Good By

Conrad Canterford conrad@mail.watersprite.com.au
10 Dec 2002 14:35:01 +1100


I was going to just let this past, but it irked me enough, and since I
did persist in attempting to help him both on and off this list, I felt
I had some justification in exercising a right of reply.

On Tue, 2002-12-10 at 08:19, Karl F. Larsen wrote:
> 	After this message I'm stopping this list. When I signed up I 
> thought someone could help me with my problem of getting version 1.6.6 
> working on Red Hat version 8.0 but it didn't happen. I got it working by 
> tricking gnucash and it's up and running so far as I can tell properly.

And, of course, the two hours or so of accumulated time I spent
answering Mr. Larsen's questions both on and off this list didn't
indicate any willingness to help at all.
He largely appears to have either ignored or completely failed to
understand what I was explaining to him, despite my best attempts to
phrase them so that the were both polite and easily understood. I
included quite significant detail on possible solutions, or explained
very carefully why it was not possible for the Gnucash team to be
responsible in the ways the alleged we have to be.

> 	I have been told by those working on this software that they 
> don't care if it doesn't load on all Linux. They want to do the fun part 
> and "improve" the product. 

This is just plain insulting. I expend a fairly significant portion of
MY free time trying to help people through the medium of this list or on
#gnucash. I expend a fairly significant portion of MY free time testing
CVS gnucash to help ensure that the product that gets released is as
good as possible. Now, I admit that I do find the testing part to be
quite fun, but to be quite honest (and with no offence to anyone who I
have or will help in the future), answering users questions -
particularly the more abusive ones - is *NOT* fun in any way shape or
form. Yet I (and many others) undertake that role for no pay. What is
even more insulting is that this is a (deliberate?) distortion of
something that I explained to him TWICE. 

> 	They never knew or forgot that Quicken is the best selling 
> software in the World! It got that way by providing a simple family 
> finance device that even my wife can run and use.

My wife passed high school, so she's overqualified to use Gnucash, and
quicken would be a doddle. She probably can't install Gnucash though, I
admit. However, she'd freely admit that she didn't understand the Redhat
packaging systems and accept help to get it done.

> 	I own and run a business with 275 employees which next year I 
> will give to my son. I will not mention gnucash to anyone in the office 
> and I expect they will never hear of it in their lifetimes. 

*shrugs*. We have thousands of people who use Gnucash now. Somehow I
doubt that the failure to mention it to 275 people who in all
probability haven't even heard of linux is much of a threat to our world
domination plans (if we even had any).

Mr. Larsen, if you're still listening, you can feel free to pay me for
the time I spent answering your emails. Unlike Linas or Derek, I come
cheap (at $60 Australian per hour), so your company won't be much out of
pocket for the experience.

Conrad.

PS. My thanks to those on this list who did email me privately
reassuring me that my (and the development teams) efforts were
appreciated after one of Mr. Larsen earlier outbursts. That sort of
thanks is really appreciated.