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[OC] 1 year of doing pay-what-you-want computer repairs on my free time (jlai.lu)
submitted 9 months ago by to c/dataisbeautiful@mander.xyz
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[–] 14 points 9 months ago (6 children)

Not sustainable but probably learned some new stuff

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  • [–] [S] 31 points 9 months ago (4 children)

    Nope, as mentioned, I do it on my free time, aside from my real job. The goal isn't to make money, but to lend a hand to people in need. That's why it's pay-what-you-want. This also gives me a rare perspective : I get to know truly how much people value my services.

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  • [–] 7 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    How much they value, or how much they feel obligated to pay. (Theoretically)

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  • [–] [S] 11 points 9 months ago*

    When they asked about how much to pay, my exact words are : I ask you pay me based on what you can afford and how satisfied you are.

    But yeah, sometimes, they say : "come on, you gotta give me an amount, pal". In which case, I'll just say people usually pay me between 20 and 40 bucks.

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  • [+] 2 points 9 months ago (2 children)
    [deleted]
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  • [–] [S] 10 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Thank you !

    How do people find you?

    On an app called "AlloVoisins" (I'm French btw), which in English would sound close to Nextdoor I suppose (literal translation would be "HelloNeighbor"), but it's not the same kind of app. People can post about their need of a good or service (and only that, it's not social media), then people who can provide will answer (and it only works one-way like this), so it's closer to Craigslist but not exactly (we do have a 1:1 equivalent of Craigslist, it works well for goods but not for services).

    One funny thing is a lot of people say they will recommend me to people, yet in the 3 years that I've been doing this, it only happened once that I was actually contacted directly after being recommended by someone esle.

    One even funnier thing : only a few weeks apart, I received requests from two people literally living next to each other, neighbors, who talk to each other daily where their respective yards connect, yet they both went through the app.

    Is the number of people asking for linux increasing?

    Actually nobody asks for Linux, most of the people I install Linux for don't even know what Windows is, despite having been using it for years. I offer to install it, when I know that the person could use it and not loose one bit of their routine while enjoying their computer almost as if it was new just because the system will be lighter (and not harrassing them about updates).

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    • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    What’s the average age of the people you help?

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  • [–] [S] 17 points 9 months ago

    I would have liked to include this, but it wouldn't really be data nor beautiful cause I don't have accurate statistics, not even with approximate ranges.

    However, I can tell you that most of the people I help are at least middle-aged and often seniors.

    One notable exception is the one data recovery entry : they were a university student using a very cheap and/or old HDD (IDE, not even SATA) until they suddenly couldn't access anything, I was able to save everything they needed into a new one.

    Another one is a few weeks ago (so not on this chart because 2026), I received a request from a mom who had bought their young son their first computer, a noname desktop from Amazon, that was poorly assembled : their issue was the monitor would turn off between 30-90 mins after starting a game, they thought it was a GPU overloading/overheating issue, but no, it was a false contact due to the GPU's power plug being stuck in a twisting position against the case door.

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    • [–] 5 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Very cool, thanks for sharing !

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    • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (2 children)

    Salut!

    My father lives an hour and a half away (vicinity of Brive).

    Bus travel seems a bit complicated there, the more in the country you live, the les frequently the connections are.

    According to your mail you do seem to get write far away from Limoges. Is the bus service so much better there or is it a bit of planning?

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  • [–] [S] 2 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Salut!

    Coucou !

    the more in the country you live, the les frequently the connections are

    That's right.

    According to your mail

    What do you mean ?

    you do seem to get write far away from Limoges. Is the bus service so much better there

    I don't know how it is in Brive so I can't compare, but we do have a pretty good bus network : inside the city, all stops are served every 10-15 minutes, and in the suburbs, stops are served once or twice an hour.

    or is it a bit of planning?

    Sometimes I do have to plan for longer-than-usual layovers or walking, e.g. 20 minutes, and sometimes the the bus just doesn't go far enough and I have to ask them to pick me up at the nearest stop which is usually a 5 min drive away.

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  • [–] 1 point 9 months ago

    According to your mail

    I meant map, but autocorrect...

    Thanks for the answer! I'm from the Netherlands, so I was interested to compare the bus system, in France I've never used it, because of the car being so much more convenient.

    Might be with it too try it out, I once went by train to Aurillac, just to travel differently.

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    • [–] 3 points 9 months ago (1 child)

    Do you have a data visualization of impacted population sorted by age range?

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