Talking to Scott today and he showed me this little gem from the Turtle Beach website:


VTB Support Etiquette:
  Please treat our Support Staff in a courteous manner as you would like them
  to treat you. Obscene language will not be tolerated and they reserve the
  right not to respond to improper email and block such email addresses.
  Please consider that they lack the advantage that *you* have of *looking*
  at your system and knowing it and they are not magicians. You might
  consider keeping in mind that as the saying goes:
    ";95% of all Computer problems are user errors"; 

  In order to be able to offer any assistance, they do need *your* help.
  The fact that they first must cover 'rule-out' the basics, does not imply
  that they regard you as a computer novice. By the same token, they are not
  impressed by self proclaimed ";System Administrators"; who have trouble with
  the basics nor can they assist you any better when the request for help
  comes with a ";Bad Review"; or other type of 'threat'.         

  There will be times that they may not be able to resolve technical issues
  specific to a particular 'problematic' system. This does not mean that
  they are incompetent or that they have not given proper attention to the
  issue. 


Read an enjoy.

This is good stuff Bill (and Scott). Thanks for sharing it!

Handling a fair share of the support for VDL, I can empathize with their thoughts. I would go so far as to say that those 95% ";user errors"; aren't necessarily [i]errors[/i], but simply the fact that inexperienced users haven't yet learned various aspects of their software or their hardware configuration. This is understandable of course. With new VDL users, we often see people who haven't had much experience with the more powerful aspects of midi/audio software. They may not have needed it (or knew about it) before. But it's also important for such users to understand that it's not really our job to educate them of these things. It'd be like buying a new barbeque then calling to complain every time you burn your weenies.

So the moral of the story is that in order to learn a new tool or learn a new skill, one must first be prepared to do just that - learn. A souped up computer, or a fancy new program certainly won't write your next groovy cadence for you. There is much to be learned from the generous experts who spend time on this forum (as well as other forums). As with many things though, you get out of it what you put in. So don't be surprised if people don't run to help you when you post a message like this:

[color=Green]HELP!!
my finale don't see virtual drumline and i need to write my bands opener by tomorrow. i just bought a new computer 4 this VD program and it doesn't work. please help immdiately!!! thx[/color]

I've learned a lot of what I know from patient reading of various technical forums. By far, the ones that are most helpful are ones where the members are courteous, respectful, and pay attention to the details of the task at hand.

You said ";weenies"; (huh huh)

lol agreed... i know when i first got started learning VDL2 and started putting it together with Finale 2006, I was a bit overwhelmed lol... (the fact that i was on my way back home after TMEA and installed it while i was driving back with friends didn't help lol) but as soon as i was able to sit down and ACTUALLY READ THE MANUAL, things started making sense... i will say that this program is not one of those that you can just install and ";have at it"; so to speak. While it does work in a simple plug-n-play sense now with Sibelius 5.1, and even works well with Finale, it does help to learn the ropes of either notation program before trying to do too much. I used Finale from 2004 and up, and up until December, had never even toyed with Sibelius, but when i started doing IT work at out School of Music, and they had Sibelius installed on the Mac's there, I figured there was no better way to use my time (which I had alot of just sitting there all day) than to learn something new. So I started getting involved in here on the TS forum, and its been great! I will also second what Jim says about getting out of it what you put into it. One thing that seems to be pretty common for the new users to this forum is that they are not aware that most of the time in order to help, we need some specific system info. If you don't want to have to type it every time you have a question, put the basic stuff into your TS signature. It can help save time, and you are not gonna always have to type the same thing anytime you have a question. If you don't know much about something, use Google, or YouTube. They may seem like a resource that may not be any help, but you can find some pretty interesting stuff out there. And most users on YouTube actually put videos of them doing the work or figuring out certain things so you can try to follow along and work it out on your own machine. Lastly, use the forum as a place to gain insight from others and to share your experiences and problems, as well as things that you just figure out and want to share the funny story about how you were just overlooking a certain button ( I have done that many times lol).

Hope everyone is having a great New Year!!!

Good luck and best wishes for everyones 2008!!!


ooo one last question, I was doing the spell check before I posted this, and why isn't VDL in the dictionary?!?! Just thought I would ask lol :-D

[quote author=Bill link=topic=2211.msg11486#msg11486 date=1199393146]
You said ";weenies"; (huh huh)
[/quote]

I have to admit, I thought the EXACT same thing!

All right you Newbies, like the man said, you gotta take the time to learn a new skill.�� Don't expect instant results and don't be rude.�� That mind set gets you no where - fast.�� Go with the flow and the guys on here will help you resolve any problem you may encounter - [b]if[/b] you have made a real attempt at figuring out the software, read the VDL manual (and your notation software manual), checked out the FAQ at Tapspace.com, and made an effort at searching through the many topics on the Tapspace Forum.

In my opinion, this Forum, from what I have been reading, ranks at the top of the heap as far as honest assistance.

So the lesson to be learned - [b]Patience[/b].

I like this one too...

";Sorry, but I don't have the time to search through 20 pages of info, or use the search box. could you answer this question.....";

We should apply this to the rest of life...

Husband: hey wife, I don't really have time to look for my keys, can you find them for me?

Neighbor: Hey I don't have time to go all the way to the grocery store, could I just eat your food?

Teacher: Sorry kids, I don't have time to look through 30 pages of the text book to figure out what I should teach today, could you just look through it an tell me?

President: Sorry I don't have time to figure out a peaceful solution to our problem, just send in the marines and bombs.

President: Sorry We don't have time to figure out how to build up our economic resources, let's just print more money and borrow more that we can't pay back.

President: We don't have time to determine which kids need government heathcare, let's makes sure this program doesn't go anywhere.

President: Sorry we don't have time to define words, i.e. Torture

President: We don't have time to read the constitution, Let's give telcoms retroactive immunity....

/hops off horsey....

perpetualpoet, You just got yourself on a government watch list!  Right now you're being wiretapped for suspected domestic terrorism and treason.

Anyways...  I wish schools would realize that computers are now an important aspect of life, both professionally and personally, and require classes that give people a fundamental knowledge of computers.  (along with classes about balancing a check book, paying for college, and using credit cards)  Learning to type is no longer enough.  If people even just understood the pyramid below, explaining performance related problems would be a lot easier.  They could also make better purchasing decisions. 

[img]http://sankofa.loc.edu/savur/web/computer-memory-pyramid.gif[/img]

Actually, in VA there was a time when any students who were not college bound took classes in all these things. (I guess they supposed that the kids who were college bound would have a parent to teach them) Anyhow, a few years ago it was made a requirement that all high school kids pass Algebra to get a diploma, however, algebra isn't for everyone, so to get kids to pass, they make it a 2 year long course. Then of course many still fail, so they end up taking it for around 3 years. Effectively this brought an end to all practical math and computer classes to make room for lots and lots of algebra. Which by the way, those kids are never going to use in life. *shrug*

-the math teacher