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> power users hanging out and answering questions on the company's behalf. Who are these people? It's genuinely strange. People will even do it for banks and p

> power users hanging out and answering questions on the company's behalf. Who are these people? It's genuinely strange. People will even do it for banks and phone network companies. As a company, all you need to do is have XP tiers for posting and someone will be willing to dedicate their life to becoming a Finco Bank Guru and running the forum for free. Usually they have a rather "Boomer" energy, so I get the feeling it's retired people who think the parish council/HOA doesn't meet often enough.

thih9 2y ago
On one hand it’s unfortunate that people don’t get paid for this kind of help and perhaps act in a short sighted way (giving away too much control to the provider). On the other, a lot of these are people willing to help someone else for free and make their knowledge practically public in the process. Seems aligned with a hacker/wikipedia/oss ethos in many ways.
- saagarjha 2y ago
  Yeah, until you realize that they get all that XP posting some variation of "turn it off and on again" ten thousand times
  - thih9 2y ago
    As long as their comments are useful, I don’t mind. Many open source projects are low quality or trivial to others - but still provide big help to some.
  - beardedwizard 2y ago
    A long time ago I supported hp scanners on windows. I exclusively told people to uninstall and reinstall the drivers, or windows. My success rate was 100% and I outperformed all my peers who did actual troubleshooting in time to resolution and number of resolutions. Sometimes the right answer is just the right answer.
robocat 2y ago
Is there some reason Boomer isn't yet seen as offensive as a racist word? Your comment isn't the worst, but the word is usually used as a placeholder for some bigoted stereotype against someone retired. Disclosure: I'm not a boomer and the word is not used much in New Zealand.
- bc569a80a344f9c 2y ago
  I mean, one reason is that no one has ever shouted “boomer” in a hateful voice while lynching someone for looking their way wrong. We could also talk about how it’s usually not just used as an ageist slur but to describe a state of mind - if you ask the kids there’s plenty of old people who aren’t boomers - but saying it’s as offensive as being racist is completely inappropriate. To sort of quote the comedian John Mulaney about the n-word, if one of the words is one you can’t say and have to use “the n-word” to describe it, that’s the bad word.
  - TeMPOraL 2y ago
    > no one has ever shouted “boomer” in a hateful voice while lynching someone for looking their way wrong. That "while lynching" part is doing all the work here.
    - flappyeagle 2y ago
      As it should? Mexican or Chinese or Old or Gay are not bad word but they have been and continue to be shouted in hateful ways
- HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
  ...really? https://i.redd.it/kb6r6ajwk3pc1.jpeg https://i.redd.it/kb6r6ajwk3pc1.jpeg
- ethbr1 2y ago
  It's definitely a lazy slur, in the same way that "problematic" is a lazy complaint. Why reach for a vague zeitgeist term that everyone knows, but no one has a precise definition for, instead of taking the time to use a specific word?
bc569a80a344f9c 2y ago
I’m sure I’m an outlier, but I did this once for a particular network equipment vendor. It’s a smaller vendor that aims at a low price point and skimps on things like support, but their software had a particular feature that was going to be very important for my employer. To get good at troubleshooting their gear fast - we were going to deploy the equipment for scenarios where mean-time-to-resolution was going to matter a lot - I camped on their forums and helped everyone I came across as practice matters a lot for that. After about year I’d achieved that and stopped, but I maxed out their karma rankings in the process. They didn’t have training material or certification programs and the equipment didn’t break much for us in production so this was the only way I could think of for getting the hours in.
generic92034 2y ago
> It's genuinely strange. People will even do it for banks and phone network companies. Helping other people can be deeply satisfying, even without payment or karma points. Maybe you are already doing it yourself? Otherwise I can only recommend you to try it some time. ;)
autoexec 2y ago
> someone will be willing to dedicate their life to becoming a Finco Bank Guru and running the forum for free. Usually they have a rather "Boomer" energy, so I get the feeling it's retired people who think the parish council/HOA doesn't meet often enough. I started a support forum for a video game once. I wasn't a boomer or retired. I just liked the game, had the ability to help, and the time. I guess some people just like being helpful. Certainly the company who made the game profited off of my free labor but I wasn't looking for money (to their credit they did offer to send me to E3 one year at a time when tickets weren't being offered to the public).

thih9 2y ago

On one hand it’s unfortunate that people don’t get paid for this kind of help and perhaps act in a short sighted way (giving away too much control to the provider). On the other, a lot of these are people willing to help someone else for free and make their knowledge practically public in the process. Seems aligned with a hacker/wikipedia/oss ethos in many ways.

saagarjha 2y ago
Yeah, until you realize that they get all that XP posting some variation of "turn it off and on again" ten thousand times
- thih9 2y ago
  As long as their comments are useful, I don’t mind. Many open source projects are low quality or trivial to others - but still provide big help to some.
- beardedwizard 2y ago
  A long time ago I supported hp scanners on windows. I exclusively told people to uninstall and reinstall the drivers, or windows. My success rate was 100% and I outperformed all my peers who did actual troubleshooting in time to resolution and number of resolutions. Sometimes the right answer is just the right answer.

robocat 2y ago

Is there some reason Boomer isn't yet seen as offensive as a racist word? Your comment isn't the worst, but the word is usually used as a placeholder for some bigoted stereotype against someone retired. Disclosure: I'm not a boomer and the word is not used much in New Zealand.

bc569a80a344f9c 2y ago
I mean, one reason is that no one has ever shouted “boomer” in a hateful voice while lynching someone for looking their way wrong. We could also talk about how it’s usually not just used as an ageist slur but to describe a state of mind - if you ask the kids there’s plenty of old people who aren’t boomers - but saying it’s as offensive as being racist is completely inappropriate. To sort of quote the comedian John Mulaney about the n-word, if one of the words is one you can’t say and have to use “the n-word” to describe it, that’s the bad word.
- TeMPOraL 2y ago
  > no one has ever shouted “boomer” in a hateful voice while lynching someone for looking their way wrong. That "while lynching" part is doing all the work here.
  - flappyeagle 2y ago
    As it should? Mexican or Chinese or Old or Gay are not bad word but they have been and continue to be shouted in hateful ways
HeatrayEnjoyer 2y ago
...really? https://i.redd.it/kb6r6ajwk3pc1.jpeg https://i.redd.it/kb6r6ajwk3pc1.jpeg
ethbr1 2y ago
It's definitely a lazy slur, in the same way that "problematic" is a lazy complaint. Why reach for a vague zeitgeist term that everyone knows, but no one has a precise definition for, instead of taking the time to use a specific word?

bc569a80a344f9c 2y ago

I’m sure I’m an outlier, but I did this once for a particular network equipment vendor. It’s a smaller vendor that aims at a low price point and skimps on things like support, but their software had a particular feature that was going to be very important for my employer. To get good at troubleshooting their gear fast - we were going to deploy the equipment for scenarios where mean-time-to-resolution was going to matter a lot - I camped on their forums and helped everyone I came across as practice matters a lot for that. After about year I’d achieved that and stopped, but I maxed out their karma rankings in the process. They didn’t have training material or certification programs and the equipment didn’t break much for us in production so this was the only way I could think of for getting the hours in.

generic92034 2y ago

> It's genuinely strange. People will even do it for banks and phone network companies. Helping other people can be deeply satisfying, even without payment or karma points. Maybe you are already doing it yourself? Otherwise I can only recommend you to try it some time. ;)

autoexec 2y ago

> someone will be willing to dedicate their life to becoming a Finco Bank Guru and running the forum for free. Usually they have a rather "Boomer" energy, so I get the feeling it's retired people who think the parish council/HOA doesn't meet often enough. I started a support forum for a video game once. I wasn't a boomer or retired. I just liked the game, had the ability to help, and the time. I guess some people just like being helpful. Certainly the company who made the game profited off of my free labor but I wasn't looking for money (to their credit they did offer to send me to E3 one year at a time when tickets weren't being offered to the public).