IndexU, iDesk and DMOZ Extractor issues - How to fix them
I feel the need for a rant today, but I'll keep it clean and calm
There have been many reports, posts, submissions and emails over the months that I've been working for Nicecoder where users experience problems. That of course, is natural. Not everyone knows exactly what do do is every situation.
I've had users ask, complain, yell, scream, swear and generally be pissed off because "the product doesn't work" or something along those lines.
Please, allow me as tech support to tell you how to resolve at least 90% of your issues.
Read the install manual and follow it to the letter.
I have spent many hours creating guides and manuals for Nicecoder products. I do this to help reduce the number of support requests users need to make. I have not been paid for any of these manuals or guides. They are done on my time, for free.
Dozens to hundreds of errors have come up and a lot of them are all about the same issue(s). And they all result in me finding out that the user did not read the guide or manual properly.
There was the issue of the DMOZ Extractor being "broken" and a "piece of sh**" because the program kept telling the user the dmoz file he was trying to load was corrupt. He "followed" the manual and downloaded the files from dmoz. Over a dozen tickets later I finally found out that instead of extracting the files (they are .gz files), he simply renamed them. That, obviously, doesn't work very well.
Then there was the issue of IndexU not working because it kept giving errors saying "cannot write to". I informed the customer that is because the permissions were not set correctly when they installed the script and they accused me of trying to pass the blame and make them look stupid. Shortly after that they stopped emailing support and their site worked just fine, after they added write permissions to /cache/ and /temlates_c/
Of course lets not forget the amount of users that have "forgotten" to run /install/install.php and complained that the script didn't work when they "installed" it. When you tell them that uploading the files isn't the same as installing them then you get more questions like "how do I install it". It becomes painfully obvious that they passed over the install guide completely.
So please read the guide or manual and follow it exactly, word for word, picture for picture. It will help both you and me to get the product working.
[/frustration]
