Tech Help Subforum - Page 2

Cinisajoy · 01-04-2018, 06:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CRussel

I'm a technical writer, author, and IT Manager. I do NOT come here to provide IT help, nor would I expect to find it here. I do come here to discuss reading, books, and the devices and software that enable me (and others, obviously) to read and manage my library of books. I don't think this is the right place for it. (Heck, I won't even read the Techie V&R thread!)

But Charlie,
You are missing some great dissertations.

CRussel · 01-04-2018, 07:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

But Charlie,
You are missing some great dissertations.

Which is EXACTLY why I don't go there!

darryl · 01-04-2018, 09:43 PM

I agree that Mobileread is not the place to find generalised computer assistance. There are already so many forums that are devoted to providing such assistance. Often a Google search is all that is needed.

Having said that, there is probably no harm in providing a sub-forum. I'm not sure that much help would be provided. I for one don't come here for these matters. Though I suppose if I saw a question in such a forum which I could answer easily and quickly I may do so.

BetterRed · 01-04-2018, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by darryl

I agree that Mobileread is not the place to find generalised computer assistance. There are already so many forums that are devoted to providing such assistance. Often a Google search is all that is needed.

I agree, and with DiapDealer's posts. But many of those forums are more hostile than MR tends to be, and others are rather useless.

Maybe a sticky in Misc with a list of suggested support forums for different OS's etc.

BR

GrannyGrump · 01-04-2018, 11:09 PM

What BetterRed said! (I was going to post that suggestion about a sticky of support links, but he beat me to it...)

BookCat · 01-06-2018, 10:09 AM

Fair enough, I can see that no one agrees with my suggestion, and I bow to the majority. I must disagree with one particular point that has been raised, however.
This IS a forum about books and ereaders, not computers, but I used to be a regular on Purrs In Our Hearts, a cat forum; a place where those involved in rescue and others who were just concerned about their cat or next door's cat, would go to ask for help or air feelings. Despite the fact that this was the entire purpose of the forum, they began a tech department. A few of the members were techies, while others had computer issues which had a bearing on their rehoming and rescue work.

No, it wasn't a forum devoted to technology, just as MR isn't, but the folks at Purrs recognised the desire and need and importance of being able to access the internet, check emails, put notices on homing sites and having access to Purrs itself. Technology runs through every part of our lives; just imagine the scenario if something like the 2K bug had really hit!

I don't visit Purrs much now. After doing two feral colony rescues and giving masses of advice re cats (I rarely find vets who know as much about them as I do, but when I do I stick with them!) I had sadness burn out from reading so many distressing tales, so stopped visiting the forum.

But they had tech help!

I'm a realist, so I know from the above posts that this is not going to happen on MR. Fair enough, but if I hadn't mentioned it, I would never have known there was so much opposition.

BookCat · 01-06-2018, 10:42 AM

I've just signed in to Purrs for the first time in three years. They still have the Tech and Computer Problems in a Members Only area. The cat stories are still as sad. Found one woman giving aspirin to her cat who'd had a stroke. Ouch! You should never give aspirin to cats!!

arjaybe · 01-06-2018, 01:28 PM

Have you ever seen Gregg Bell's thread Gregg's Interminable Adventures in Linux Land? (I think I got that right) It's kind of Gregg's personal tech help thread. It's not a thread limited to one topic, nor is it about reading or reading devices. It's practically its own subforum that Gregg uses when he has a question about technology. It exists here even though it doesn't fulfill the "requirements," and it's not hurting anything. It provides a safe, comfortable place on MobileRead where one person can get his tech questions answered.

Of course, we could all do that. We could all create our own personal tech help thread, like Gregg has. Just as easily, if not more so, we could create one subforum where we all could go for help. Right here in the safe, comfortable MobileRead forums.

If the idea is repugnant to people, of course we shouldn't foist it on them. Although, if it were repugnant to them, they could simply not visit the subforum.

I don't see an insurmountable problem with creating a subforun for this purpose. I don't have the technical skills of many of the people here, but I just might have an answer for someone some day, and I'd get pleasure out of that. Also, I might get some answers myself just from lurking there.

That is all. Carry on.

Cinisajoy · 01-06-2018, 05:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arjaybe

Have you ever seen Gregg Bell's thread Gregg's Interminable Adventures in Linux Land? (I think I got that right) It's kind of Gregg's personal tech help thread. It's not a thread limited to one topic, nor is it about reading or reading devices. It's practically its own subforum that Gregg uses when he has a question about technology. It exists here even though it doesn't fulfill the "requirements," and it's not hurting anything. It provides a safe, comfortable place on MobileRead where one person can get his tech questions answered.

Of course, we could all do that. We could all create our own personal tech help thread, like Gregg has. Just as easily, if not more so, we could create one subforum where we all could go for help. Right here in the safe, comfortable MobileRead forums.

If the idea is repugnant to people, of course we shouldn't foist it on them. Although, if it were repugnant to them, they could simply not visit the subforum.

I don't see an insurmountable problem with creating a subforun for this purpose. I don't have the technical skills of many of the people here, but I just might have an answer for someone some day, and I'd get pleasure out of that. Also, I might get some answers myself just from lurking there.

That is all. Carry on.

Why not just start a thread in the lounge about whatever you need help with or are curious about?
I have done that more than once. I usually get a quick answer.

arjaybe · 01-06-2018, 06:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Why not just start a thread in the lounge about whatever you need help with or are curious about?
I have done that more than once. I usually get a quick answer.

That would also work.-)

JSWolf · 01-07-2018, 05:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Why not just start a thread in the lounge about whatever you need help with or are curious about?
I have done that more than once. I usually get a quick answer.

Problem there. Not everyone reads the Lounge.

tubemonkey · 01-07-2018, 08:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Problem there. Not everyone reads the Lounge.

Out of the 8 major forums at MR, I only keep 3 open to monitor activity: E-Book General, Everything Audiobooks, and Miscellaneous. The rest are kept closed. They're not worth my time, though I occasionally dip into the E-Book Readers forum to post something in the Kindle sub-forum.

So, which one of the 3 forums that I monitor would the Tech Help sub-forum go?

Cinisajoy · 01-07-2018, 12:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Problem there. Not everyone reads the Lounge.

How is this a problem? Are you implying people that go to the lounge aren't smart enough to help with a computer?

I do not see a problem at all.
Personally I would like a cooking subforum but that is only because I can't find a decent cooking forum.

Jellby · 01-07-2018, 01:50 PM

I understand that people who hang around in MR prefer asking some questions here rather going through the hassle of finding another forum relevant to the topic, creating an account possibly for a single use, and monitoring that other forum for a few days at least to see if there's any reply. But that's what the off-topic (lounge) sections are for. If there number of threads about technical help (or cats, or cooking...) becomes considerable, we could consider creating a specific subsection.

BookCat · 01-07-2018, 06:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jellby

I understand that people who hang around in MR prefer asking some questions here rather going through the hassle of finding another forum relevant to the topic, creating an account possibly for a single use, and monitoring that other forum for a few days at least to see if there's any reply. But that's what the off-topic (lounge) sections are for. If there number of threads about technical help (or cats, or cooking...) becomes considerable, we could consider creating a specific subsection.

Oh, but that's more or less what I've been doing. I haven't actually joined tech forums, but during my googling of issues (such as the one with the Word Office Assistants), I came across forums where the question had also been answered. That's been the case for other tech issues too. But in the back of my mind was my experience at Purrs and the thought: "it seems like a good idea for mobileread to have a Tech Forum, after all, the site is about forms of technology."

So I suggested the idea here.

01-06-2018, 10:09 AM	#21
BookCat C L J Posts: 2,621 Karma: 18653618 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Birmingham UK Device: Sony e-reader 505, Kindle Paperwhite 2, Kindle Paperwhite 3	Fair enough, I can see that no one agrees with my suggestion, and I bow to the majority. I must disagree with one particular point that has been raised, however. This IS a forum about books and ereaders, not computers, but I used to be a regular on Purrs In Our Hearts, a cat forum; a place where those involved in rescue and others who were just concerned about their cat or next door's cat, would go to ask for help or air feelings. Despite the fact that this was the entire purpose of the forum, they began a tech department. A few of the members were techies, while others had computer issues which had a bearing on their rehoming and rescue work. No, it wasn't a forum devoted to technology, just as MR isn't, but the folks at Purrs recognised the desire and need and importance of being able to access the internet, check emails, put notices on homing sites and having access to Purrs itself. Technology runs through every part of our lives; just imagine the scenario if something like the 2K bug had really hit! I don't visit Purrs much now. After doing two feral colony rescues and giving masses of advice re cats (I rarely find vets who know as much about them as I do, but when I do I stick with them!) I had sadness burn out from reading so many distressing tales, so stopped visiting the forum. But they had tech help! I'm a realist, so I know from the above posts that this is not going to happen on MR. Fair enough, but if I hadn't mentioned it, I would never have known there was so much opposition. Last edited by BookCat; 01-06-2018 at 10:16 AM.

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01-04-2018, 09:43 PM	#18
darryl Wizard Posts: 3,077 Karma: 58958412 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura H2O, Kindle Oasis, Huwei Ascend Mate 7	I agree that Mobileread is not the place to find generalised computer assistance. There are already so many forums that are devoted to providing such assistance. Often a Google search is all that is needed. Having said that, there is probably no harm in providing a sub-forum. I'm not sure that much help would be provided. I for one don't come here for these matters. Though I suppose if I saw a question in such a forum which I could answer easily and quickly I may do so.

01-04-2018, 11:09 PM	#20
GrannyGrump Obsessively Dedicated... Posts: 2,839 Karma: 33588692 Join Date: May 2011 Location: JAPAN (US expatriate) Device: Sony PRS-T2, ADE on PC	What BetterRed said! (I was going to post that suggestion about a sticky of support links, but he beat me to it...)

01-06-2018, 10:42 AM	#22
BookCat C L J Posts: 2,621 Karma: 18653618 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Birmingham UK Device: Sony e-reader 505, Kindle Paperwhite 2, Kindle Paperwhite 3	I've just signed in to Purrs for the first time in three years. They still have the Tech and Computer Problems in a Members Only area. The cat stories are still as sad. Found one woman giving aspirin to her cat who'd had a stroke. Ouch! You should never give aspirin to cats!!

01-06-2018, 01:28 PM	#23
arjaybe Guru Posts: 897 Karma: 10234190 Join Date: Aug 2013 Location: Canada Device: Sony PRS-650	Have you ever seen Gregg Bell's thread Gregg's Interminable Adventures in Linux Land? (I think I got that right) It's kind of Gregg's personal tech help thread. It's not a thread limited to one topic, nor is it about reading or reading devices. It's practically its own subforum that Gregg uses when he has a question about technology. It exists here even though it doesn't fulfill the "requirements," and it's not hurting anything. It provides a safe, comfortable place on MobileRead where one person can get his tech questions answered. Of course, we could all do that. We could all create our own personal tech help thread, like Gregg has. Just as easily, if not more so, we could create one subforum where we all could go for help. Right here in the safe, comfortable MobileRead forums. If the idea is repugnant to people, of course we shouldn't foist it on them. Although, if it were repugnant to them, they could simply not visit the subforum. I don't see an insurmountable problem with creating a subforun for this purpose. I don't have the technical skills of many of the people here, but I just might have an answer for someone some day, and I'd get pleasure out of that. Also, I might get some answers myself just from lurking there. That is all. Carry on.

01-07-2018, 01:50 PM	#29
Jellby frumious Bandersnatch Posts: 7,393 Karma: 17000149 Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Spaniard in Sweden Device: Cybook Orizon, Kobo Aura	I understand that people who hang around in MR prefer asking some questions here rather going through the hassle of finding another forum relevant to the topic, creating an account possibly for a single use, and monitoring that other forum for a few days at least to see if there's any reply. But that's what the off-topic (lounge) sections are for. If there number of threads about technical help (or cats, or cooking...) becomes considerable, we could consider creating a specific subsection.

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