If the internet were to disappear tomorrow, there are certainly some things I would not miss… you know… other than the world crumbling down around us and geeks everywhere wandering the streets hissing and casting spells on the big ball of light in the sky… myself included.

So a YouTuber politely asks me the following question yesterday:

"If playing a Videogame such as minecraft… Will camstudio handle color changing and depth changing as well as "DARK SCREEN"?"

Now any tech support individual worth is weight will tell you he doesn't know the answer to every question as soon as it hits his inbox. Many times it requires research. For those types of questions, I ask individuals to post the question on the forum for four reasons.

1. People tend to give more detail to their questions on the forum.

2. Others with the same question can find the answer.

3. Others who have already answered the question can help.

4. The answer is archived so it can be shared with others later on.

So here was my response…

"You'll want to post this question at the forum so everyone can learn from it. :)"

Short and to the point I thought. I was more than happy to figure out what the answer was, but it was likely I would need to gather additional information as well… he answered…

"Hey im happy at least you reply to your fan mail and question unlike all those other "Nice" youtube channels…. wow sarcasm has a wierd aftertaste lol.

But it would have been much faster and actually would have mattered if you would have just told me."

Admittedly, I did chuckle at his first sarcastic remark… because I've experienced very few people actually responding to messages myself. The second part seems rather snide, and really illustrates he has very little concern for anyone but himself during this exchange… so I responded… probably more politely than I should have…

"Try to see it from my perspective, I was fielding many questions a day, most often the same ones over and over again – so I default everyone to the forum so everyone can learn from one person's question and when people ask the same ones I can refer them to the forum post.

Unfortunately I do not have the time to answer the same questions multiple times :)"

That's the truth. I don't mind answering questions, but it doesn't make sense to inefficiently answer the same question over and over again. It makes more sense to answer the question once on the forum and share that answer when people ask the question later on… 

He gave me his response early this morning:

"It's Called Copy and Paste…. 
(THEN at the bottom you provide a Link) 
I would have used the forum but i didnt feel like signing up… or coming back to check on it. I just wanted an answer."

Cute. Somehow during the process of helping this guy I became the "bad guy" who didn't give him what he wanted.

Cry me a river. If you don't like my process… go ask those other YouTube hosts who don't answer you at all and see how it works out for you. If you want my help, sometimes you're just going to have to get it on my terms… you are asking me for a favor after all.

I don't want people to interpret this as me not wanting to answer questions, because quite honestly, I absolutely love helping people out with their computer problems. However, I have very little patience for self-absorbed people who want it their way or no way at all. I'll opt for no way at all every time.