On 29/07/11 00:12, Avi Greenbury wrote: > alan c wrote: > >> Mat >> It has been said *clearly* what went wrong! >> >> >> "The chap on the [irc] who's responded to my plea for help has >> >> just given me technical jargon answers I simply don't understand >> >> and he's putting me off Ubuntu." >> > > That's not clear at all. All we know is that at some point the > meaning of some answer that was given in response to some question > wasn't understood by the asker. There's precisely nothing that can be > done with that 'information'.
Ok, but it is clear to my eyes. Perhaps I just have a lot more close up contact with very non techie Ubuntu, and formerly, Windows, users. Geek speak is utterly acceptable when appropriate. However, the inappropriate recipient will not be able to explain. The boundary of where 'technical jargon' begins is difficult to predict. We are lucky even to get feedback at this level from this situation. If 'we' caused this situation initially, then 'we' have a mindset which is probably incompatible with answers which are purely non technical - which are many times more time consuming and personalised than a normal IRC exchange. In this case 1) the recipient heard the 'answers' but rejected them from lack of understanding. It is easy to guess that the helper was not really expecting to approach the situation as if the answers may not be understood at all, to such an extent to cause cut off of contact. The recipient did not (obviously) want to declare lack of understanding, and gave up. There may be a procedural way to help to avoid this, but the range of level of support from location of the 'any key' through to fluent terminal use is vast. 2) The recipient projected, perceived, *active* 'harm' from the helper. 'He is putting me off Ubuntu'. An unspoken issue is that the *perception* is that the helper does not want the user to use Ubuntu, or the user has been tested and has failed. Close to 'I want to use Ubuntu but he is turning me away'. These type of situations are very difficult indeed to manage using IRC. Although IRC is pure magic for some exchanges and problems, it is has a robotic feel and impersonal for strangers (who may not be able to know nor visualise the helper and the unselfish motivation and effort). To discover being in an apparently alien landscape is uncomfortable, and to then admit in alienspeak, that one is truly helpless and vulnerable, (read 'unworthy') is not easy , I think, unlikely. My immediate reaction is to think of prompting phone contact, or having it as an option somehow. In this case the user reverted to direct personal contact with a person already known to them, to confide in. It can be taken that the user did not 'know' the IRC helper, and could not confide. Or at least, they felt that way. There is a suggestion in the thread that the technical problem may not be an easy one. For this to be factored in, the IRC exchange needs to feel personalised enough for the recipient to be prepared to get bad news, or be facing a possibly arduous situation. This might be challenging within telephone support, and also certainly a challenge for IRC. -- alan cocks Ubuntu user -- ubuntu-uk@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-uk https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UKTeam/
