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Rails Hotline (live phone help with RoR)

railshotline.com

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Re: Rails Hotline (live phone help with RoR)

#31

Post by _chap »

ZackOfAllTrades wrote: post #29
LuisZaman wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great idea. With some simple transcripts and text-based search, it could be a great searchable tome of information one day.

Just called in and talked to Chap. I wanted to make sure he got to see the idea and know about before it got lost. He immediately made the jump to transcripts and text-based stuff. Chap: Recording calls with skype forum post: http://forum.skype.com/index.php?showtopic=477581 Good luck!

Thanks for the call!

I love the idea of sharing recorded calls to help more people.

Re: Rails Hotline (live phone help with RoR)

#32

Post by _chap »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #28
_chap wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need to make that more clear on the site, we don't entend the volunteers to get paid, but rather rewarded with discounts, early access, and recognition from the communities they help.

Ah, I see. The last item on http://www.pockethotline.com/ has a big dollar sign and starts with "The expert earns rewards", so yeah, more clear would help. Re-reading it, now I see that you meant the dollar sign to attach to "and you save money on support", which makes sense. As an aside, you may also want to make it more clear why your service works better than existing croudsourced support, such as community forums…

Copy+Pasting your awesome response above...

Re: Rails Hotline (live phone help with RoR)

#33

Post by leoc »

Seems like a promising idea, and I have no absolutely intention of knocking it.

But ... you have to admit that it's a wide-open target for parody: picture the earnest young Rails beginner calling (from Chennai, of course) and getting DHH. From there it slides into some kind of ChatRoulette nightmare involving DHH, _why, Zed ("fuck this shit! Just use Python"), a werewolf, ...

Re: Rails Hotline (live phone help with RoR)

#34

Post by JoshTriplett »

Reading this and pockethotline.com, and thinking about your offer to help set up other community hotlines: what about a Founders Hotline? Call to talk to a real live business founder, whether to get some advice, get a recommendation or opinion for a particular service, bounce an idea or pitch off someone for feedback, or just get a different perspective. And the "experts" would get the benefit of hearing from some interesting people doing interesting things, and having a nice conversation with a fellow founder, as well as the recognition and networking you mentioned elsewhere.

Re: Rails Hotline (live phone help with RoR)

#36

Post by [deleted] »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #34

Reading this and pockethotline.com, and thinking about your offer to help set up other community hotlines: what about a Founders Hotline? Call to talk to a real live business founder, whether to get some advice, get a recommendation or opinion for a particular service, bounce an idea or pitch off someone for feedback, or just get a different perspective. And the "experts" would get the benefit of hearing from some in…

[deleted]

Re: Rails Hotline (live phone help with RoR)

#37

Post by _chap »

GavinB wrote: post #13

It does seem like this would be a lot easier if there were also chat (or even if it were chat-only). If you're talking about code, it would be really helpful to be able to paste in snippets or links to resources.

Agreed, some questions are more easily answered through chat and #RubyOnRails on freenode is a great place to get help.

However, I think the cool part is that it's not text. Personally I've find it to be really helpful when I'm stuck just to talk through the problem with somebody else. Often just the act of vocalizing dislodges the log jam.

Re: Rails Hotline (live phone help with RoR)

#38

Post by stevefink »

JoshTriplett wrote: post #34

Reading this and pockethotline.com, and thinking about your offer to help set up other community hotlines: what about a Founders Hotline? Call to talk to a real live business founder, whether to get some advice, get a recommendation or opinion for a particular service, bounce an idea or pitch off someone for feedback, or just get a different perspective. And the "experts" would get the benefit of hearing from some in…

Like StackExchange, I think it would make sense to take this idea and bring a more abstract platform together. Niche communities (such as Ruby on Rails and Founders) can be created based on community involvement and volunteer willingness to help. A premium model can surely follow for certain communities.
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