On 1/26/06, sannse <sannse(a)tiscali.co.uk>
wrote:
Alphax (Wikipedia email) wrote:
sannse wrote:
I think that something needs to be done to bring
the two versions
together. It seems clear that people are writing to helpdesk-l,
thinking that they are writing to the "site owner's" email address, and
asking questions that would be better answered officially. And there
are plenty of mails on OTRS that could be better answered by a general
help desk.
The only way I can see of bringing them together is on OTRS. Perhaps
with two queues, one official mail and one helpdesk.
I don't know, but I do think it's something we should look at.
Unfortunately there will always be people who use the wrong one.
Yes, but with OTRS it is easy to switch email from one queue to another.
If there were clear guidelines as to what goes in which queue, then it
wouldn't be a problem that some mail initially got in the wrong queue.
Or we could have one big queue - with both addresses leading there (and
/many/ more helpers on it!)
I like the idea of using the ticket system for both addresses: grant
access liberally to the helpdesk queue (anyone interested and
reasonably clued) while having a smaller crew of people to answer the
mail that really must be handled carefully and discreetly
(confidential concerns, potential media blowups, etc.), to be easily
moved back and forth. I don't think helpdesk-l works as is, as it's
difficult to keep track of messages, and the boilerplate responses are
a *big* help answering mail in OTRS. (You can see these at
<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OTRS/en> - it's amazing how much of
the mail we get is people applying to our university or wishing to
email celebrities.)
The possible benefits of having the helpdesk as a list -- many
experienced eyes all looking at one question, openness, easy signup,
etc. -- are negated by the sheer volume of the list, dearth of regular
volunteers, and the fact that many people are confused about the
difference between sending to the private info address and to a public
mailing list -- I don't think anyone anticipated the sheer volume of
it when it was created.
I support this idea. How soon before we can change helpdesk-l to an OTRS
queue (oh, and maybe call it helpesk and have helpdesk-l forward there...)?
Completely burned out,
--
Alphax -
Contributor to Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia
"We make the internet not suck" - Jimbo Wales
Public key: