please god save me from my users!

[snow-leopard.livejournal.com]

I was out at Lunch. User wanted to print large file. Clicked print. As its a large file, it takes a while to spool. Goes to printer, sees it isn't printing, so clicks print again. Goes to printer, sees it isn't printing, so clicks print again. Goes to printer, sees it isn't printing, so clicks print again. User clicks print, print, print, print, print, print, print, print, print etc.
*sigh*
I have spent the past 20 minutes deleting his print jobs from the queue.
Whatever happened to common sense?

Comments

[heathwitch.livejournal.com]

Whatever happened to common sense?

Users are either born without it, or lose it at a very early age :p

[loosechanj.livejournal.com]

So early, in fact, that it's a negative number.

[thebutler.livejournal.com]

Aaaah...

I used to help out the IT techs at my secondary school (something I fear has set me on a bit of a slippery slope, but there you go...) and clearing the print queues for the twenty-bloody-seventh time that lunchtime was the highlight of my day.

Well. Nearly. Clearing the print queue, grabbing the staple gun, and chasing the idiot out of the IT room was the part I *really* looked forward to. Useful things, stapleguns...

[snow-leopard.livejournal.com]

And of course it has a roll on effect as the next user goes, hmm, wonder why my fiel isn't printing and clicks print many many times.
*sigh*

[wyrdlinks.livejournal.com]

Common sense isn't that common.

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

-Voltaire.

Also see:
Common sense is a collection of prejudices one gathers by the age of eighteen. -- Albert Einstein.

[dpaul007.livejournal.com]

The three most uncommon elements in the universe:

Common Decency, Common Courtesy and Common Sense.

[indigo-max.livejournal.com]

arrgh!!!

That would be one clueless person but I have seen it before. Seen people send stuff to one printer and thought they sent it to another. Only problem is the printer they sent it to was across campus and they continue to send it. Working cross platform can be interesting too. We have 2 NT print queues at work and a UNIX print. The UNIX doesn't know anything about the NT print queues and vice versa. Add that into a forms server (Formscape) and you get all sorts of fun.

Max...

[dpaul007.livejournal.com]

"Whatever happened to common sense?"

It went the same way as common decency and common courtesy: out the window.

[boredevilperson.livejournal.com]

When people did the repeat print crap at my last job they were usually at another location.

After a few times of them losing a ream or more of paper because no one was available to cancel their print job swiftly . . . Well they usually learned not to do it by that point.

If we could clean up after them right away though it was a guarantee that they'd do it again later.

What have we learned? Make it as messy for the user as possibly and they won't repeat their actions. It's like training a dog.

[torkell]

At my old school, someone sent the same thing about 50 times to a colour printer (because it didn't appear the instant he clicked the button). Now, at 2p per printer credit and 3 credits per page, that works out at £3. Which the admins made him pay.

That, plus threats to do the same to others, stopped people doing that.

[eightofspades.livejournal.com]

This is why I hate the mix of user + printer.

Hell I just hate printers...

[jahbulon.livejournal.com]

Whatever happened to common sense?

It wouldn't print.

[the-s-guy.livejournal.com]

Request for the programmers out there:

I'd like a program which can:
a) Browse a print queue
b) Wipe out all jobs in the print queue with a single click
c) Extract the list of usernames, print job titles and timestamps from a queue (prior to wiping), and generate the following:

Mailto: {email addresses of all usernames}
Subject: This is what happened to your prints between {time of earliest job in queue} and {time of print queue clearance} that were sent to {printername}.
Body:
{earliest username} submitted a print job called {name} at {timestamp, which jammed the print queue}, but did not report it.
Then, {next username} submitted a print job called {name} at {timestamp}, which didn't print because the queue was jammed, but did not report it.
Then, {next username} submitted a print job called {name} at {timestamp}, which didn't print because the queue was jammed, but did not report it.
Then, {next username} submitted a print job called {name} at {timestamp}, which didn't print because the queue was jammed, but did not report it.

... etc etc until last print job

Then, finally, the help desk got called at , and cleared all the jobs which were blocking the print queue. In future, people might want to report printer problems BEFORE the problems kill everybody's prints for several {hours, days as appropriate}.

[end of body text]

I'd use such a program when there were a zillion print jobs in the queue, or the timespan between first and last jobs was more than an hour or so. I've had timespans of days before anybody reported printing problems. Gah.