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
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
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