That moment a friend sees an opened terminal on your pc and you realize you are now branded "tech-support" forever *sigh*

Here's the secret: the first couple times you get asked for help, be enthusiastic, and do a really bad job. Like, terrible. Even if you can fix the problem, don't. Do something else bad, and very visible.

They'll learn very quickly. It's critical though that you pretend to be happy to help,and make things worse. If you try, and just can't fix it, they'll come back to you next time and the time after too, because you're the free option. If you make things worse, they won't let you help even if you offer.

@Arro Or even simpler: Just straight out say you're not gonna do it for free.

As an aside, if they are of the opposite sex and cute, I will help them all day.

Also if you provide cups of tea, strong, milk, two sugars, I'll overlook the gender thing.

@filthyranter the problem with that is that they think they can barter or negotiate. "this problem is super minor, he'll do it for free this time". With my way, the only thought is "don't ask him, he'll make it worse!"

@Arro With my way, they'll at some point not even bother because "eh, even though it's minor, he's going to tell me again how if it's such a small issue why I can't fix it myself"