Quoted from OLDPINGUY:What I find funny for me personally, is I received 3 emails this week for Bulb help.
I respectfully took the time to be of help, but 1, did not even reply with a Thank you,
and 2, starting disagreeing, arguing with me.
Politely, I referred them to Ryan, Melissa, Terry, etc....I mentioned I was retired.
After the help, after replying to disagreements, after the referrals, came Snarky replies...
.
They reminded me of the political social media posts of today.
I think I wont reply anymore to these.....
This. I put a lot of value on my time, and more and more I find that people don't value my time...they either want me to hold their hand through something, or tell me why they think I'm wrong, or ask me more questions that may not even be related. It's one thing when this is someone that I've sold a game to and I feel committed to helping them (whether obligated or not), but it's another when I'm just volunteering my time to help someone. It's especially insulting when that person just wants to fix a game to then sell it for top dollar, because it comes across as thinking my knowledge and time should be free but it helps make you more money. And as Art said, most of the time you don't even get thanks. I've fixed and sold a ton of games over the years but there was a lot of trial and error and money spent in the process which many don't appreciate. I would love to work on/sell more games but I'm always short on time, plus now everyone is looking for non-working games because worst case they can ask Pinside for help. Anyway, that's my rant for the day
Another answer to this, is I think you have more and more new people in the pinball hobby now. The ratio of that compared to the old hats with lots of knowledge/experience is changing, especially as the latter leave the hobby (or the world).