Why your direct messages will be ignored on twitter / facebook / google+ / email / etc.

[zwetan]

In the wiki main page I got a Support section that says

If you still encounter problems, and/or things do not work
please do not send me direct email or direct twitter/google+/facebook messages
Create a new issue instead.

Am I some kind of prima donna on the top of his ivory tower
that you can not even talk to me on social media ?
off course not

here why
see this question about Demographics and Interest report

If I was receiving this question by email or other direct message and answering it there
it would do 3 things

• prevent anyone else interested by the same problem/question to see the answer
• encourage people to keep asking their question by direct email etc.
  and so force me to copy/paste or rewrite the same answers
• and also not showing other people that the product/library is actually used

I'm not sure why it happened on gaforflash and why it started happening again on this project

• are people ashamed to admit they use an open source library ?
• ashamed they still use Flash/AIR ?
• not comfortable speaking in public ?

I really don't know, but I do know it is not efficient
it is not my goal to spend hours on direct email or messages answering 1to1 questions
my very selfish goal is to write code, the more time I can do that the more I'm happy.

In fact, sometimes it happen so often that I even thought to propose commercial support
so yeah I could teach/train/setup everything for you over as skype call etc. for a fee
but I would rather have people writing tutorial and showing each others how to setup things.

There is also a thin line: Google Analytics is a free product but it is still a business
my goal here is only to provide a library that allow you to use this free product
in a very specific context: ActionScript 3.0 with Flash and/or AIR and/or Redtamarin
but I'm not linked in any way with Google, it is not my job to promote or teach Analytics.

All that said, I can understand that people sometimes do not get what open source means,
that they just see a library as a quick tool to achieve a goal, yadda, yadda, yadda

so let me clearly state what can happen if you contact me directly

• for a "thank you" etc. it's all cool
  I would just find it strange if you don't star the project
  but really no big deal
• for a question or issue
  I will probably put it back here and answer it here
  keeping the author anonymous
• for the "I need you to do something for me"
  I will probably answer with "are you ready to pay for that?"