Part of my day job is supporting presenters who come in, and there are all kinds - those who know the tech better than I do, and those who ask for a "Power Point Projector" and are surprised that they were supposed to bring their presentation with them on a disc.
It's not my job to put them at ease - it's just my job to make the tech work - but I do it anyway, because in my Other Life as a presenter I know all too well the stress that can come from tech not working. In fact, I think part of the reason I learned tech was because I got tired of it breaking down (oh, fine, I'll just fix it myself!). And some people just need an "atta boy" and some just need a gentle hand turning on the laptop...and then some need you to be aggressive and pushy and give them back just as much sh--er, attitude as they give you.
Of course, that personality type applies to customers (as Seth notes) and online users (eloquently described by Cory Doctorow, one of my favorite authors). Enter the equivalent of the "shepherd" among the sheep and wolves: the Troll-Whisperer, who uses tools like this one:
...Teresa invented a technique called disemvowelling -- removing the vowels from some or all of a fiery message-board post. The advantage of this is that it leaves the words intact, but requires that you read them very slowly -- so slowly that it takes the sting out of them. And, as Teresa recently explained to me, disemvowelling part of a post lets the rest of the community know what kind of sentiment is and is not socially acceptable. - Cory Doctorow
Aside from being a great idea I also have to say I really LOVE that word...
disemvowelling-Is that like Bosnia where all the names are disemvowelled?
Posted by: Thomas Johnson | May 16, 2007 at 11:31 PM