not only slowing down the response you will receive, but the response others will as well!
The reasoning, then, is quite simple: because private support will take time away from you, the end user. Answering questions takes time. Add on to that the fact that a PM helps only one person, and you have a lose-lose situation. Most of us would much rather take the time to answer topics in the support forum that could potentially benefit hundreds of users than spend equal (or more) time answering PMs that will help only one.
So, remember: next time you go to send a PM to try to get a quicker answer, stop and think for a second: What will be the side-effects of this? Aside from being warned, it takes time away from helping you, the user. The warning isn’t since we’re uptight and don’t have a sense of humour (believe me, we do) — it’s because such PMs take away from our time that could otherwise be spent helping you.

Directly contacting any of the moderators via PM to ask such questions will invariably result in the query being ignored... Lest anyone forget - ALL OF the moderators here have day jobs AND they are not getting paid for their time contributions here...

Cheers!
Abhijeet

[Grumpy]

Also applies to rules 5b,c,d,e and f.
I don`t mind being asked the occasional question via PM but when it starts to get excessive.....or people can`t be arsed to ask politely......or ask damn stupid questions ( I`m in the UK, how the hell can I recommend a `cheap but good` gunsmith in India ? ) ......or especially if they take it as a right that they can demand answers of me I feel like pointing out that I have a living to make, am a professional and my consultancy fee is £30-£100 per hour. Funnily enough the one person who really did piss me off so much that I politely offered to sell him the information he required suddenly got very offended............Screw him. If he had asked nicely he could have had the information and drawings he required for nothing. As it is he can sing for them because he isn`t going to get them from anywhere else without paying.
Friends are obviously exempted as the free exchange of information, knowledge and opinion is always a pleasure. I`ve learned a lot from people on this forum who have areas of expertise and knowledge that I am ignorant of.
I participate in this forum because I enjoy doing do - the same as everyone else.

[Mack The Knife]

Hey Mack The Knife,

We guys look up to you.....

Please take this in true spirit.....

-Nishant

Nishant et al,

Try looking up to the board instead. Its collective knowledge is far greater than mine.

What really gets my goat is people who don't make the effort to search the board for an answer first. One of the most commonly asked questions (at least once or twice EVERY week) is regarding import of airguns and this from people who are pretty regular members. The answers are staring them in the face but they still wont make the effort to read them.

[penpusher]

For detailed information on how to import an air rifle/airgun including personal experiences and a list of do' and dont's, please send a Rs.100/- draft to Abhijeet.For an additional Rs.50/- you also get a bonus booklet on how to get an arms license and other essential but hard to find information(renewal of license,deposit of a firearm, getting permission to buy an additional firearm etc.)

Henceforth this information is going to be given on payment basis alone.

[hellfire_m16]

I totally agree with what is being discussed in this thread.Most of the information sort after has allready been discussed and its only a matter of a few minutes to find the required info on this forum which is in plain simple English.

On a lighter note penpusher dont you feel the charges for information is too nominal.Charges should be high for people who want to be spoon feed.

Regards,

Vinayaka

[nm]

Dear Mack The Knife,

I am getting to understand the issue and empathize with you.

I agree....given an opportunity once, People start to take things very thoughtlessly.....

Sending PMs just for convenience sake is totally un-acceptable.

-Nishant