Is it me.. or what??

someone came to this site and saw that i had code for a countdown script. He imed me and asked me for the script. So i sent it to them.

It was a text file and he asked how do i create a php file. I said just change the extention.

Then he continued to ask questions like how do i change the date mean while its all there in the file i sent him. Is it wrong for me to get pissed after givin him documented code him asking very low questions. I said to him. if you dont have a knowledge of programming/web development this is not going to wrok for ya.

then he gets pissed and starts going off on me.

Would you do the same if all of this was posted by a newbie on the forum instead of via PM?

forums different i dont wanna answer i dont have to.. ims get annoying. I was in the middle of doing something i take my time to help ya out.

It's not unusual to get rude unappreciative and sometimes just plain stupid queries for help; unfortunately, it's usually a necessary evil, especially if you're in tech support

I had a similar experience via email. This guy emails me saying he saw an old post of mine and had some additional questions. No problem, I answered his questions. The next day he emails me a question unrelated to the posting. I answered that too.

At this point the guy assumes that I'm his personal help desk for every coding problem he has and starts hammering me with everything under the sun. No point in posting on forums when you have your own coding slave, right? When I didn't reply (having at this point decided not to reply at all) he starts sending me emails somewhat miffed that I'm unable to comprehend his problem and provide him with a prompt answer. I probably wouldn't have minded helping him if it had been an interesting problem. Or if he hadn't assumed that I was under some kind of obligation to provide him with free tech support.

As strong as the temptation was to tell him something harsh, I opted for silence instead. He got the message eventually and left me alone. The vast majority of the people (mainly programmers) that I've met on the net are pretty well mannered. I've found that it's best to ignore the occassional jerk.

I have had those sorts of cases too, idiots emailing and IM'ing me thinking I provide free tech support and coding. I normally respond that I prefer to keep things to the forum. If they want my private technical help I would require some form of payment at the rate of AU$70 / hour. They still tried to ask and get it for free.

Someone I just ended up ignoring and putting on ban list since they didnt get it and kept hassling me despite repeated times telling them to get stuffed.

Ya - i keep my im names out of the boards - well it's on rxl, but not here. I think I just broke 200 pm's in my inbox here

Hmmmm it must just be me then, I do keep my im names private more for security than anything else though but I have no problems receiving private messages on the forums (Not that I get that many anyway, people must not like me ::sniff:.

Just the other day a guy sent me a message, he had read my article and was having some problems with the code, very simple mistake which we spent four or five messages sorting out and he was happy. At the beginning of his first message he offered to pay me to help him, I said no it wasn't necesary but if he wanted to return the favour send my wife some $ to help with her campaign, after we got through the problem he sent $20. He was happy, my wife was happy and I almost got laid so I was happy (That last part was a joke :-)

I realise that is one of the nicer one's but at the end of the day you are asking for it. If you only want to help people when YOU want to help people then I'm sorry but it is rather foolish to post contact information in a public forum which gets as much traffic as this one.

Oh I just remembered another one, some guy found me on a Messaging Service listed as a PHP Expert, he was having some problems with the script and asked if I had some time free if I could take a look, so I wasn't very busy and went ahead. He ended up asking me tons of questions over the next fews days which I helped him with and I even wrote a little app for him (Very basic one).

Then it all went silent for a couple of days until he had another basic question, again I answered. At that time I was desperate for a Graphic Designer and just out of interest I asked him if he knew anyone. Turns out that is his profession and now I get cheap graphics because I helped him out and continue to do so.

Morale: Being available is also good for networking and making friends.

Oh and one more thing

Shocka, you especially might want to be a bit more diplomatic, you seem very keen to get work out of this forum and you never know who that guy was. Yes he may have seen one of your scripts but he may well have seen one of your postings trying to get work and was considering hiring you for a project but decided to test you out first.

You never know

I agree with what Silky said... all 48 posts of it.

Treat them like it's a post on the forum. Either delete and ignore it, redirect them back to the forum, or help them. No matter how detailed you script or answer is, somene's no going to understand it and you're going to have to help them.

---John Holmes...

Although... what I find truly annoying are those people who ask for help with a script or something and it turns out they don't even have the right setup to run PHP or the database or whatever...

---John Holmes...

hehe sorry about that, kept thinking of new things to say

Take the hint, no one likes you, go away.