Regarding the banning of a member here, that some of you no doubt read about in cruising that section of the forum.
viewtopic.php?f=20&t=37071&start=10#p83775For anyone thinking I'm a horrible, small-brained, too narrow for this world Moderator and are having trouble understanding "Why did he do such a thing to a poor suffering victim!" I have a couple of real life analogies for you, both real-life stories of two of my friends and I.
Some people only learn their lesson by doing it themselves.Case one - Too lazy to learn, and just wants to use me.My first friend, M, said he was having trouble with his pc. Seems he got about a dozen viruses on it, and had no idea how to clean them off his pc to make it work right again, "Can you come over and help?"
"Sure thing, I said. Be right over."
I cleaned them off, warned him to watch out for links and what he was clicking on online, and left.
A week later, he calls me again. "Can you come over? My pc is messed up again."
"Sure, be right there."
I go over and there are maybe a couple dozen viruses on his system, so bad it would not boot all the way up.
"How the hell did you manage to screw it up this time, M?"
"Oh, I went to a few dozen porn sites."
"Porn sites!! Did you do that the last time I was here, too?"
"Yup."
"Oh, great. Don't you know those are chock full of viruses?"
"Yeah, but I thought I wouldn't get hit this time."
"Well, guess what, M.? You get to learn how to fix your own pc now. I'll go though a Windows reinstall, so you watch closely. I will not be repeating this again, the next time you call and tell me you were on porn sites, you are on your own."
I leave. A few weeks later, another call.
"My pc is acting funny. Can you help?"
"Did you go to any porn sites since last time?"
"Ahhh, yeah, but just a couple this time."
"If you want me to come over and fix it, I'll tell you how I will fix it first, ok?"
"OK, how?"
"I'm bringing over the 20 pound sledge hammer in my garage, and I'll take your pc out to your front porch, and smash the sh1t out of it on your concrete stoop."
"hahaha"
"I think you should learn to fix it yourself from now on. I will no longer fix your pc to support your porn watching, so f**k off."
We are still friends, by the way, but I was never annoyed by any more service calls from him. Happy ending.
Case 2- The non-listener, friend G."My pc is messed up. Can you help me fix it?"
"Sure. Can we do it over the phone?"
"ok."
"Now, G. Do everything I tell you, step by step, so I can picture it in my mind and we can eliminate things one by one."
"Ok."
" Click start, control panel, devices...what do you see? Any yellow flags?"
"What devices?"
I do it again...
"What do you see?"
"oh, I'm not in control panel. I was checking something else."
"So, you are not doing exactly what i say, right?
"Not exactly, no.
"Well, this does not work if you do not click what i tell you to, when i tell you to."
"ok."
I list the steps again.
"What do you see there?"
"I'm in Network now"
"How the hell did you get there?!!"
"I clicked there, instead of doing your thing first."
"Goodbye, G. If you aren't listening I cannot help you."
He later found the problem..a bad driver download.
A week later...problems..
We do the same rigamrole for over an hour, this time with warnings that if he does not stop what he is doing that I did not tell him to do, and do what i told him, I would hang up. He did it again.
"Guess what, G.? You get to learn how to fix your pc by yourself now. If you ask me for help, then do not do what I say, you are wasting my time, and I will not entertain your f'ing around with my time anymore. Goodbye."
We are still friends. And he can now fix his own pc himself, and he has even fixed his parents' pc with no help from anyone else.
So, you see, there is method in my "madness."
I did them a great big favor by refusing any more personal help.
And the member in that topic got the same helpful treatment. He is a combination of both of the cases above, so I hope he manages to solve both of those problems and do what he needs to do for his own sake.