Opinons on help at CTH

[Inter_Net]

I had a thread locked simply because the moderator believed I was debating with her about a rediculous point. Is it really rediculous though to keep asking questions because one does not want one's computer to get in a worse state than it already is? I understand that this is not their job and that they do this out of sheer goodness to help others without anything in return, but I also believe that when one goes into this (of helping out others) they should be patient and understanding. In other forums (where I know the subject... unlike with computers) I have had to explain things bit by bit to others because they sincerely do not understand. Of course, their are also idiots out there who just keep asking the same thing over and over or are incessantly rude. I do not believe either was the case with me though. I simply am a person who is very unsure about anything that invloves computers.

I suggest that more than one moderator should be involved in a persons dilemma if they are avaliable while the other is not or one is better suited for one question than another. I also suggest that those who are not moderators but are frequent posters to keep on responding to a thread and not just answer with one question, leave, and not come back.

I also think that many people in the Cyber Safety forum do not end up getting their problems resolved simply because they are tired of going through so many steps. Surely their should be a stocky on top explaing the most common occurences and how to resolve them without having to go step-by-step. That only being necessary with difficult cases.

I woul also like to say that I think the forums edit button should not have to require one to log back in again to edit their post.

I will search for another forum that will suit me better. Thanks to those who did sttempt to answer my questions however succesful or unsuccessful that may have resulted.

[black mirror]

The members and Moderators of CTH do their best to help and advise with problems.
Sometimes they will lose thier patience if their advice is not followed or questioned continually.... They havent got the time or energy to continue flogging a dead horse.

I am sorry if you felt your problems were not addressed. i have read your thread and admire AM for staying as patient as she did.....others would have ran screaming from the forum for a stiff drink. or in my case chocolate..

This is not a live help forum. people do have lives to continue with.. and it is your choice whether you seek help elsewhere....

If i was looking for help i would be very grateful for any advice i recieved...and followed it

[renegade600]

I had a thread locked simply because the moderator believed I was debating with her about a rediculous point. Is it really rediculous though to keep asking questions because one does not want one's computer to get in a worse state than it already is? I understand that this is not their job and that they do this out of sheer goodness to help others without anything in return, but I also believe that when one goes into this (of helping out others) they should be patient and understanding. In other forums (where I know the subject... unlike with computers) I have had to explain things bit by bit to others because they sincerely do not understand. Of course, their are also idiots out there who just keep asking the same thing over and over or are incessantly rude. I do not believe either was the case with me though. I simply am a person who is very unsure about anything that invloves computers.

If you are unsure, then you need to answer the questions and follow the instructions of those that are sure. You are not the only one here needing help. There are many others that also need a few minutes of the helpers time.



I also suggest that those who are not moderators but are frequent posters to keep on responding to a thread and not just answer with one question, leave, and not come back.

sometimes you do not get another response because the person helping does not live here. They may start to help you but because of the lenght of time it takes for you to get back, they themselves may not be available to help again for a day or more. Also sometimes with hundreds of problems posted daily, threads do get lost or forgotten. That is why there something called bump.

If you are waiting for a response and after 24 hours you do not get one, then bump the thread. However in your case, many of your additional questions pertained to the problem that was being treated in the cyber safety forum. We could have continued to help you but it could have messed things up for the person helping you in the other thread. It is best to wait until your computer is clean of nasties before moving on to the next problem because it may have solved the others. .

I also think that many people in the Cyber Safety forum do not end up getting their problems resolved simply because they are tired of going through so many steps.

The problem is the helpers are not sitting in front of your computer and able to look at things. They rely on what you say and if they ask questions and you do not answer, it just makes it more difficult to help you. We got to know things, first to try to figure out the problem and then come up with the correct answer. The wrong answer can do more damage to your system. Besides there is no such thing as a one button cure all.

I woul also like to say that I think the forums edit button should not have to require one to log back in again to edit their post.

Personally I am glad there is an edit button, it comes in handy when my fingers does not type what I am thinking. It happens alot. If you are afraid others are changing their replies, there is a quote button where the original message is posted in your response.

I will search for another forum that will suit me better. Thanks to those who did sttempt to answer my questions however succesful or unsuccessful that may have resulted.

There are all kinds of other forums out there.

[Harrie]

CTH Help is extraordinarily good, and the moderator you were dealing with is unbelievably expert. And very patient and kind to boot. They ask you to go through those steps for a reason, and it isn't to take up your time. What kind of doctor would you rather see, one that says he'll treat you for a problem he thinks you might have, or one who says he will run tests to find the problem and then treat you? The steps are necessary. I didn't see any point in the thread going on, either. You asked for help, but didn't want to follow any of the advice. Which is your preogative and fine. But please don't turn it around to say the helper did not help, that's just wrong.

[black mirror]

CTH Help is extraordinarily good, and the moderator you were dealing with is unbelievably expert. And very patient and kind to boot. They ask you to go through those steps for a reason, and it isn't to take up your time. What kind of doctor would you rather see, one that says he'll treat you for a problem he thinks you might have, or one who says he will run tests to find the problem and then treat you? The steps are necessary. I didn't see any point in the thread going on, either. You asked for help, but didn't want to follow any of the advice. Which is your preogative and fine. But please don't turn it around to say the helper did not help, that's just wrong.


Very well articulated Harrie as usual:D

[Rainbow32]

Well in my opinion you got, or would have got, the best help available in any forum anywhere in the world from this Mod, and I've been to dozens of them.
Do a Goggle search on problems with Yahoo and you'll be overwhelmed with what you find.
If I had a malware problem I would consider myself very lucky in the draw to get AM to help me.

[oracle128]

It seems all the moral dilemmas here have been addressed, but on a technical note I'd just like to add thatI woul also like to say that I think the forums edit button should not have to require one to log back in again to edit their post.this is not possible, if you don't log in to edit your post, there's no way to verify you're the author of the post, which means that anybody is free to anonymously edit your post.

[Inter_Net]

I wish I could forget my password so I could not log in again so as to not be able to respond again, because I feel the need to defend myself when I leave a forum permanently. I did get this is my email though so I oculd not help it.

Someone left a couple of my threads hanging. A frequent poster. In other forums I respond to a few people so as to not forget them, and help them out incase they have more questions.

The log in thing. Once again I was misunderstood. The edit button is a great thing one has to appreciate. Their are some sites out there which unfortunely this is not an option. What I dislike is that in this forum when you are logged on you have to login on again when you press the edit button. Kind of like you are logged off once you do that and have to log back in again. Like a measure safety if you will. I'm not reffering to long posts wither because after a while idle you simply log off. That's natural. This situation happens when I'm just editing a little thing I just posted.

As to the whole situation. I personally felt she was being defensive from a certain point. If you had all read through my entire post you would have not had the inclination to state the obvious to myself about the moderators not having the whole day to be in front of the computer. I am truly aware of that. I am not like those people who post three posts in row or "bumps" in order to get their attention. If you notice I was not imaptient and knew around the time when she posted would post then, and come back the next day or two. This is because I knew she would take some time to respond back. I just wanted to be sure ladies and gentlemen. I mean first she told me to do one thing, and then told me to the another thing saying she was under a false impression when I had clearly stated from my first post what was going on.

Oh yes I have been to many forums. I am fully aware of google and preferably yahoo since I usually use that browser. Believe me I am not one of those newbies who you have to state the obvious by telling them to simply search an engine. I do agree that this is a good forum in that they directly help you with out requiring you to donate (not that others do, but a microsoft technician would).

Point? I will attempt to find some other forum or have to end up having to call the company, and try to talk to them. Some of these companies do not have the best people on the phone, and some do. Hopefully it will work out for the best.

[oracle128]

The log in thing. Once again I was misunderstood. The edit button is a great thing one has to appreciate. Their are some sites out there which unfortunely this is not an option. What I dislike is that in this forum when you are logged on you have to login on again when you press the edit button. Kind of like you are logged off once you do that and have to log back in again. Like a measure safety if you will. I'm not reffering to long posts wither because after a while idle you simply log off. That's natural. This situation happens when I'm just editing a little thing I just posted.This is not normal behaviour. Once you've logged in, you shouldn't have to 'log in' again to do anything (except I think, changing your password or email address). Did you check the "Remember me" box when you logged in? Not doing so often causes problems like that.

As for your thread, I really don't think you understand the severity of the situation you had. You had a trojan, which wasn't completely installed, and the "half installed, half not" situation was causing problems. You wanted to fix that by reinstalling it? That may work for real software, but not for malware. You don't fixed corrupted malware by fully restoring its ability to cripple your PC, then attempting to uninstall it (which would likely do nothing, why would malware make itself easily uninstallable?). AM was guiding you through the steps to manually remove the remnants of the trojan, which was the most logical and safest solution short of formatting the PC. Of course, the next logical step, which was applied, would be to check for other malware - chances are if one got through whatever defenses you may (or may not) have, plenty others did too.

If you're too lazy to go through the steps of manually removing malware from your PC, then learn how to protect yourself better, or be prepared to format. As renegade said, and I fully agree with and apply to all situations, "there is no such thing as a one button cure all."

[lufbra]

Point? I will attempt to find some other forum or have to end up having to call the company, and try to talk to them. Some of these companies do not have the best people on the phone, and some do. Hopefully it will work out for the best.

Good luck with finding help elsewhere, sorry to hear CTH wasn't up to your expectations.

[AnnMarie]

I will reply this time Inter_Net as this whole issue revolves around the way that I handled your topic.

When you first posted I was under the impression that you wanted to remove Look2Me malware. Your topic was headed "Look2Me trogan" so I believed that you were aware that you had a malware problem and as you asked for help with a utility to remove Look2Me http://www.simplytech.it/L2MRemover/, I believed you wanted to get rid of it.

The utility that you inquired about has not been updated since the beginning of this year and there are other more up to date options available now. Additionally, the Look2Me infection is usually seen accompanied by other malware now. This is why I asked you to run the additional utilities. I didnt want to get rid of only one infection if there were others.

Yahoo Antispy is not the most highly regarded spyware removal utility therefore I also believed that you had tried to remove the infection and failed, hence the request for help with the simplytech utility.

I did genuinely wish to help you however perhaps we lost something in the translation. You asked questions and I answered all questions asked to the best of my ability. It wasnt until we got to this question:

Can I not just do it with my Antispy?

and I answered:

Ummm, I dont know. Have you tried? I was under the impression that your Antispy wouldnt fix the problem?

and you answered:

Well, I could if I wanted to etc

It was at this point that you started to lose me.

I guess the final straw was your below post:

Ah... but breaking user agreements could be bad could it not?

Surely you knew that Look2Me was malware. I can only reiterate that your topic was headed "Look2Me trogan". Your Yahoo Antispy didnt identify Look2Me as a trojan, just a homepage hijacker. Therefore the term "trojan", although not strictly accurate in this context, must have some meaning for you. Why would you be concerned about breaking an agreement with a trojan?

If you would like to start again, I'm willing however but I will stipulate that if you choose to do, please follow my advice. I would never ask you to do anything that might harm your operating system or break any legitimate agreements.