[espressoguy]

As I sit waiting for someone to help me with my HJTHIS log I am becoming increasingly frustrated. Not because there is no help, in fact there are several malware experts on line. I was thinking, for debate purposes only so don't tear my head off, should those people who support this site financially as I have proudly done since june 2, 2004, or those people who support this site with volunteer hours, be able to access a help desk which non- subscribers cannot.

[RedHelix]

Nah

[ashes@work]

Ive often thought maybe this was something to think about as well.

[JEBWrench]

Well, membership already has a couple privr... privl... privel... prevel.... benefits.

But I think part of the spirit is a free help site that people who are new can access as well as those regulars or those who financially help pay the bills. Limited preferential treatment.

[WendyM]

Originally Posted by espressoguy

I was thinking, for debate purposes only so don't tear my head off, should those people who support this site financially as I have proudly done since june 2, 2004, or those people who support this site with volunteer hours, be able to access a help desk which non- subscribers cannot.

I guess the question would be, who would staff it? I've given a lot of time to this site - a small portion of the time I might even have been helpful - but I don't want to be told when I have to be available. If you're not paying people to assist, I don't think you can expect them to be "on-call". And if they're not on-call, I'm not sure how the assistance is going to be any better. My understanding is that any donations of money and time go exclusively to the support of keeping TSG running in its current state, and although I would like to believe Mike is getting rich off of us, I don't think it's the case. Any extra or immediate support would have to be financed, which means more money.

On the other hand, NOT providing a "private help desk" means that people might just keep their money, get help from TSG for free, and save their money for when they need specialized assistance, which of course wouldn't do much to keep TSG going. I don't know. I like TSG. I like the spirit of it and I don't mind paying to further its existence. If I need immediate assistance, or more experienced assistance, I'm willing to pay extra for it. But I understand if other people are not.

[espressoguy]

Great reply Wendy...well said. Like I said in my post, this was just something racing through my A.D.D. mind, it is an interesting question. I too love the idea of one system for all..kind of like our health care system here in Canada. Equal access for all. But I would be willing to pay a little extra if I needed immediate attention on an issue and did not want to wait 3 or 4 days.

[valis]

the thing to remember is that there are a slew of threads in the security forums, and only a handful of security experts at any given time, giving their time voluntarily, to work the logs. It's the same across the board. I handle security logs at another site, and we are buried there as well.

Take a look at some of the post counts/day of the security experts here. Some are averaging over 40 posts/day; that's a lot of time and effort spent here helping people.

The best approach is, daily, to bump your thread. That will move it to the top of the queue. It's inevitable that logs will slip through the cracks given the ratio of incoming logs to qualified experts to handle them; what you need to do on your end is continue to bump it until it gets recognized. Bumping once a day is sufficient; more than that will definitely get attention, but probably not the kind you want.

Be patient, try to stay at the top of the queue, and I guarantee someone will be along to assist; just give them time.

v

[Fidelista]

Originally Posted by espressoguy

As I sit waiting for someone to help me with my HJTHIS log I am becoming increasingly frustrated. Not because there is no help, in fact there are several malware experts on line. I was thinking, for debate purposes only so don't tear my head off, should those people who support this site financially as I have proudly done since june 2, 2004, or those people who support this site with volunteer hours, be able to access a help desk which non- subscribers cannot.

No . >f

[espressoguy]

Thanks Valis.....will do

[bassetman]

Originally Posted by espressoguy

As I sit waiting for someone to help me with my HJTHIS log I am becoming increasingly frustrated. Not because there is no help, in fact there are several malware experts on line. I was thinking, for debate purposes only so don't tear my head off, should those people who support this site financially as I have proudly done since june 2, 2004, or those people who support this site with volunteer hours, be able to access a help desk which non- subscribers cannot.

What may have you confused (understandably) is that many of us Mods including SW experts have always on connections. So if we don't log off, and I rarely do, it will appear as if we are here and available. Confusing I know, but a habit many of us have.

Good luck.

[JEBWrench]

Except for Bassetman, who is in Wisconsin, so there's nothing else to do, so he's really here all the time.

[Wino]

Nope. Queue up and hope for the best.

[bassetman]

Originally Posted by JEBWrench

Except for Bassetman, who is in Wisconsin, so there's nothing else to do, so he's really here all the time.

Yup, still waiting for Winter to break here!

[JEBWrench]

From what I gather, Wisconsin has three seasons. Football season, The rest of winter, and a day for a golf tournament.

[TheRobatron]

Maybe have a higher priority for those who donate? But it is a free site, and the qualified people are volunteers so we can't expect them to give any more of their time on a call-out system. If you need immediate assisstance call PC-paramedics or some other call-out company.