Frequently Asked Questions

The NearlyFreeSpeech.NET FAQ (*)

Member Support (*)

What is the status of my support issue?

How can I get specific software installed for my site?

What is a system problem?

Do I really have to buy a subscription membership just to get a simple question answered?

No.

Our recommendations for who should obtain subscription memberships are outlined on our public site but in brief, unless either the services you obtain from us are mission-critical and need the fastest possible response regardless of circumstance or you plan to contact support on a regular basis (more than twice a year), we recommend the baseline membership.

If you do not have a subscription membership, but you do have a question, the best option is usually our community support forum.

We'll usually answer the same question for free in the forums that are covered by a subscription membership, because when we answer a question in the forums, everyone can see and benefit from the answer, not just the asker. (To get the best results from our forum, make sure you're helping the system work by demonstrating in your forum post that you've already searched the forum for people who have asked the same question in the past.)

We provide the option of a subscription membership to reflect the fact that the time of one or more professionals is being spent exclusively and privately on your issue.

So, in most cases, if you're paying for a subscription membership that you use to ask simple questions, you're not paying to have the question answered, you're paying to make sure a skilled professional is available to answer your question, and to have the answer provided privately.

Naturally there are exceptions, particularly if you need us to do something, rather than answer something. Once you get outside the realm of answering a question into an area where we're expending professional time investigating or explaining something on your behalf, the subscription membership is the most appropriate way for us to recover the associated costs.

Why was my system problem report closed as "works as configured?"

What are the options available for member support?

How can I restore something that has been deleted?

Why was my system problem report closed as "not a system problem?"

What are the various responses to a system problem report?

How can I give you private feedback about your service?

How do I "cash out" unused support points?

Do you participate on Twitter?

How do system problem reports work?

What is an assistance request?

Why don't you provide free support?

Why don't you provide more detail in response to system problem reports?

How do I buy support points?

What if I can't figure out which support option to use?

Why does your support cost so much?

Why shouldn't I wait until I need support to set up a subscription membership?

What are support hours and expected response times?