Ideally I'd have a site where I can put my email and encourage folks to write me. This has worked better than video chat for me, since:
1) folks rubber duck [1] themselves while writing, so they ask better questions.
2) it's asynchronous, so we don't have to find a matching slot in our schedules (and don't commit to an amount of time beforehand)
I've redirected all my Helpouts schedule requests to email recently and it's worked well.
> Also, why did you do it for free?
I just never considered charging. I don't think I could do so and feel good about it with the amount of free help I've received (irc, SO, hacker school, college...).
One word: illegal. Sounds like a smart way to incentivize, but those relatives of yours are seriously risking the worst type of landlord-tenant conflict. If the tenant can provide some form of proof of this extortion... it will not have been worth the attempt.
Besides the decline in user growth that Google mentions, here are the major problems I saw while using it:
* hosting a free Helpout meant dealing with constant no-shows [2]. I started charging $1/hour and then refunding it to folks who showed up.
* attendees of free Helpouts were rarely prepared
* the scheduling system was very limited (especially compared to Google Calendar)
That said, when everything worked, it was an amazing experience.
[1] https://helpouts.google.com/103350848301234480355/ls/a344f06...
[2] https://simon.codes/2013/11/07/google-helpouts-first-impress...