CompuServe Thread

>> The Dave I responded to is at NAAUG — if you bothered to follow back the message trail you'll see what happened, instead of trying to blame me for the lack of communication. << stephen, NAAUG (the North American Autodesk User Group) is not a support outfit… they are a user group. the address represents over 35 volunteers, several of them "Daves". if someone posted you a message, it was most likely to try to help you, not to upset you. whenever you post a question here in public forum, anyone has the potential to answer it. if one person responds, that does not mean that person assumes the sole accountability for "forum response". sometimes messages don't get answered at all (depending on the tone or clarity of the question). the sysops and section leaders try to get a response out to everyone in a timely manner, but this doesn't always happen. it often helps to have several responses on a given question. it is equally in the hands of the poster to repost the question if answers have not been adequately helpful. take this example: poster: i have a problem. answer: sorry to hear that. i had that problem once too. no resolution, but anyone tracking the thread will say "hey, he got an answer". there isn't any feature that allows people here to know that you are still waiting on a "better" answer. and no, expecting sysops to reread 3000 messages a day every day to see if anything's still hanging is pretty impossible. what i usually recommend, when someone posts a question, is that he/she keep an eye on "his/her thread"..if an answer comes in but is not adequate, post a response which notifies the responder and others that you are still waiting for a hopeful answer. if no answer happens in a day or so, there is nothing wrong with reposting the question as a new thread (which makes the question very obvious to all including sysops that it is "unanswered"). on the other hand, if i post a message and get no answer for a month and then come back furious that "i've had to wait a month"… who's really accountable? <g> the forums are a collaborative voluntary effort, supported in a big way by professional volunteers. the premise is for people from all walks of life to help each other reach resolutions to problems. it takes proactivity on both sides of a question/answer to move ahead. when a message doesn't get a response, there are several possibilities: a) others don't see the question (people speed through sections) b) others don't understand the question (despite accurate lingo) c) others don't have an answer (assume someone else might) d) others think the question has been answered (even though incompletely) e) no one wants to answer (waste of their time) if everyone who frequented this forum worked for Autodesk, i could understand the frustration… but that isn't the case here. in fact, the majority of people who help find solutions to problems posted are just professional who have fun doing so. this is the nature of most forums. there's nothing unique about this one in these regards. and most forums i frequent wouldn't be writing out a lengthy reply like this one to explain these realities to you. people typically try to respond when they feel their efforts are appreciated. depending on tone of question, silence can also be an answer. 'nuff said on my part. if i see you post a question here, i'll continue to do what i can to answer it or see that it gets answered by someone else. for what it's worth, my apologies if i have contributed to your frustration in using the forum. it was not intentional. -dave