[WikiEN-l] Re: Help needed for helpdesk-l

[Alphax (Wikipedia email)]

Timwi wrote:
> 
> [about helpdesk-l]
> 
>> The moderation queue is being cleaned out, so there are a *lot* of new
>> messages to answer. You can subscribe to the list at:
>>
>> http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/helpdesk-l
> 
> 
> A mailing list is chronically unsuitable for the task that helpdesk-l is
> trying to solve. In order to answer someone's question everyone has to
> remember to send the reply back to the user and not just to the list.
> Potential follow-ups from that user then go to the answerer and not to
> the mailing list. There is no real way to get a glimpse of what queries
> are as yet unanswered. Since anyone can subscribe to the list and reply
> to questions, and replies cannot be edited by other users, the requestor
> has no way of knowing how authoritative or accurate the answer is. A
> lesser problem is the potential of the user receiving several (possibly
> contradicting) replies from different users.
> 
> An issue-tracking system would be vastly more appropriate. Perhaps best
> would be a system like LiveJournal Support, or perhaps exactly that
> system. The system knows what requests are answered and unanswered (open
> and closed), the question and the answer(s) can be seen on one page, the
> user's follow-up reply is on the same page, etc.etc.
> 

Ah, you want Bugzilla! :)

(Why go for a proprietary solution when a free one will work just as
well! And even if LiveJournal Support *is* free, we already use Bugzilla
and know how to set it up and use it...)

-- 
Alphax - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alphax
Contributor to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
"We make the internet not suck" - Jimbo Wales
Public key: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Alphax/OpenPGP
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: signature.asc
Type: application/pgp-signature
Size: 546 bytes
Desc: OpenPGP digital signature
Url : http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/attachments/20051112/e2c6a11d/attachment.pgp