tecoyah

A suggestion has been made, requesting a sticky for certified technician answers. This is an attempt to guage support for the Idea, before taking it to the boss. Let your opinions be known, but understand that NO ONE is in any way responsible for your equipment....except you.

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billege

Depends on how one qualifies the techs.
I don't have an A+, I have a degree.
Target Corporation saw my skills as fit to be one of about 80 techs, supporting his or her team's own Data Center in our 24 Distribution Centers, nationwide. I'm proud of that, for some odd reason...
Does that mean I know what I'm talking about? I dunno.

I support PCs, printers, TEC label printers, copiers, faxes, LAN, wireless LAN, WAN, custom GPS tracking systems, UNIX, Symbol's, terminal servers, wiring bunkers, switches, routers, access points, fiber, cat6 cabling specs, patch panels, UPS systems, Intuity, Audix & Avaya's VOIP, small POTS, WinXP, Office, Outlook, about 100 software apps we use on our custom systems, etc, but don't know shit about your video card.

My buddy, neekap (on the TFP anyway) who I have the pleasure to work with, has an A+, and a shitload more PC experiance than I do. He's also better at a lot of things than I am. Occasionally, I know something he doesn't. I think he and I make a good example of what one background (formal tech education with less than a year's experiance) vs another (less formal education but a buttload of experiance) looks like.

Raw educational stats only tell so much. I'm game for a sticky. But I'm sure that doesn't mean anyone will second guess answers less there, than they do on the rest of the computer forum.

No one is always right when it comes to computers, but they may be 99% right, 99% of the time, in a specialty of theirs. I don't know who would "vet" our staff of experts.

I'd be down to help. My only caveat is this: If I was to add my answer to a post, don't think for a second I'll play fuck fuck games with every self taught geek on the freakin' internet. The people taking time to use their experiance, and education, to help, FOR FREE, someone else do not need to be argued with. Especially when a computer answer can be right for say, 80% of the audiance reading it, but some fucko has to take the time to point out that the answer is NOT right for the other 20%. Each situation, setup, is very unique. I've got one-hundred and some same-model PCs built to two images, and THEY aren't the same. There's no way anyone on such a "help team" should have to deal with anyone willing to argue fine points, for no reason other than to have a geek penis measuring contest.

For me, it'd be nice knowing that I'm asking a question to someone reasonably qualified to answer it.

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"My Invisible Friend is better than your Invisible Friend."

Silvy

Personally I'd try to prevent this board from becoming an ask-an-expert type thing, where each subject has its own list of qualified members.

While it probably is far from happening, setting up such lists on too many forums might prevent "non-qualified" from attempting to answer the question, because they feel not "allowed" to.

Personally, I have reasonable experience fiddling with computers on both a personal and commercial basis, yet I have no " A+ degree" whatever that means. On many subjects I know something, and that might just help somebody out. In case I'm not sure, I usually put a clause in my answer (" I'm not sure, but: ") along with a request for more info, or a suggestion of what is safe or unsafe to try.
I do not consider myself elligible for any "certified" list, but I do see myself qualified for answering questions in a helpful way.
What I'm afraid for is the first response to my answer: "I'll wait for someone qualified" (or such). Which will prevent me from answering the next question.

When I'm asking a question, I want an answer I can use, wether it comes from an expert or not, wether it helps me a little or a lot. And if I don't recognize the person answering, and the answer is not clear (or does not seem safe) I will question the person's experience on that issue (he/she could be a complete nitwit on all other issues, i.e. not an expert).

Like I said, it's probably not happening yet, but if people get used to the difference between experts and regular users, regulars could feel left out in answering questions.

So I guess my answer is: I'm not for it
People get reputations on this site, and I believe that will establish the experts by itself. I don't believe there are many responses like "ok, thanx for your answer, but are you qualified?". So would the list be used?
And: do answers by experts not usually contain enough advice, requests for info, tips etc that establishes the author as such?

I "vote" no.

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tecoyah

Thanx for the input....you are the experts, and this is kind of what I thought as well.
I would say for now.....this Idea is on the back burner.

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Holding onto anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. - Buddha