FixYa’s Experts are a multifaceted bunch. One of our well-rounded Experts is Slinteriors, with 4121 solutions under his belt. This Expert obviously makes good use of both halves of his brain as he is not only an experienced repairman, but an artist and artisan as well.

Q: Tell us about yourself:
A: I am a 52 year old man living in North Carolina, originally from New York. I have worked constantly in the television repair industry.

Q: What are your areas of expertise and how did you come to be involved with them?
A: I have been repairing televisions since the early seventies in my own shop with a emphasis on rear projection and DLPs. I am currently involved with online tech support for various companies, as I enjoy sharing the tips and tricks that I have gathered over the years.

Q: What are your hobbies?
A: Electronics has always been my favorite. I also do oil paintings and build furniture such as tables and entertainment centers.

Q: What first brought you to FixYa? When?
A: I discovered FixYa last year and decided to help out as an expert due to the wide variety of problems that the users needed help with.

Q: What is the FixYa answer you are most proud of?
A: Any of them if they actually lead to the customer actually being able to repair their sets.

Q: What advice do you have for those asking questions?
A: Always use caution when working around the television, and always be sure to ask for clarification if you are not sure of what the expert was trying to relay in the response.

Q: What advice do you have for experts?
A: Try to explain as best you can in everyday terms that are easy to understand. List any cautions as well as possible alternate causes of a specific problem.

Q: What new features would you like to see FixYa roll out?
A: It would be great if we had a feature where we could respond to specific model numbers and be able to search for those model numbers in the recent unsolved problems.

One of FixYa’s most focused experts, ThaMp3Doctor is a self proclaimed “geek” with 5515 solutions to his credit. He’s also one of FixYa’s most altruistic experts, answering the free questions almost exclusively.

Q: Tell us about yourself:
A: I was born in Wichita, Kansas and am now living in Tampa, Florida. I have been either in the technical support or telecommunications industry for several years now.

Q: What are your areas of expertise and how did you come to be involved with them?
A: I remember the first day my stepfather brought home an IBM PC Jr, somewhere around 1984. We had the “enhanced version” that packed twice the memory of a normal PC Jr- a whopping 128 kb. The PC Jr came with an extensive manual in a hard binder, and there were several programming guides available at the time that catered to all age groups. I was seven at the time and I decided to tackle a book on programming games in BASIC. I enjoyed programming immensely, but the old PC Jr just couldn’t compete with the original Nintendo Entertainment System. Computing took a back seat to other interests over the next several years.
After suffering a devastating job loss at the age of 27, I was presented with an opportunity to work in the radio industry. By this time, PCs were capable of more amazing feats than ever and there were these new things out called “iPods.” From radio, I graduated to telecommunications and DSL support.
All of these jobs had their moments, but the workplace culture was not “geeky” enough for me. I finally settled in on consumer electronics and other technical support services for a software/IT firm. I am the go-to-guy for Mp3 player questions at my place of employment. Technical support is very fun for me, and I learn immensely from my fellow geeks.

Q: What are your hobbies?
A: I am an avid reader, and I especially enjoy learning about how hardware, software, and technology in general can benefit humanity when it is used for good purposes. I am definitely an audio and video fan, and I have been most amazed at our increased capability to acquire digital video and music. I am never bored– on the contrary, I find that every spare minute is a minute when I can be learning, playing, and soaking in life.

Q: What first brought you to FixYa? When?
A: As a technical support representative for multiple companies, I always felt frustrated when I knew how to help a customer find their solution, and yet was prevented from doing so because it involved supporting another company’s product. Lo and behold, I read a news article on a company called Fixya.com. Seeing that Fixya.com was founded to serve the very principles of interoperability and multi-platform support, I signed up shortly thereafter in February 2008. Even though I am a technical support representative by profession, I find that I just can’t resist assisting people in my off-time as well. Posting on Fixya.com has been fun, and I hope that I have helped a few people along the way. I have learned much that is relevant to my own job by reading the solutions offered by other experts.

Q. What is the FixYa answer you are most proud of?
A: I believe that my solutions for Sansa players are generally good. Each Sansa player has a different “recovery” button, and I list very detailed instructions on how to enter recovery mode, how to reformat the player, and how to run the Sansa Recovery Tool. Recovery Mode is not covered on most Mp3 manufacturers’ websites. If someone tries ALL of my suggestions, and not just some of them, they should have great success.

Q: What advice do you have for those asking questions?
A: Mp3 players and other devices tend to have 5 to 10 common problems per device. Most posts to technical websites are merely reposts of already-reported problems. Take the time to read solutions that others have offered, as the same problems tend to get reposted over and over again.

Q. What new features would you like to see FixYa roll out?
A: I have been impressed with the layout/format changes made to the website in the last week. I think that more extensive task bars would be welcome. Under an expert’s profile, the category “Requests from other users” should be available. There should be a link to “Tips & Tricks” on the main Fixya.com page. Also, I have found it difficult to find the experts’ lounge lately.

Q: Why do you choose to answer free questions as opposed to the premiums?
A: Every once in a while, someone is willing to pay for a solution that I know I have the answer for. But I am more interested in helping people than financial gain. The average consumer receives inadequate or inconsistent help from their product manufacturers, so I like to nudge them in the right direction.

For those of you who don’t yet know me, my name is Lauren and I’m FixYa.com’s new community manager. I’m going to be working to make FixYa the best place it possibly can be, kicking out the riffraff, and fostering more interaction among our great group of Experts. I’ve been hanging out in the Expert Lounge the last couple of days, familiarizing myself with the issues that are most troublesome to you guys. I’m seeing the same general categories of complaints over and over again:

• The number of “BS Experts” on the site.
• The difficulty in understanding how FixYa deals with payments and refunds.
• The confusing Expert ranking system.
• The seemingly arbitrary “best solution” designation.

Eliminating the “BS Experts” is at the top of my list. We have already banned a few and I have a list of many more that will be receiving warnings. The other issues are going to take us a little longer to deal with. FixYa is a growing company that doesn’t have the manpower to immediately implement change, but we want you to know that your issues aren’t falling upon deaf ears. In the meantime, I think that it will help both you and us if I make our policies a little bit clearer.

• Do not answer questions outside of your area of expertise. I know you are all eager to help and to make a little money, but when a good Expert overreaches his abilities and knowledge he ends up looking like a BS Expert and is in danger of receiving a warning or being banned.
• Do not simply tell customers to go to a technician or other professional. The reason they’re at FixYa in the first place is because they don’t want to go that route. I understand that in some cases your superior knowledge may mean that you truly know that no one short of a professional can fix the customer’s problem. In that case explain the reason clearly, don’t just tell them to “take it to the shop”.
• Be judicious when referring customers off site. It’s one thing if you are directing them towards a product or manual that they have specifically requested, but in other cases it is a violation of our TOS.
• Make sure that you don’t post what should be a request for clarification as a solution.
• Do not engage in “placeholding” by answering the question immediately with an unhelpful or partial response to secure your place in line, then using the comment function to finish your answer.
• Do not self-rate with secondary accounts. This behavior is very apparent to us and will get you banned.
• Do not copy or repeat information given in other Expert’s solutions to the same question. It’s okay if you and another Expert happen to give the same answer at the same time; we will be able to tell from the timestamp that it is an honest mistake. If you just want to confirm that another Expert’s solution is the right one, rate it with a “FixYa”.
• Do not oversimplify your answers. Customers using FixYa.com often come with little or no knowledge and experience. Be careful in your solutions to be detailed enough that even someone who isn’t familiar with the product in question can easily follow your advice. In premium questions in particular, customers expect more than a one or two line response.
• Do not give “inappropriate” ratings to experts in retaliation for anything that happens on or off FixYa.com. That sort of behavior is very apparent to us and if we begin to see a pattern of you giving undeserved “inappropriates”, you will be banned.
• Do not be rude to the customer and do not harass the customer to rate your response. It’s okay to include a friendly reminder, but begging makes you and us look bad.
• Do not spam. Ever. Any account that we suspect of spamming will be immediately banned.

I hope these guidelines help you guys. We really appreciate our Experts and don’t enjoy banning people, especially Experts who honestly didn’t know they were doing anything wrong. We hope that by clarifying exactly what we do and don’t want you to be doing we can make using and contributing to FixYa.com the most rewarding experience possible.

You can reach me at lauren@fixya.com. I’d love to hear any suggestions you how as to how we can increase the sense of community at FixYa and improve the customer and Expert experience.

Generally I’d be insulted if someone told me I was getting wider, but FixYa really has increased its width to make way for new features, contests and promotional opportunities. We’ve sharpened our corners and our minds to further highlight our talented experts. Let us know what you think below.

As always, thanks for your support and for being a part of this great community. If you’ve got questions or would like to suggest a featured expert, email lauren[at]fixya.com.

FixYa has some pretty outstanding experts. One such expert, Ekse, is a 20-year-old information technology student with 3692 FixYa solutions logged in his name. We were lucky enough to get an interview:

Q: Tell us about yourself:
A: I live in Finland, Turku. It’s a beautiful city. (see above picture) I have a background in computer repair and resale. I have had an interest in electronics and computers for a long time now. My father works in cars and back when I was very young I was “helping” my father in fixing his cars, I learned many lessons back then. So my strong interest in electronics and computers started and I have been taking things apart and putting them back together ever since. Right now I make my living from computers and customer service, while continuing my studies.

Q. What are your hobbies?
A. Running. I try to get out and run a few miles every day, it gives me a great feeling. Meditation, reading, computers, gaming and FixYa are also some of my hobbies to name a few.

Q. What first brought you to FixYa? When?
A. A friend happened to mention the website and it seemed like a good idea. I signed up as a expert in Feb. 2008 started very slowly, answering problems whenever there was a silent or boring moment in the computer shop I was working in at the time. I never expected to earn much from FixYa or even get this involved with the community. Eventually, I earned the rank of a wiz and started answering premium problems and chats.

Q. What is the FixYa answer you are most proud of?
A. I’d have to say I’m most proud of a session I had. It was an Acer laptop with E lock management and the customer had forgotten the password to the program. The floppy, cd - dvd and usb devices were all locked and unusable. We managed to work around the issue within an hour. The workaround solution is very simple and if I now get another session with the same problem, I will know exactly how to solve it in only a few minutes. The official Acer fix to this issue is to send the laptop to them for few weeks and pay $100 USD for the service. There have been quite a few good sessions and a few great ones, but the review I got from this one stands out from the rest.

Q. What advice do you have for those asking questions?
A. Try to provide as much detail as possible on the product you have (Brand, model, etc.) Also provide as much detail of the problem as possible. Simply saying, “I can’t send email” is very vague - if you get an error message, include it and everything else that you think may be relevant. It will save us time as we don’t have to ask for more details - it will make it easier to solve the problem.

Q. What advice do you have for experts?
A. Stick to your expertise, do your best and the rewards will follow. Take your time, get familiar with all the functions of the website. To maximize your earnings, answer chats and premiums.

Q. What new features would you like to see FixYa roll out?
A. A search tool for unsolved problems

If you’d like to learn more about Ekse, check out his page. If you or someone you know would like to be featured as an Expert, email dana[at]fixya.com with “Expert of the Week” in the subject line.