I sit here on New Year’s Eve and I’ve just received a wonderful email from a customer, which I want to anonymise and share with you. It’s probably the nicest/best feedback I’ve had this year.
But before I do that I want to share the nastiest, which also happened this month (10th December). I want to end on a positive, so we’ll get the negative out of the way first.
Nastiest YT Comment I’ve Ever Received
I made a video about “making an HD LCD screen for $32” back in June, which became very popular and has been viewed some 120k times. Here’s the video here…
I fully admit the title of the video is a little bit ‘click-baity’. We’re recycling a laptop screen using $32 of bought parts (driver board). But a title’s job is to get people to look at the content. It did that in spades. A full 6 months later, I got a comment that was clearly meant to be highly offensive. But it was so over the top in its vitriol that all it did was make me laugh out loud and share it with my inner circle of friends. I also tweeted about it straight away without sharing the content.
I just had a YT comment so rude and offensive that I'm laughing my socks off because it's so funny. Too rude for me to share here, sadly.
— RasPi.TV (@RasPiTV) December 10, 2016
I don’t allow swearing on my blog or YT comments because I think it doesn’t portray a professional atmosphere and I want my stuff to appeal to all ages. I don’t swear on twitter either for the same reason.
However, this is my personal blog and this is so funny it has to be shared in a place that doesn’t taint my professional channels.
I’ll let this comment speak for itself
I must admit I was tempted to reply with…
“Well that was the title. What did you think of the video?”
…but the truth is that once you engage a troll, you’ve already lost. So I refrained. Churchill put it a rather nice way…
“You will never reach your destination if you stop and throw stones at every dog that barks.”
That is exactly the way to (not) react to trolls. Ignore the pathetic little runts! In this case I also had to block this troll because I don’t tolerate swearing on my channel at this time. Don’t get me wrong. I love a good swear. My sister taught me lots of swear-words when I was 5, and I’ve never looked back. But I just think there’s a time and a place for that – and it’s not on my YouTube Channel, which I want to be a fairly family-friendly environment.
So. Have a good laugh at that, and we’ll end on a high-note…
Nicest Customer Feedback of the Year
Just this evening I received this email from someone who bought a RasPiO Duino kit a couple of weeks ago. It’s a lovely way to end the year…
Hi Alex,
I received my order today. I assembled the Duino board and attached to my
RPi. All is working as stated.I started to read the MagPi article about you. I very quickly realized that
you met your expectations: produce something that works the first time!I have been involved with electronics since early ’70s when I wanted to
create a railroad crossing flashing light sign for my train set when I was
about 5 years old. That led me to blowing the fuse box, and singing some of
my hair. Since then, I have dabbled with electronics, computers, and
microcontrollers. My hobbies have always supplemented my main work in odd
and unexpected ways, and at this point (17+ years of public school
teaching) I am teaching my hobbies to 16-18 year old students.In all this time, I have only run across electronics kits that have worked
properly the first time TWICE. The first was when I started using Basic
Stamp Boe-Bots from Parallax. Everything they produced simply worked, and
was supplemented with plenty of depth for learning. The cost was high, but
worth it for the depth of knowledge they provided. The second time is NOW,
after using your material with the Duino board. You should be very proud of
your work.The production of the board is exceptional, the breakouts are well laid
out, and it fits the RPi like a glove. I am very happy that I took the
chance on your product, and I look forward to trying out your tutorials!Cheers,
AC
So Happy New Year to you all and I wish you many pleasant and happy comments and very few unpleasant ones in 2017 and beyond.