[cobalt-users] Posting to the list In General

["Carrie Bartkowiak" <ravencarrie@xxxxxxxx>]

The threads going on tonight has made me want to state a couple of
things.

-There are no stupid questions.
-When posting a question, there is never such a thing as giving too
much information - with the exception of posting details that people
can use to find your (possibly insecure) machine on the vast realm of
the internet (ie: ip addresses, domain names).
-When responding to a post, there is never such a thing as giving too
much information.
-If you can't genuinely help, don't answer. Tossing your "knowledge"
around does nothing but piss off list members. No matter what your
experience, education, "knowledge", assumptions, or concept of
self-importance, there will always be people who know more than you do
and people who know less.

I don't know. Maybe I don't know jack about customer service and
helping people. Maybe I don't know jack about running a Cobalt or a
web hosting business. Maybe I don't have a foot to stand on. Let's
see.
-My hosting company is making pure profit - all operating expenses are
more than taken care of and my corporation is turning a profit.
-My clients generate an average of three emails per week total (not
each), thanks to the comprehensive answers that I give them anytime
they ask a question. After the first week in which they're getting
used to the Cobalt and my level of personal service, all of their
questions have to do with the programs that they are using
(Dreamweaver, FrontPage, WS_Ftp, CuteFTP, etc.) - and they all get
answered.
-Not only do they all get answered, they're all answered by me
personally.
-100% of my clients are referred from friends who are current clients.
I do not advertise. To this point I have only needed to rely on
word-of-mouth advertising.
-To date, I have administrated three different RaQs - all RaQ4
machines, both "i" and "r".  There's my Cobalt experience, no
siss-boom-ba about it. As for total Linux experience, I've got two
Redhat boxes here at home. Whoopee. On my home network I've got
various Windows machines, the two linux boxes, and a couple of Macs;
utilizing one IP and two routers, and growing all the time (I'm a
hopeless parts-assembler.)

On a personal level...
I hold a 5-star, 100% customer approval rating at ExpertCity.com. I
held that rating *before* they lowered the standards - at which point,
I stopped taking questions there.
I am an editor for the Computer:Webmastering ezine at BriefMe.com, and
I get paid for it.
Before it went debunk, I was a featured author (one of about a dozen)
at Themestream.com with over 250,000 pageviews to my computer
articles, that were featured in (that I know of) more than 10
nationally syndicated ezines, at least 30 different web sites, and
recommended to customers by the ExpertCity.com corporate team. I got
paid for those articles, too. Quite well, might I add.
I'm also a freelance writer for PageWise, Inc. - doing
computer-related topics as well as personal interest articles. I get
paid for that, too.
I have managed a national DSL installation company; expanding its
workforce from 10 installers to over 300, its reach from a few
counties in southern Florida to having successful branches in 5
states, raising the successful installation rate from 56% to 95%,
bringing the monthly debt of hundreds of thousands of dollars to a
pure profit level of over a million per month, and expanding our
whopping one contract from BellSouth.Net to a list of contracts from
Ameritech.Net, Telamon, Covad, Digivision, and Hughes.
I've done 13 1/2 hour shifts with headphones on my ears convincing
people that they really *can* handle those fancy new Gateway computers
with all of the bells and whistles - and while doing that, I
maintained a 9-minute call time average, and a 100% customer approval
rating.
I've run and managed my own chat site, featuring (for those of you
that remember) the iChat software (Yahoo used this before switching to
their own java applet). I created a community that (even though the
chat site is gone now) is still going strong, 5 years later, has at
least 3 small "chatters meetings" per year, and has had two "national
meetings" - one in Indiana at a chatter's home, and the last in Las
Vegas. At the height of the site's popularity, our only competition
was iVillage and Yahoo itself. CheetahChat was begging us to be their
main partner - before I found out what a jerk the owner was and
summarily sent him on his way. The community still maintains 3 active
mailing lists.
I have been designing web sites by hand since 1997 (with clients
including HBO and the Smithsonian Institute); and currently along with
my hosting business, work from home while raising my two sons; still
writing HTML by hand, programming PHP and CGI scripts - the most
recent PHP script and database being worth $120,000 - along with all
of my various little projects.
I've written an ebook titled HTML by Hand. All of its readers write me
glowing reports on how much they love the book, and proudly send me
URLs of the sites they've designed from what they've learned with the
book.
Along with helping out on this list when I can for the past 10 months,
and fielding at least 20 questions directly emailed to me each week
from list members, I moderate 22 other mailing lists ranging from
bloody political debates to bloody homebirthing.

I started with a Commodore64 when I was 9 (I think?) and I'm 30 now.
No paper certificates, no fancy letters after my name. Dropped out of
college to do the "married" thing, so no degrees. I'll be going into
Unix classes next month and I'll have my CCNA by December. I own my
own corporation that's operating in the black, and until a week ago,
was one of 4 owners and 7 board members of another corporation that
was also operating in the black, with branches in 3 states and having
pulled its first national installation contract after one month of
existence (we decided to split the 3 branches into 3 smaller
corporations).

At this point, I'm tired of proving myself to assholes like Jim, so
I'll just stop here. I hope I've helped you determine whether or not
I'm "worthy" to be answering questions here, whether or not I know
jack about customer service and helping people, running a web hosting
business, and administrating a Cobalt. If I haven't, too damn bad.

I don't purport to know it all. I admit when I'm wrong. I say what I
mean, without hiding behind double entendres or answering questions
with questions. I help when I can, and try my best to give clear,
understandable, helpful posts - especially to newbies.
I try to be nice whenever possible, but I'm a Scorpio and I have my
limits as well as a vicious temper. Basically, I give what I get.

So if you think I'm a rude bitch, most likely I've either caused you
to go on the defensive or you're taking my words the wrong way. If you
think I don't know what the hell I'm talking about, read this letter
again and you'll know for sure whether I do or not. I don't claim to
be something I'm not, I don't wag my attitude in people's faces. Above
all, I never look down my nose, because I am secure in who I am and
humble enough to know that there will always be people who know less
than me, and people whose "little finger's worth" of knowledge puts
the total extent of my knowledge to shame.

My point with all of this rambling? Simple.
Don't act as if you're better than anyone on this list. You have no
idea who you're talking to, or who you're surrounded by. There's no
use in starting an argument over semantics, because there are always
multiple ways to solve a problem no matter what operating system
you're using. Err on the side of caution, assume nothing, and
over-explain... it never hurts.
Oh yeah... leave your attitude/ego at the door. We've no use for it
here. I don't care if you're Bill Gates - if you're an asshole, you're
an asshole, and no one gives a good shit about how good *you* think
you are. If you can't help, don't open your mouth.


Now I'm gonna go vote in the now-infamous 4th Congressional race here
in VA, and then turn in for the first segment of the 4hrs per day that
I get to sleep.
I hope you all have a wonderful day filled with hugs and kisses from
children and spouses, and lots of personal satisfaction in what you've
accomplished during the day. That's what I'll have, and I wish the
same for all of you.

CarrieB