MacNurse, a macosx.com rip off?

**ora** · May 18th, 2006, 03:48 AM

I thought someone had posted on this but searching gives nothing.

http://www.themacnurse.com/Joomla/

These guys claim to be the first free mac tech support, well kinda. I saw some replies to a blog post by parts of their team and they know about us, just say they are different as they give "live" support. I'm not sure where they get their volunteer tech base without growing out of an existing community. Also i wonder if the live support will give proper coverage to all time zones, definitely an advantage to our ticketing system.

Reminds me i haven't answered any questions for a while though, so I'll go do that

.

**bobw** · May 21st, 2006, 07:54 AM

I could be wrong, but I think Scott Williams had the first free Mac support site. Originally named 'Appleboy', and later changed the name to Nowonder.com. This was years ago, and the site grew rapidly. Thousands of questions answered each year, the last year Scott had it, had to be close to or over 40,000 questions answered. if Scott comes along, he could post the figures.

There are some past techs from Nowonder here on Macosx.com, including myself.

http://web.archive.org/web/199707052...cos/index.html

**markhowson999** · May 24th, 2006, 01:01 PM

Hi,

I'm Mark Howson, the founder of The Mac Nurse

Before you start booing me off, we have never claimed to be the first free mac support site, and never will.

What we do claim to be is the first free mac support site with live support.

I hope this clears things up for you

**ElDiabloConCaca** · May 24th, 2006, 03:14 PM

Hasn't macosx.com had their downloadable, live, remote-access program available for some time now? Doesn't it include live troubleshooting via remote access as well as live chat with the tech?

I'd consider that to be live tech support...

**markhowson999** · May 24th, 2006, 03:19 PM

But it requires a download, so it isn't instant. I'm actually an active volunteer here too, we both run community based projects, this doesn't need to be a battle.

**ElDiabloConCaca** · May 24th, 2006, 04:39 PM

I'm not making it into a battle... just sorting facts out, that's all. I'm not name calling, I'm not accusing, and I'm certainly not insinuating that there isn't room for more than one free Mac-based tech support website.

I was simply discussing.

Your comment about how it's a download and therefore is not "instant" is certainly valid, and a comment that I agree with. Sure, it's not instant compared to online live help, but we're talking only a matter of degree here -- TCP packets must be sent to the user's machine in order for them to use the Help.app program and have live tech support. Likewise, having to load a webpage to access live, online help also requires TCP packets to be sent to the user's machine -- not nearly as many packets as a downloadable program, but that's only a difference of degree. Neither one is "instant" in the strict sense of the word, but live, online help is definitely "quicker" than a downloadable application. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.

All in all, I think two, active, decent, free, Mac-based tech support sites is a boon for experienced users and novices alike.