Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Moogie]

Being the 'nerd' of the family, I'm constantly getting bugged for everything from hardware upgrades, to requests for pirating movies. I'm a computer/game/Internet geek, so naturally I'm expected to have intimate knowledge of the workings of all facets of technology.

Lately I've been asked by some friend of my sister to build a website for their business. I try to explain I don't know the first thing about websites, but they point out that I have my own blog (and even a registered domain) and think I'm just trying to make excuses. Yeah, I have a site, but it's hosted on a buddy's webserver and he set the whole thing up so I just have to log into an admin panel whenever I want to update it. As for the domain, I had to be hand-held through the process of linking the nameservers and whatever else (it was years ago; I forget most of what's even involved).

I don't want to deal with this crap. But, if I can at least find some cheap host that provides site templates, I could probably cobble something together. But I know how this will end up: I'll build her a site, and then end up being roped in as the webmonkey who gets called on every time something needs editing or added to it. Plus it'll go down on my 'permanent family record' that I can, in fact, "make websites" for people.

I don't really know when or how it happened, but over the past few years I've grown absolutely intolerant of people who don't know the first thing about using a computer. It's not that I hate them for not knowing anything - we all have to start somewhere, after all - it's just those who expect everyone else to take care of their problems, using it as an excuse to avoid doing it themselves. You want a website? Fucking learn how to make it yourself. Want to upgrade your hardware? Go buy what you need and Google the installation instructions. Don't know how to Google? Now THAT's something I'll gladly teach anyone.

Sorry for the rant. Had to get it off my chest. It's just that when I try to explain to complete tech-illiterates that I can't do something for them, they give me this look of "she's just lazy and doesn't want to do it". While that's... technically not untrue, the primary reason is that I'm not a goddamn all-knowing wizard who will work for peanuts in areas I'm barely familiar with myself. They'd rather take the task to a relative or friend who they think they'll get a massive discount from than figure it out their own damn selves or pay a professional who actually does the crap they're looking for.

Hmph. And yeah, I'm probably being a massive hypocrite, too. Doesn't make it any less frustrating when it happens to me.

[Keita]

I was in a similar jam, though yours sounds a lot worse than mine. I found out it was because I was doing everything they said, so they knew that I'd do it which sounds like what's happening to you.

Flat tell them no "Well if you can't be bothered to do it your self, why should I?" And if they persist, demand payment.

Creating a website is tough, I've only made little ones and damn I knew I was way over my head but the people who do it as a job get a couple of hundred for EACH website :O

I'd say with the friend of your sister thing, tell them the going rate and if they complain tell them to look up the price or to grab a html book and bloody well do it them selves =P

[GlyphGryph]

Couple hundred nothing, try a couple thousand if its anything more than a bare bones layout. A nice looking blog can easily run 2000 dollars or more, alone. The Blog Studio, a popular seller of blogs, charges 3000-5000 a pop. And real websites are usually more complicated.

Honestly, the payment thing has been my solution - I do offer my family a huge discount (especially since I'm certainly not going to break my back) of course. 200 dollars for basic website (from an online template), 400 for a custom with bells and whistles, a 800 for anything complicated.

Oddly enough, I've stopped getting requests for it... worked like a charm!

[neil_v]

I am totally the family computer bitch.
"Hey, you know about computers! Our cellular internet isn't working" -Know nothing about cellular internet, but go anyway. After an hour of searching, find out the drivers for their laptops wireless had been disabled
"Hey, our computer is slow, can you upgrade our RAM?" -No prob, 5 minuets. WTF! why didn't the new RAM speed it up. Find out they have 15 viruses that had, at that time downloaded 500 000+ files to their temp file. 5 hour fix. The next day their power supply fails. I just installed new RAM so its my fault. (installed new power supply, also a long story involving a micro-ATX power supply) 
 
 I just said no to the whole web site thing when it was brought up a while back. I realized I would be responsible for EVERYTHING that went wrong on the internet from then on. NO F-ING WAY!

[Max White]

I feel your pain.
I'm currently studying software engineering, basically a fancy term for programming, but I'm expected to know about hardware! Honestly, although I might know a little more then your average user, I'm still in the dark compared to many others, yet I'm still expected to know everything about it! It is like expecting a surgeon to know all about how to make a good scalpel just because he uses one for hies work! He might be able to tell you how well one is functioning while using it, but that dons't mean he it qualified to build one for you! Computers are the same, and being good at one thing isn't the same as knowing all about them.

[ed boy]

Obligatory link

Try to explain using analogies that they can understand. One analogy that I use a lot is that being able to drive a car does not mean that you know how to replace the carboretteur (I've almost certainly spelled that wrong). If you explain that a webiste design costs thousands of whatever your currency is, and there's good reason for that, then they should hopefully be less demanding.

[Muz]

Lol, I know how that feels. It's worse with my dad, who assumed that just because I do electronics, I have some magical understanding of how every new iPhone works, how I can fix anything if it breaks down, and expects me to finish it by the next day.

I do hate it when people say "Hey, you're the IT guy, make a website". Website making is so tedious and grindy, it's like arranging furniture and then people complain that the walls are white and not some trippy messy color.

My solution so far is that everyone who expects me to fix something has to buy me a drink, a meal, or an ice cream or something. If it's really hard work, like changing the motherboard, or sitting there and formatting and reinstalling, I expect a really good meal. It keeps them motivated to do it themselves, and motivates me enough to not feel like I'm wasting my time.

[Cassicotca]

Had the same problem. Filed the papers to start a business and now after i fixed something i send them a bill . Before people thought i was just greedy when i asked for payment for the job but now it's somehow ok

[Caesar]

Family is what is made through bonds, not genes.

If they insist on fairly much forcing you to make their websites and fix their computer problems even if you give them plain 'no', they're not worth being your family. Show them that you mean it.

[Nadaka]

You have already taken your first step to being "that computer guy/girl". Now that you feel loathing for the willfully uninformable, it is time to accept your fate and walk on over to the dark side. Its ok, we have cookies.

[Siquo]

Yep, I'm currently making a site for both my GF and my brother, even though I make websites for a living. Stupid, but whaddayado. And "a friend of your sister" is waay too far away to do anything fro free. Glyph's prices are realistic, you should use those.

For all other questions, use lmgtfy: http://lmgtfy.com/?q=making+a+website

[zilpin]

No, I will not fix your computer. (unisex)
No, I will not fix your computer. (women's)
No, I will not fix your computer. (hoodie)

[Fayrik]

No offence, Moogie... But I don't think you're qualified to make a small business grade website.
Mainly because I've worked in the "industry" (for a few months at least), and I'd say I'm barely qualified for the job.

Creating a website is tough, I've only made little ones and damn I knew I was way over my head but the people who do it as a job get a couple of hundred for EACH website :O

This is true. And there's a reason websites cost so much.
I've personally said "I'm not making websites anymore. End of.", which fits nicely with the fact I don't professionally work on websites any more. If someone offered me some money, I might be turned around on the subject, but we all know how likely that is. 

You have already taken your first step to being "that computer guy/girl". Now that you feel loathing for the willfully uninformable, it is time to accept your fate and walk on over to the dark side. Its ok, we have cookies.

We're the dark side?
Where are the cookies?

If you explain that a webiste design costs thousands of whatever your currency is, and there's good reason for that, then they should hopefully be less demanding.

Unless it's yen! Ho ho ho.

This has gotten me wondering though. Is there anyone on this forum who doesn't know how to upgrade RAM, or similar? Threads like these make it feel like Dwarf Fortress this entire forum is only for people whom are regarded as "tech support" to their families.

[Darvi]

I don't know how to . I usually as our neighbour's cats to do that.

[Nadaka]

Yes, we are the dark side. We won't just fix our families and friends computers on their whim. We demand due compensation... that is where the cookies come from.


Note: The cookies comment is a reference to a scene in a web comic that I can no longer remember. Done some googling, but I can't find the original source, just a bunch of people selling t-shirts with the saying on it. My faulty memory is trying to suggest that it was web comic Questionable Content, but I don't think that is right either.