Gee, I'm sorry I'm not setting you up as a competitor fast enough for you!!!

[spark]

I have no idea where this goes. The guy isn't a customer, technically he's a competing business. There's not exactly a section for that... (Mods can feel free to move this if there's a better place for it.) But he is definitely sucky. He's turning into the biggest EW I have ever met. Holy crap.

So I hang out on a couple of fursuiting forums. And generally I like playing "wise old mentor" and answering newbie makers' questions about how to go about things. It's good for my ego. But a.) I'm not inclined to answer at all when the question can be solved by a quick google, and b.) I don't check the thing a billion times a day, usually just once or twice, so I'm not usually the first to respond, one of the moderators is, especially when the question is really simple.

Said moderator isn't a maker, just a fan, but he's seriously a serious fan, and he has a VAST library of related links, so when somebody has a question he nearly always steps in first and links to relevant tutorials, past topics about similar questions, etc. Very helpful, imho.

But today this TWITHEAD who I have helped many times, posted saying that he feels it's rude and impersonal for people to link to tutorials, and that questions should be answered personally! That if links must be provided this should be done with warm and friendly "It's so bad that you're stumped, here's something I hope might help you" commentary, instead of just posted without further comment.

And it's particularly rude, says he, that links are always the first response! And really rude to leave links when he can't use them, he's not very good with following tutorials, he needs personal explanations! Because it's a forum, see, and forums are for discussion, not for posting links. (Which is news to me!) Questions on forums should be answered entirely in the forum, without links leading outside it.

So apparently he's not happy that I answer his moronic questions. He wants them answered personally, with lots of fluff and ass-kissing, RIGHT AWAY before the mod can post links to anything else.

I've gone out of my way to be nice to somebody who is, quite literally, taking customers from me. I don't focus on selling through these forums, so I haven't worried too much, but there have definitely been times when I might have gotten a small sale if this fellow hasn't been there first! I've been nice anyhow, and held his hand through a lot of stupid crap, and now that's not good enough, he wants me to be faster? He wants the mods to not jump in with advice that he personally doesn't happen to like? Screw that. I'm done answering his questions, he's on his own.

I used to wonder, when I first started in this business, why the community wasn't more supportive, why my innocent newbie questions never got answered. Now I know. Everybody who was willing to be helpful has been ground down into a state of bitter cynicism by this kind of entitlement whoring.

Edit: I responded to his complaint thread with a more polite version of pretty much what I said up there, that I'd been doing him a favor by answering at all and I didn't really think he had any right to complain, and he replied by PM, not in the thread, with "sorry" and nothing else. Okay, I guess he's sorry. *shrug* I really have no response to that! I hope he said sorry to the mod whose help he was slamming too. :P

[MournBlade]

What a turd. I would like all my questions to be answered by pink butterly winged unicorns in a made up language only I can understand too, still waiting... lol

[Polenicus]

Quoth spark

And it's particularly rude, says he, that links are always the first response! And really rude to leave links when he can't use them, he's not very good with following tutorials, he needs personal explanations! Because it's a forum, see, and forums are for discussion, not for posting links. (Which is news to me!) Questions on forums should be answered entirely in the forum, without links leading outside it.

Wait wait wait...

WHAT?!

This makes no sense. This could make sense if someone was asking to be talked through something on the phone, or shown it in real life, or even guided through something in a realtime chat. But forum responses vary widely, and it can't be considered a responsive medium.

So essentially what he's saying is: "I can't use this text with pictures that's been thought out, formatted and edited. I need DIFFERENT text that's a paraphrased and less precise version without any pictures!"

Or, in other words, he is crying out quite clearly;

"IGNORE ME, I AM A DOUCHE!"

[charred]

Banhammertime

[Rapscallion]

Quoth spark

I used to wonder, when I first started in this business, why the community wasn't more supportive, why my innocent newbie questions never got answered. Now I know. Everybody who was willing to be helpful has been ground down into a state of bitter cynicism by this kind of entitlement whoring.

Been there, done that. Every so often, I've been in a position wondering, "What just happened?"

I find a good way to deal with it is to keep an attitude of, "I'm not them." It might lead to feelings of superiority, but let's be fair here - reread their posts and try and tell me it's not deserved.

Rapscallion

[patiokitty]

I fully understand not wanting to answer questions that can be answering by quick use of google - that has always frustrated the hell out of me.

I'm not a fursuit maker but I used to know one by the name of ScribbleFox. I remember his own frustrations with newbs and when trying to figure out how to do things on his own. I give all of you folks mad props because I've seen just how detailed that work can get and how idiotic some clients can get with their demands. I swear, I'd have gone stark raving insane long ago if it had been me. But the finished work never fails to amaze me.

[Dreamstalker]

One of my Ghostbusters prop sites has a mindbogglingly huge amount of information, and newcomers will tend to get lost in the maze even if they think they know what they're looking for. 9 times out of 10 posting a link to another page will answer somebody's question. A lot of the members are just tired of being asked to rehash an answer that's been given so many times it practically has its own page, so posting links for common questions is the norm unless someone is really new, asking about a member's work or has new information that isn't on a page already.

Some moron went off on everyone when a well-respected user posted a couple links that had his answers, and tried to hide behind Aspergers as an excuse for why he started attacking everyone and demanding personal replies The thread was kept alive for a while to see if he became civil, but once the admin got wind of what exactly was going on, the thread was locked and the guy banned while I was still catching up on the vitriol. Later I found out that he had created a half-dozen sockpuppet accounts to agree with him and slipped up by posting a reply under his main account...oops

[dalesys]

Quoth Dreamstalker

...Some moron went off on everyone when a well-respected user posted a couple links that had his answers, and tried to hide behind Aspergers as an excuse...

You don't have Asperger's, schmuck! You have Ass-Burgers, and yours are about to get chewed!

[Kanalah]

Argh! I hate people who pull stuff like that!

I've had people coming to my booth and asking all kinds of detailed questions about my methods just so they can go home and try to quilt themselves.

Now it's one thing to go and buy your own fabric for your quilt to get a discount, I've had people do that before. But to harass the artist into giving up every little tiny secret?

I've started telling people I use pixie dust or I have trained animals helping out with the work.

[Hyndis]

I work tech support.

This is why I have a word file full of copy and paste replies. Easily 90% of the time an entire ticket can be resolved by me just copying and pasting stuff just because stuff fails in known, predictable ways, and if you're having a problem you're having problems I've handled hundreds of times before.

There are some people that complain that I'm not hand typing every single response to them, just for them and for no one else. I'm not going to spend time by hand typing out the same thing again and again. Why should I? I'm just going to type the exact same thing. You'll get the same reply either way, its just if you want me to hand type everything you're going to have to wait like 2 weeks for the reply due to everyone else in line ahead of you getting hand typed replies.