"Graham, I doubt that the guy will understand that." writes another contributor on a forum where I post, following up on my instructions to change a password and login name embedded within a sample script.
On one hand it's easy - all too easy - to overcomplicate instructions and to go into too much detail. But on the other hand there are many geeks out there who feel that others who don't know a topic as well as they do are somehow lacking in an ability to follow anything but the simplest of instructions.
I find that a huge majority of people that I train, and a majority of those I answer on forums and by email, are bright - very bright. They've got the ability to do a lot more than my geek friend who followed up gives them credit for, and they can (and do) ask supplimentary questions if they need to. To refuse to answer a question, which was being advocated on this thread, is to deny the questioner
any chance of learning and taking his requirement forward, and it's also to deny anyone else who's interested that opportunity too.
(written 2006-01-19, updated 2006-06-09)
Associated topics are indexed as below, or enter http://melksh.am/nnnn for individual articles
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[126] Feedback shows the tip of an iceberg - (2004-11-22)
[150] Confession - (2004-12-13)
[189] Tuesdays and Fridays - (2005-01-25)
[195] Customer service - examples to warn us - (2005-01-30)
[233] Giving customers best value - (2005-03-02)
[265] Business practise, 2005 style - (2005-04-03)
[327] How far should our support go - (2005-05-28)
[350] Want to be one better - (2005-06-17)
[393] Trainer answers phone - (2005-07-28)
[440] Upgrade! - (2005-09-09)
[482] Different ways of selling - (2005-11-01)
[552] Keeping Customers Informed - (2006-01-02)
[566] May all your screw-ups be big ones - (2006-01-16)
[609] Been on a course, but still not got it? - (2006-02-16)
[621] And the staff put the icing on the cake - (2006-02-23)
[628] Active Learning - (2006-02-28)
[650] A person of few words - (2006-03-18)
[717] A customer service company - (2006-05-11)
[725] Better communication - (2006-05-19)
[841] Forum help - a push in the right direction - (2006-08-21)
[852] Eventful evening - a lesson in looking after contacts - (2006-09-02)
[944] Just ******* Google it - (2006-11-25)
[961] Products that our customers want more of - (2006-12-03)
[966] CSL, KISS and RTFM - (2006-12-05)
[1007] Friends and family - (2006-12-25)
[1046] Bounce, bounce, bounce - (2007-01-20)
[1262] Keep in touch with PHP, Perl, Python and old friends too - (2007-07-09)
[1319] Customer feedback - lifeblood of a business - (2007-08-25)
[1434] Market survey - to learn, to prove a point, or to sell your product? - (2007-11-17)
[1446] An answer to a student asking 'Help' - (2007-11-27)
[1516] Pictures you can use - for free - from our library - (2008-01-23)
[1606] Sheep Shearers, Marathon Runners and Ocean Sailors - (2008-04-09)
[1637] Providing exceptional service - and carrying on doing so. - (2008-05-09)
[1835] 23:30 bookings and midnight checkins - (2008-10-12)
[1985] Learning to program as a part of your job - (2009-01-10)
[1991] Rules for a King - (2009-01-13)
[2015] Service Excellence Awards - (2009-01-30)
[2049] Why Choose Well House Consultants for your course? - (2009-02-20)
[2102] What do people think of our Apache httpd / Tomcat course? - (2009-03-24)
[2124] Building down expectations - (2009-04-09)
[2236] Alumni - revisiting and supporting the old University - (2009-06-13)
[2258] Questions I have been asked on answering the phone - (2009-06-26)
[2530] Taking a knock over Santa - (2009-12-08)
[2650] Getting a phone line changed ... - (2010-02-25)
[2880] Getting in touch - Please allow me to see you when you are online - (2010-07-21)
[2961] Initial handling of phone calls and walk in visitors - (2010-09-19)
[3073] Customer Service - the boundary - (2010-11-27)
[3103] Thank you - and Happy Christmas - (2010-12-24)
[3271] The importance of feedback - (2011-04-30)
[3294] It's not just about the jam in the sandwich - (2011-05-19)
[3378] New product - ensuring that supply matches demand - (2011-08-03)
[3808] Can you put names to faces? - (2012-07-19)
[3835] The Information age - not yet truly with us? - (2012-08-12)
[4077] Palty or Parliamentary? - (2013-04-30)
[4078] Train works for me! - (2013-05-02)
[4232] Not wanted here - hotel guests who will not be happy - (2013-12-30)
G305 - Well House Consultants - Post Course support [136] Please tell us - (2004-12-01)
[199] Post course support - part of the service - (2005-02-02)
[244] Getting your examples, my examples and the data files after your course - (2005-03-13)
[248] Use me, but use me effectively - (2005-03-16)
[293] Course follow-ups - (2005-04-27)
[336] Targetted Advertising - (2005-06-05)
[389] Tough Love - (2005-07-25)
[509] Snippets from Geekmas - (2005-11-28)
[516] Open source questions? Anyone can ask. - (2005-12-03)
[651] Please Register with Opentalk - but just once! - (2006-03-19)
[1245] Ensuring that our tutor answers YOUR questions - (2007-06-25)
[1874] Is it worth it? - (2008-11-07)
[2732] Asking about Jesus - (2010-04-20)
[3045] After Course Resources - do we publish sample answers. Example from Java Exceptions module. - (2010-11-13)
[3391] For programmers who use Internet Explorer as their browser - (2011-08-13)
[3419] Data that we use during our training courses, and other training resources - (2011-09-04)
[3701] Refresh and Revision training class days - Perl / PHP / Python / Lua / Ruby / Tcl / C / C++ - (2012-04-19)
[3770] Sample answers to training course exercises - available on our web site - (2012-06-21)
[4588] What teach you in a week stays with you for a decade - (2015-11-29)
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