Ray and Dustin:
Both of you made very good and valid points. Error messages and other
computer related issues can be ambiguous at best to the casual end users
-- and seasoned techs for that matter. However have you thought about
how those casual end users find these newsgroups to begin with? A
majority of issues presented in the newsgroups can be solved by viewing
the top 10 results after "Googling" the problem. The effort it takes to
find the newsgroup, word and post the question could be as "easy" as
performing a quick search on your problem. To further my point; perform
a search in the newsgroups for related or similar problems that others
have experienced. But again that requires effort, not answers right?!?
Do not misunderstand; I have been instructing, educating, and helping
end users for 13 years. And I enjoy doing so. I educate my end users and
the people that ask for help by asking them to, "help me help you."
Instead of says, "It's broke... HELP!" or "It's not working correctly";
I ask them to show or tell me what not working looks like. I believe in
education. And by educating the end user to "make an effort", I believe
they can solve their problems with little or no effort.

--

Michael D. Alligood
MCSA, MCDST, MCP, A+,
Network+, i-Net+, CIW Assoc.,
CIW Certified Instructor

The Classroom Blog

CertGuard Member
The Stronghold for Excellence in I.T. Certification
www.CertGuard.com



"ray" <ray@zianet.com> wrote in message
news:pan.2007.03.31.18.31.34.799420@zianet.com:

> On Sat, 31 Mar 2007 18:10:33 +0000, Michael D. Alligood wrote:
>
> > I was reading the latest edition of TechNet Magazine that I received in
> > the mail this week; when I came across an article that inadvertently
> > associated itself with one of the issues that we run across in
> > newsgroups consistently. This problem can be described in so many
> > different ways by religious newsgroup participates like myself. What it
> > boils down to is the very thing we preach day in and day out: Research
> > and Hands-on Experience. It also touches on abandoning your
> > preconceptions when comparing older technology to newer technology.
> >
> >
> >
> > You can find the article at:
> > http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tec...s/default.aspx.
> > Enjoy.
> >
> >
> >
> > P.S. I also included this article with the Vista and XP newsgroups in
> > hopes that individuals seeking help in those areas will read Mark's
> > article and perform research and troubleshooting steps before posting
> > their issues in newsgroups for others to "give them the answer."
>
> That's fine, but a casual user should not have to "perform research and
> troubleshooting steps before posting their issues in newsgroups".
>
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Michael D. Alligood
> >
> > MCSA, MCDST, MCP, A+,
> >
> > Network+, i-Net+, CIW Assoc.,
> >
> > CIW Certified Instructor
> >
> >
> >
> > The Classroom Blog <http://www.yetanotherblog.typepad.com/theclassroom>
> >
> >
> >
> > CertGuard Member
> >
> > The Stronghold for Excellence in I.T. Certification
> >
> > www.CertGuard.com <http://www.certguard.com/>