Request Tool Effectiveness

[Taven]

Does the staff see the same thing on their end, that I see on mine?

That's a good question.  We actually don't go through e-mail as an intermediary anymore.  We use the tool itself to organize requests in several different ways.  Since we do that, that is likely why there's no title function:  for us, we don't really have any reason for a title.  We know what your account is, what the PC's name is, what clan the request is for, and whether or not it's a character report.  If we're your clan staff, we then know from having dealt with you before, "hey, this guy/gal put in a report last week. This must be this week's report.  Or maybe they put in a new one."  Then we open it up.  From our perspective, it's not really that big of a deal to have a title when we need to read the body of it anyway.

I'm not sure what is required in order to code that titling up that way, but that's a nifty idea.

I know the original title idea was also to (possibly?) be beneficial staffside, rather then just being useful to players for finding things (not that that's a "just", I find it important, but you know what I mean). That way if something was more important, it could be noted in the title.

Here's a clip from X-D's original post with the idea:

Or even better, be able to title my requests, or at least some of them.

So staff could look at the que and see a one liner, say 35 letter title.

Code Select Expand

XD
char report: Same old same old

char report:INVASION OF NEW STEINAL!

Question: STUCK HELP

Question: Fletchery mastercraft


The nice thing about that is, the return emails would then get the same title, so I would know what it is about at a glance as well.

[Cerelum]

The other thing I would add, is that it would be nicer if staff were a little slower to mark requests as 'resolved'. I think this has come up before, and reasons have been given etc...but I still think it would be a much neater scenario if 'back and forth' between a particular issue stayed within the same request. And that really, especially in the case of 'Questions', that it be more up to the player when their question has been resolved. Having it the other way around makes it seem like the staff can hide behind closing a request and discourage further conversation on a topic - when a player might have more to say! Kind of like hanging up the phone on someone.

I probably would do the same thing.  I can't stand when I have things still on my agenda, I try to knock them out ASAP.  They probably view them the same way.

[Barsook]

The other thing I would add, is that it would be nicer if staff were a little slower to mark requests as 'resolved'. I think this has come up before, and reasons have been given etc...but I still think it would be a much neater scenario if 'back and forth' between a particular issue stayed within the same request. And that really, especially in the case of 'Questions', that it be more up to the player when their question has been resolved. Having it the other way around makes it seem like the staff can hide behind closing a request and discourage further conversation on a topic - when a player might have more to say! Kind of like hanging up the phone on someone.

I agree there, it does feel like the staff is hanging up on the player.  Maybe have a button that allows the player to say that they got what they wanted, and if not, another button to reply to the staff.  But this function is more for the question, PC report, ect type of thing.  The leave/join and the clan info page access doesn't need this.

[Nyr]

1. It would be nice for my OCD to be able to tell when staff has looked at a request.  This would allow us to know when they are sandbagging or not.  (Just kidding, but it would be nice to know who looked at it but didn't act)

Probably not that helpful for players except as a way to be slightly annoying for the player.  We oftentimes talk back and forth in notes on requests, going over related details and such.  Most requests are going to be resolved within a reasonable amount of time (I believe our volunteer SLA is something around 5 days for reports and minor stuff to get a reply/resolution).

2. Perhaps a counter to tell you what number you in the queue for whatever you're in for.  Example. "Your message is currently number 2 of 9 in order of receipt." Phone systems can do it, why couldn't the request system?

Since we don't necessarily do requests in the order that they are received, this also isn't very useful for players except as a way to cause annoyance.  It isn't a reliable way to know how long it will be to get a response since epic-length stuff may in fact take longer to review than simple questions, and there's often several low-priority things in queue (special applcations, account notes, etc) that would distort that even moreso.

[Cerelum]

1. It would be nice for my OCD to be able to tell when staff has looked at a request.  This would allow us to know when they are sandbagging or not.  (Just kidding, but it would be nice to know who looked at it but didn't act)

Probably not that helpful for players except as a way to be slightly annoying for the player.  We oftentimes talk back and forth in notes on requests, going over related details and such.  Most requests are going to be resolved within a reasonable amount of time (I believe our volunteer SLA is something around 5 days for reports and minor stuff to get a reply/resolution).

2. Perhaps a counter to tell you what number you in the queue for whatever you're in for.  Example. "Your message is currently number 2 of 9 in order of receipt." Phone systems can do it, why couldn't the request system?

Since we don't necessarily do requests in the order that they are received, this also isn't very useful for players except as a way to cause annoyance.  It isn't a reliable way to know how long it will be to get a response since epic-length stuff may in fact take longer to review than simple questions, and there's often several low-priority things in queue (special applcations, account notes, etc) that would distort that even moreso.

I was just busting ya balls and playing around.  Geez heh.

[Barsook]

Nyr never takes anything as a joke...

[Kismetic]

The only thing I can say is, and I believe it was mentioned, that it should be on the player to close the request.  I know this might open a tad bit of room to annoy our volunteer staff, but I think it would cut down on overall number of requests, and encourage a more robust interaction between staff and player.  Sometimes, it feels like the door's being shut on you.  Not rudely, but just prematurely closed.

[Cerelum]

Nyr never takes anything as a joke...

Oh I'm aware, I'm surprised he still deals with me at all.  Me and him had a falling out a year or two ago.  I was a douchebag, but eh, most of you know how I was back then.

[Feco]

I have no complaints, and it's always worked very, very well for me.

Titles to the emails would be nice, if only for sorting purposes.  I do like all the extra info in the title, though, so I would hate to lose that.

[Taven]

*gets out the popcorn*

Seriously though...Lizzies suggestion of a title function that would be used in the titles of emails regarding that request would be awesome. It can be a little hard to locate specific requests if you are more prone to using your email inbox rather than the request interface (which is a little bit funny sometimes, and the text is super tiny? Or am I using it wrong?)

I made some screen shots for you. All of these requests are super old, and actually were emails from before the request tool existed. I blanked stuff out anyway.  It uses the same view as you though.

The first screen shot is the general view you should have (you may wish to enlarge the image by opening its own window for it):


Image link

If you look, there's a column on the right hand side with a magnifying glass. If you click on that, it will enlarge to show a specific request.


Image link

If a request is unresolved, you can also scroll down and reply to it, and the history of all replies will be here.

Does that answer your question at all? Or could you explain what the issue is better?

[BleakOne]

I like the request tool. I prefer it over emails.

[Nyr]

The only thing I can say is, and I believe it was mentioned, that it should be on the player to close the request.  I know this might open a tad bit of room to annoy our volunteer staff, but I think it would cut down on overall number of requests, and encourage a more robust interaction between staff and player.  Sometimes, it feels like the door's being shut on you.  Not rudely, but just prematurely closed.

We are unlikely to place resolution of player requests in the hands of players.  Ultimately, we're staff and we do get the final word, and we also don't want a request tool cluttered up by stuff players haven't "resolved."  If it's cluttered with days-old stuff that hasn't been handled, how is that helping us?  Players feel better, but staff have a less useful tool.  If a request does seem prematurely closed, open a new request.  You don't have to feel slighted by a request's resolution itself, and we certainly don't feel annoyed by players opening a request to clarify something previously resolved (within reason).

[Barsook]

Couldn't you put a time limit on how long one can be unresolved?

[Nyr]

Couldn't you put a time limit on how long one can be unresolved?

Nope.  It would screw up metrics.  Also, we don't really want to.

[Kismetic]

The only thing I can say is, and I believe it was mentioned, that it should be on the player to close the request.  I know this might open a tad bit of room to annoy our volunteer staff, but I think it would cut down on overall number of requests, and encourage a more robust interaction between staff and player.  Sometimes, it feels like the door's being shut on you.  Not rudely, but just prematurely closed.

We are unlikely to place resolution of player requests in the hands of players.  Ultimately, we're staff and we do get the final word, and we also don't want a request tool cluttered up by stuff players haven't "resolved."  If it's cluttered with days-old stuff that hasn't been handled, how is that helping us?  Players feel better, but staff have a less useful tool.  If a request does seem prematurely closed, open a new request.  You don't have to feel slighted by a request's resolution itself, and we certainly don't feel annoyed by players opening a request to clarify something previously resolved (within reason).

Fair enough.

[Barsook]

Couldn't you put a time limit on how long one can be unresolved?

Nope.  It would screw up metrics.  Also, we don't really want to.

I see, but couldn't you offset it by that time?  (I know that you don't want to do this, but just wondering)

[Nyr]

I'd rather not reanimate that dead horse to beat it anymore.  It's dead, Jim!

Any other ideas for improving it for a player perspective?

[Lizzie]

Well - this is a formatting issue. And it could just be a conflict with my browser. When I hit the enter key after typing a paragraph in the request tool buffer, it automatically sends the cursor down 1.5 lines. I don't like that. I'd like to be able to set it such that I have to hit enter twice, if I want a paragraph deliniation, like I do with all my other text editors.

I'd like to be able to use [ <code syntax> ] to make something bold, or italics, instead of having to hit the buttons on the top (I'm lazy and hate using the mouse).

I'd love love love, to be able to use the tab button to indent instead of having to use a button on the top menu to indent, and then use another button to -stop- indenting. That's such a pain.

I'd love - very much - to be able to copy and paste from notepad to the text editor, and vice versa, without any change in formatting (I realize notepad doesn't allow you to do much other than change the font and provide wordwrap but it -does- also allow indents by using the tab key on the keyboard).

Copying quotes totally fucks everything up. Anything I try to add below the quoted bit gets wonky.  This is especially frustrating when I'm pasting snippets of text from a log, or from the game client (Mushclient).

Sometimes, I will find that nested requests/staff responses lose their apostrophes and replace them with slashes. It/s very annoying and I/m sure can be irritating when I/m responding -to- that response, which has already lost its apostrophes and is now filled with slashes. This doesn't happen all the time. I haven't yet figured out the pattern. Again, it might be a browser issue on my end.

Mostly, I'd like to see the request tool text editor, behave more like a PHPbb forum editor, or even the SMF that this forum uses.

Yes, I'm longwinded. But you knew that

[Barsook]

Nevermind

[TheBadSeed]

Going to lay out the disclaimer that I haven't read all the thread:

I think the request tool works very well. The only thing that bothers me with it is that requests are generally closed without a chance to converse, and there doesn't seem much of an option for continued conversation from most of the requests.

[Nyr]

The title thing is something that is an example of an all-around good idea for improving the effectiveness of the request tool as suggested by the OP.  However, most of what you have here are nitpicks over little things that are preferential rather than problematic.  I don't know that most of the things you've mentioned are unnecessarily difficult, they're just nitpicks over how the editor does work.  Some can or might be changed or reviewed by Morgenes, but don't get your hopes up.  

I'll explain what I mean:

Well - this is a formatting issue. And it could just be a conflict with my browser. When I hit the enter key after typing a paragraph in the request tool buffer, it automatically sends the cursor down 1.5 lines. I don't like that. I'd like to be able to set it such that I have to hit enter twice, if I want a paragraph deliniation, like I do with all my other text editors.

I think MS Word does double-spacing by default now (a whole step farther than this).  I'm ambivalent about pushing at this one since it's preferential rather than an unnecessarily difficult problem, and shift + enter "fixes" it both here and there.  And I like it that way, actually.  Write a paragraph, press enter, there's a new line between paragraphs.

I'd like to be able to use [ <code syntax> ] to make something bold, or italics, instead of having to hit the buttons on the top (I'm lazy and hate using the mouse).

You can use keyboard shortcuts (ctrl+b, ctrl+i, etc -- or apple + b, apple + i if you have a Mac).  If you're lazy, that's faster.  This is more preference than unnecessarily difficult, though, and a step backwards.  The forum's way of doing this is annoying; at least the editor for the request tool lets me be lazier than you want to be and lets me use keyboard shortcuts.

I'd love love love, to be able to use the tab button to indent instead of having to use a button on the top menu to indent, and then use another button to -stop- indenting. That's such a pain.

I believe that most web-based forms make tab become an actual "tab" between fields. See:  replying to this post.  Tab sends you to the Post button.   In fact, Gmail and Hotmail (both web-based e-mail clients) do this, too.  Given that, I'd say this is more preferential than an unnecessarily difficult problem.

I'd love - very much - to be able to copy and paste from notepad to the text editor, and vice versa, without any change in formatting (I realize notepad doesn't allow you to do much other than change the font and provide wordwrap but it -does- also allow indents by using the tab key on the keyboard).

The only thing it can't do (apparently) is control your indentations from an outside source.  Not sure if that can be tweaked (not sure if it is worth tweaking), but it is noted.  

Copying quotes totally fucks everything up. Anything I try to add below the quoted bit gets wonky.  This is especially frustrating when I'm pasting snippets of text from a log, or from the game client (Mushclient).

 I'm not sure what this means.

Sometimes, I will find that nested requests/staff responses lose their apostrophes and replace them with slashes. It/s very annoying and I/m sure can be irritating when I/m responding -to- that response, which has already lost its apostrophes and is now filled with slashes. This doesn't happen all the time. I haven't yet figured out the pattern. Again, it might be a browser issue on my end.

I've seen this occasionally in other areas, not just the request tool, but same sort of deal there...not sure what causes it.  Legitimate thing to research, definitely.  In other areas, at least, it presented itself when submitting form data for preview and then going back to edit.  Solution (short):  don't do that; solution (long):  not sure.

[Gunnerblaster]

Personally, I'm pretty pleased with the way the Staff has developed Player-Staff communication.

From experience, I've never come across another website; forum or game-wise, where the players have been able to communicate so easily with the administration.

Most websites have those generic 'report an issue here' that typically gets no response other than the automated reply you get for sending in the request ticket.

[hatchets]

While I have not yet used the editor as much as others, being I am quite new, I find, afterp laying muds for over 16 years, that it is one of the best thought up features an active staff can implement.

It actually only got better for me once I learned I could click the magnifying glass (read it from someone in this post).

While I hate bringing up the dead horse heh, I have not yet had a problem with it, but I do like staff closing it out. I would think it would be easy enough to send a related request in again, just as a new open request, if there was more to be added or dealt with.

I personally, hardly ever check my email account, although I imagine for those that do, the title changing would be nice.

And I cannot say enough how much, after sixteen years of mudding, I appreciate that tool and an active staff

[solera]

Sometimes, I will find that nested requests/staff responses lose their apostrophes and replace them with slashes. It/s very annoying and I/m sure can be irritating when I/m responding -to- that response, which has already lost its apostrophes and is now filled with slashes. This doesn't happen all the time. I haven't yet figured out the pattern. Again, it might be a browser issue on my end.

Lizzie, I've had this when I've reversed to edit, but only when I've copied and pasted a Wordpad file.  Notepad seems fine for me.

[janeshephard]

Ultimately, the request tool is here for staff to use to keep track of open items with players, whether it be a report, a question, a critical bug, or the like.  We'll definitely do our best to not close it before it is "resolved" to our knowledge and player knowledge, but if you (as the user) are not "done" after a request is closed, you may submit a new request.  I don't like the idea of forcing staff to wait for a player's response in order to close a request.  There are enough requests filed on a regular basis that I personally have to bump a few times for players that I feel that this would result in unnecessary request tool clutter.

Auto-close after 7 days of no activity. That's how I design every ticketing system I've had to implement.