My Blog’s First Year at WordPress and "Are You Being Served?"
On the occasion of my blogs’ first birthday here at WordPress (it’s longer in the tooth than that, but I migrated over from Windows Live Spaces on 2009-01-06), I wanted to have a party, but that seemed excessive. Instead, in an a propos coincidence, I saw a post over at my friend Christophe’s fantastic Path to SharePoint blog entitled How to get your SharePoint question answered.
Path2SharePoint 5:18am, Jan 06 from Web — New post: how to get your #SharePoint [end user] question answered http://tinyurl.com/SPquestion
It seemed like a great idea for me to outline my own mental framework for answering all of the questions, suggestions, and raves (well, OK, not so many of those). My thinking is pretty similar to Christophe’s, I think.
Issues or questions on my blog posts
If you see something in my blog that you don’t think is right, then by all means let me know with a comment on the post. I find enough things out there on the Interwebs that I think is sub-optimal or just plain wrong and none of that does us all any service. I welcome error corrections, constructive criticisms, etc., but flaming insults don’t usually make the moderating screen. I let almost every legitimate comment through, but only if it is civil.
Questions or requests for clarification are always welcome. I post this stuff for general benefit, so if you need more information, especially if you think it will help others, then post it. Also, sometimes I may have posted an update or a newer post on the same topic with more up-to-date information or a better approach. I try to link the posts if I do, but try a little searching with the search box on the right and you might find more to go on.
Issues with the jQuery Library for SharePoint Web Services
If you have questions or issues with the jQuery Library for SharePoint Web Services, I would prefer that you use the Discussions or Issue Tracker on the Codeplex site. This is mainly to keep things isolated over there that might help other users of the library. Start with the Discussions and if we determine that something is a real issue, I can copy it over to the Issue Tracker. Of course, if the context is a blog post about the library, then feel free to comment here on my blog.
General SharePoint questions
I try to answer every question I get, just like Christophe. As any of you who have noticed my posts on the MSDN SharePoint – Design and Customization forum, my EndUserSharePoint.com articles, my posts on the EndUserSharePoint.com Stump the Panel forum (where I’m now the moderator of the jQuery Library for SharePoint Web Services Solutions forum), my Twitter activity, etc. may have found, I’m pretty dogged about it. I firmly adhere to the adage “AN EDUCATED CONSUMER IS OUR BEST CUSTOMER”, made famous by Syms here in the States. The more the SharePoint community knows about how to use the platform wisely, the better off the entire community will be. No, I’m not entirely altruistic about this: I want to earn my chunk of the pie as well. But the more everyone knows, the more we all gain.
I like the way Christophe puts this:
I’ll respond immediately if I can, but most of the time it requires some investigation, and I put your message on hold until I have a final answer (which sometimes means never…).
To be honest, there are only so many minutes in the day! In most cases you’re getting free advice, suggestions, etc., so it all happens based on whatever else is going on in my life whether it be work or personal. Don’t forget that we all take vacations, have bad days, etc. I can’t get back to you in 15 minutes EVERY SINGLE TIME, like some people seem to expect!
Finally, I work for a living, just like you [probably] do. I am always looking for interesting projects for Sympraxis Consulting LLC to take on. Sometimes the smallest little conversation on my blog turns into real paid work, but certainly not often. If you like the way I approach things and have something I may be able to help with, let’s talk about it.
Happy birthday, blog!