How to ask for support
How ask for support
As I have moved over to Mastodon from Twitter. I thought that I should migrate my old rant on how to ask for support. Earlier in my career when I was working as a tech lead for the API Management platform i daily received messages on teams for support with various task. Ok here we go.
Don't just say "Hi"
I understand that you want polite, however when we get the notification we lose our focus from what we have been working on and stare into the chat waiting on a response. Write your whole question directly and we can start giving you support directly.
There is also no need to ask if I have time to help you. If I don't have time to help I will simply say that I will help you later or send the question forward to one my colleagues that have time.
Don't go AFK
Don't go away to get a coffee or something during that time. Nothing is more irritating to see a question just to see the person's availability status switch to away. 9/10 times I will need to ask you follow-up questions to be able to provide support. Not being at the computer to answer follow-up question is a waste of my time I will be able to get any real productivity done while waiting for you to come back.
Provide information
When asking a question also provide information about what proxy or service it is you are asking support for. We don't remember all the proxies and services that belong to you in our heads. This reduces the number of follow-up questions needed and your issue will end up fixed quicker. Do you have a log output you ask about? Attach a link to it.
Shift + Enter
And the most important point. Use shift + enter when you write! The notification sounds do not follow the beat of the music I listen to.
For those interested to see the original it is located here: https://twitter.com/olofhaglund/status/1214885413631995904 Just be warned, my spelling is terrible and I did not proofread the tweets before publishing those.