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So for the last two and a half years my main communication with the young doctor is through gmail chat.
For the last week I get the error message that the network administrator (me) has disabled chat, or possibly I am experiencing connectivity problems. I have not disabled chat, and there are no connectivity problems currently manifesting themselves in any other way.
There is a help dialog for this error message. It is hilarious. You go clicky clicky on several radio buttons to indicate your operating system, your browser, your firewall program, to arrive at a link to the laughable help forums and a question as to whether this was helpful. Notice the distinct lack of suggestions or information on this "help" page.
The help forum for chat is a lively place. Many, many people are asking why their chat has been disabled, or why their contact list has disappeared, or some variation of these. The replies are with one exception all peope saying "I have this problem too." The exception is a post containing a link to the help dialog page which is the entry point to the help forums. The one I describe in the paragraph above which provides a series of radio buttons to go clicky on and a link to the forums and no information or suggestions for action.
There is apparently no other avenue to contact Google. So if, at it appears, they don't read their help forums, they don't have any way of knowing that a growing portion of their users can't use their product anymore.
Frank got Skype, which means he can call me. Email still works. But I miss chat: it was convenient and flexible.
For the last week I get the error message that the network administrator (me) has disabled chat, or possibly I am experiencing connectivity problems. I have not disabled chat, and there are no connectivity problems currently manifesting themselves in any other way.
There is a help dialog for this error message. It is hilarious. You go clicky clicky on several radio buttons to indicate your operating system, your browser, your firewall program, to arrive at a link to the laughable help forums and a question as to whether this was helpful. Notice the distinct lack of suggestions or information on this "help" page.
The help forum for chat is a lively place. Many, many people are asking why their chat has been disabled, or why their contact list has disappeared, or some variation of these. The replies are with one exception all peope saying "I have this problem too." The exception is a post containing a link to the help dialog page which is the entry point to the help forums. The one I describe in the paragraph above which provides a series of radio buttons to go clicky on and a link to the forums and no information or suggestions for action.
There is apparently no other avenue to contact Google. So if, at it appears, they don't read their help forums, they don't have any way of knowing that a growing portion of their users can't use their product anymore.
Frank got Skype, which means he can call me. Email still works. But I miss chat: it was convenient and flexible.
no subject
(Googling on the numbers of particular Windows updates sometimes turns up interesting things, but you have to be careful, because if it's a widespread problem about half the pages that turn up will be spam/malware traps.)