User questions and support fees

A friend of me sent in a "stupid user" question. However I found out later the the thing this user attempted was even more funnier. That is why there is no new "stupid" user entry, but a full blown blog entry.

It started all with the following conversation:

Dear Mr. Hughes,

Could you please send me the Zip extension for PHP, already compiled for Microsoft Windows as a PHP library?

Willie

Hi Willie,

I require a consultancy fee of 200 USD for these services.

-Sterling

Sterling Hughes

That sounds like a new tactic for Sterling, not charging for code, but for things that users can get for free :)

Of course it was not a totally expected to get such a response from an Open Source devellopper and decided to search to find support elsewhere. He was even so nice to tell Sterling that:

Hi Sterling,

Fortunately I found a PHP class on the WWW that does what I need.

Thanks, anyway...

Willie

Quoting Sterling on his response: "Isn't it nice how the respect your time enough to annoy you when in under 5 minutes users can find the answer when it comes to shelling out money?". It's pretty sad actually, but it gets even worse :) A few days later I found a new comment in the "Assorted Funny User Questions". Yes, you see that correctly. He found support on my "forum"! Of course nobody responded yet :)