Well, the subject pretty much says it all. It would be nice is this was pinned.
Donno' about the rest of you, but I find that helping people near by is a LOT more effective than trying to do it long distance.
-jim lee
In the physical world... sure.
On a computer forum... not so much.
Are you saying that you find people near to your location who want help with Arduino projects, schedule a meeting with them, and then provide them with in-person, one-on-one assistance?
Well yeah, I do it all the time. Sometimes it helps, sometimes, not so much. I have a little shop in town that people meet at and make stuff.
And have BBQ parties.
Mostly its just good to get people that build things to mix it up and they can make connections to build products on their own.
-jim lee
Very cool! I'm sure that's very effective, especially for those certain problems that are so hard to troubleshoot over the Internet, but so easy to do with the hardware in hand. I'm sure there are some people who learn best from the in-person, one-on-one approach too.
I prefer helping people online because I think that's the most efficient way to do it and I'm also a bit of a hermit but it's really wonderful when people share their knowledge in any way.
I find that it's helpful to know what time zone people are in so I know when to expect a reply or if I can hold off replying for a day. Besides that, it doesn't matter.
One of my long term Arduino clients is in Dubai (I'm in the upper midwestern US), and I've shipped hardware to Australia and Europe, so distance really isn't a problem for me.