Changing the way I respond to personal support requests

Over the years, I've received a steady trickle of emails from viewers who wanted help with various things. Whether it was getting an NGINX RTMP server working, repairing a corrupted MP4 file, or just getting Ubuntu installed, I've always made an attempt to help as a small thanks for watching my videos.

However, I've decided to start referring viewers to the NOTS Forums for technical help instead of responding to emails from individuals. If I sent you a link to this post instead of helping you immediately, please don't take it personally. I'm doing this for the following reasons:

• Visibility of your questions: when you email me, you're only getting help from one person. When you post to the forums, you're allowing yourself to get help from an entire community of free & open software advocates.
• Visibility of our solutions: there are some questions I get asked fairly often, and having the answers out in the open might help others find the solutions on their own, rather than having to email me separately.
• Visibility of my helpfulness: as a young professional in the IT industry, I'm always looking for things to put on my resume. It's one thing to say, "I answer frequent support emails," but it's another thing to show the actual support threads.

As you can see, all of the reasons boil down to visibility. As an advocate of free & open software, I believe that not only should a program's source code be publicly accessible, but also the information required to utilize the program meaningfully, including support requests and solutions found.

Even though I spend many hours every day answering support requests at my day job, I still hope to continue being a helpful resource for any viewers/fans having trouble with free & open software. If you have any questions that I might be able to help you with, just sign up for the forums and ask!