up one level
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2017-02-09
Web Development with an Interest in Mind
By w̶i̶e̶l̶d̶l̶i̶n̶u̶x̶.̶c̶o̶m̶ author Morgan Jassen
After many false starts over the months and years, I'm trying something new.
Off and on I've done support on the WordPress.org/support forums. It's satisfying when I can help someone who is really goal-oriented -- for example when someone has a website for something that they are really driven towards making, something that they are interested in or passionate for.
On the other hand, it's not satisfying when someone doesn't reply to follow-up questions. For whatever reason their drive and interest doesn't come through in the forum dialogue.
So here's trying something new. I'll look for forum threads where the poster is actually driven and interested in their web project, and it's coming through in the forum posts.
This is along the same lines as a professional at work wanting to know what goal their company is focused on and wanting to know that their job role has direct impact towards that same goal.
Doing support on the forums is really similar. To give professional support to help a forum user develop their website, one needs to be professional. This means understanding the "why" of the person's website -- understanding what is the drive behind the website -- before being able to help them well.
That's it. I'll look for people with websites that are driven towards a purpose -- maybe the thing that counts most is that they are driven towards a goal.
This means that I'll probably be skipping over more posts than I did before. Which made me sad in the past. However not anymore. To be good to posters, it's actually important that I try to help those who already have a clear purpose. For those who I don't think have a clear purpose, I could ask them what their drive and purpose is. That would be a good way to help them.
Another way to say this is that, just as anywhere, business goals come first and then technology is applied to meet the business goals. If the business goals are not clear then applying technology won't be effective no matter how cool it is.
In conclusion, in online volunteer support forums, as in the rest of world, professionalism is still professionalism, and is required. As a Web Developer supporter person, to be good to the poster, I should discern what their goal is. I should discern this at the same time as helping them with technical issues, indeed even before trying to help with technical issues.
[2019-03-11 edit: Moved to: https://i̶n̶v̶e̶s̶t̶o̶r̶w̶o̶r̶k̶e̶r̶.̶c̶o̶m̶/2017/... .html.]