[ic] what is help // what is not help

[rick kershner]

OK so I have many years of experience doing help and less implemnnting Interchange; why do people prefer my help more?

I help them.

I have seen too many people flippantly answer questions with non-answer answers. Did ALL you people work for Microsoft before this?

What is not help:

"look in the archives"
"read README.TXT"
"you don't want to do that, you want to do this" (I got a lot of these by asking how to implement authorize.net's new security using the system not automatically used by Interchange as that default assumes an SSL certificate; some of my customers don't want to spend another $50 to buy one. All I got as answers were non-answer answers to use the SSL system by people who did not read the question.)

What is help:

If you really want to help someone, clip out the answer from the README.TXT, archives, etc. and send it to them; preferably OFF-LIST (directly to their email address, not to the group) unless you feel this is a more common question that deserves repeating. (at least give them the URL rather than the vague "its in the archives somewhere" answer). 

Also you can write a better HELP text file if the original is not easy to read/explain. Frankly the Interchange manuals are an example of why some people should not write manuals (yes I appreciate ANY manual, but by and large, these are clear as mud to someone with less than 10 years experience with Interchange, Databases in general, etc.. While I can see someone put a lot of effort into them, frequently they say things that were true in a previous version but are not now; require a certain "lingo" (OK so did some of you work for Microsoft before? Did you know that the reason for that stupid paperclip in Office 97 up is that over 90% of the help questions Microsoft got from Office 95 WERE in the help system, nobody could find them because of the Jargon/Microsoft-specific terminology?)

The best manuals involve "type this then you will see this response then type this..." scenarios. People can DO this; and when they get confused, can go back to where the issue occurred and write you "at page 17, paragraph starting "type control-j..." I did not get the same response, I got this ...  and you can actually help them from there!

One Help desk job I interviewed for the interviewer had a real smart idea. He asked 1 question. "assume I have never seen a sandwich before; describe to me, over the phone, how to make a peanut butter sandwich." Being a show off I had to add the notion of adding Butter for smoothness; Jelly for flavor, Banana for flavor and vitamins, etc. as suggestions to the call.

Try this sometimes. No cheating, do NOT assume the person knows what a knife is or how to choose a butter knife over a steak knife over a vegetable knife, etc. Picture it in you mind and explain what a butter knife looks like and why you use a butter knife - to spread - not a serrated blade to cut; the explain that peanut butter spread too light will tear up the bread when spreading it so start big; etc. Throw your EXPERIENCE into it.

If you really want to help someone then help them. These "look in the archives", "read README.TXT", etc. non-answer answers DON'T HELP ANYONE. And please, read and understand the question before sending inappropriate answers. I don't think anyone who is serious about actually helping people wades through the questions after seeing too many of these. This quits being a resource.
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