State of helpdesk?
Hi Colin, I had a good chat last week with one of the volunteers that you recruited some months ago to help with the helpdesk. He told me that he wasn't answering tickets anymore, since it is just a deluge of tickets, mostly the same over and over, and without any feedback mechanisms from the helpdesk to the other support pieces (faq, stackexchange, etc) and dev teams, there isn't really an end in sight. I suspect I agree with him -- taking a step back, it seems wise for us to enumerate our support mechanisms, and try to prioritize and triage so we do what is most scalable and most sustainable. That said, I don't think many of us have a good handle on where the helpdesk is right now. So it's hard for us to know where it should fit in this triaging. Can you summarize for us how many tickets it's getting, how many (and which) people are active, whether most tickets are getting answered (and after how long), what languages they're in, and whatever other questions I ought to be asking? Then we will be in a better position to try to help you. Thanks! --Roger
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512 Roger Dingledine:
Hi Colin,
Hi Roger / all,
I had a good chat last week with one of the volunteers that you recrui ted some months ago to help with the helpdesk. He told me that he wasn't answering tickets anymore, since it is just a deluge of tickets, mostl y the same over and over, and without any feedback mechanisms from the helpdesk to the other support pieces (faq, stackexchange, etc) and dev teams, there isn't really an end in sight.
This is currently accurate. Outside of reporting UX issues on Trac, and possibly adding items to the FAQ, there is no mechanism for support staff to spread the help-desk information more widely. A lot of the tickets we see are what I would consider "basics", and things that would be covered by the user manual (if it was available to users in an updated / usable way). This is a big part of why I think getting that finished would be a useful step forward for providing support to users, especially if it could be presented in some way that users encountered it without much hunting.
I suspect I agree with him -- taking a step back, it seems wise for us to enumerate our support mechanisms, and try to prioritize and triage so we do what is most scalable and most sustainable.
I generally agree here. Currently for support mechanisms, these are what I am aware of: 1: Help-Desks (RequestTracker) 2. Mailing lists (tor-talk, etc..) 3. IRC (#tor) 4. StackExchange 5. FAQ 6. General documentation on the website 7. Man pages
That said, I don't think many of us have a good handle on where the helpdesk is right now. So it's hard for us to know where it should fit in this triaging.
Can you summarize for us how many tickets it's getting, how many (and which) people are active, whether most tickets are getting answered (and after how long), what languages they're in, and whatever other questions I ought to be asking?
I will put out more precise numbers tomorrow and update the list, however I am fairly certain at this point I am the only person answering tickets in English, however its possible that Alison may still be answering tickets as well (will check on this when I retrieve the numbers). This is obviously not sustainable / ideal, regardless of if its 1 or 2 of us. We still have semi-active people answering tickets in Farsi, French and Chinese. I believe the volunteers that were recruited a few months ago were quickly overwhelmed with the number of tickets we receive; which in hindsight, is not surprising. Unfortunately, based on how the previous recruitment went, I do not think the same type of plan will be successful in the long-term. I've been working on a plan to make the support team more sustainable, however figuring out the best way to offer direct user support has been proving tricky. I believe its an important service, and one that cannot be replaced by public mechanisms like IRC and open mailing lists. My hope, is that there may be ways that we can make users reliance on the help-desk less, so that the help-desk can go back to being used for when users require the 1-on-1 support it can provide, when operating normally . Tomorrow I will clean up the portions of the plan that I think I have figured out, and send it to this list for review. Currently, this plan includes cleaning up certain pieces of documentation (like the manual, and relay / HS guides), as well as trying to turn many of the template responses we use on RT into FAQ entries, or perhaps their own type of "support portal". I will also bump this thread with more exact numbers on tickets.
Then we will be in a better position to try to help you.
That would be great! Any suggestions are greatly appreciated / welcomed. Thanks! - -- Colin Childs Tor Project https://www.torproject.org Twitter: @Phoul -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQIcBAEBCgAGBQJW353ZAAoJEJWQHABkmqq5Qf4QAKLoYnSKxSfQ7ARknevAyBQz U32LdZ07n30Do/FNYzCAM4amCeW61ESb0RnwPbOkgf0eFLLHcdGmCyWDrbAwiZOB vt2KbIEi8jvAZInW3ir6SkInS8KQOzcZJ6qTcakz3OtWKSQrD0juAuog5yGwTqul nGFXoASLQ3oepPcoYigOBX3p4j1y6SaDcnS0oWttxvtIYrp9BMzC4FqmcWv0zhJx rv0kcwBhIsZvt+3+08f42hU7QjGdn3QuUAKdhw17Cj/ffgJdKdO60fXGx/RXOxIT iOmtzbYvkJDNeOYXlI9FseeJdvi37P29nIGA0z7Kj7KTEWlvAt2mivB/F8HwAHaM Abr4iPBZfhHK6ESHTZsBJS4NTm4YUM7TE1ptw6SqX9/adr8QsWns2BZPpXMNBGjC cbXIMbP281ZAT0YDrgFtyo9uKAnIvhrcsx+I6GGoiCnm2mxeQ/lV9rhShcvtPCh7 RGvNy0btvERLwOEhjwc1lFib+7tIHe0tfqVHOboPPfS9XwPWtL7qnrs2M6JilegD YxZ2yNJJV+IkoOZFBCbMUaE6xXIKbBJSp4vuAepPsjOxoqhm2CzXd1fBh5jWW8I9 QvDz+V99jJZmSxF3c1taYXR8SNVtATk4ZwptVwZPcFWERSgU0f3cjthqoDv1/aX9 dOTI4DF3u6NPTUBZiSy4 =N/4R -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
On Wed, Mar 09, 2016 at 03:52:00AM +0000, Colin Childs wrote:
Currently for support mechanisms, these are what I am aware of:
1: Help-Desks (RequestTracker) 2. Mailing lists (tor-talk, etc..) 3. IRC (#tor) 4. StackExchange 5. FAQ 6. General documentation on the website 7. Man pages
There's also Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and the blog comments: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/meetings/2016WinterDevMeet... Good thought on 'man pages' -- I just added that to the list on that wiki page. We should think about which other ones we've missed.
I will put out more precise numbers tomorrow and update the list,
Looking forward to it!
cleaning up certain pieces of documentation (like the manual, and relay / HS guides), as well as trying to turn many of the template responses we use on RT into FAQ entries
I agree that these steps sound useful. Thanks, --Roger
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512 Roger Dingledine:
There's also Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, and the blog comments: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/meetings/2016WinterD evMeeting/Notes/TakeBackCommunityChannels
Ahh, great! I had forgotten about these avenues of offering support.
Good thought on 'man pages' -- I just added that to the list on that wiki page.
We should think about which other ones we've missed.
I will put out more precise numbers tomorrow and update the list,
Looking forward to it!
To start, I was incorrect about who was still working on the help-desk. It appears that Michael and Jason are still answering tickets, Thank you to both of them for continuing to answer tickets over the last couple months. Here are some numbers: Total tickets in queue: 4224[1][2] Tickets answered since March 1st: 14 Tickets received today: 40 Assuming today is an average day (it appears to be), this would be approx. 1200 tickets a month. At 1200 tickets a month, with 3 people maintaining the help-desk, we would each need to take on 400 tickets per month (each). While this worked for a period when the help-desk was being run by paid staff, it is clear that it is not continuing to work; which is understandable. Answering 400 tickets in a month is an extreme time commitment for a volunteer, and was on the higher end of what the paid staff was able to accomplish when 100% of their time was spent on answering requests. In the next hour or so, I will be getting the "support plan" that I mentioned previously onto this list. While this email likely sounds bleak, hopefully the other one helps balance things out. [1]: While this number is alarmingly high, it is not entirely accurate. These tickets have not been pruned for spam, requests in non-English languages, and duplicate tickets. My estimate, would be that 3000-ish (likely fewer) of these tickets would be something we would / could actually respond to. [2]: When we started with the new volunteers in December, the queue was cleared as the help-desk had been shut down for a period of time while recruiting volunteers. So the 4224 number should not include any tickets before the last week of 2015. - -- Colin Childs Tor Project https://www.torproject.org Twitter: @Phoul -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQIcBAEBCgAGBQJW4PHrAAoJEJWQHABkmqq5Nq4P/1dCoVIBRz1c//HRoTXtpOak fDe1IzF1BwNwhsezWBROdQXu/uUv27E71tBAneOJW+N81y6k4D6f9re5m3nlU4kb C9JbueVH5sZoJi7vNZDYt7916W1bfaPI2eGNt3UcwzYXXaZbZe0o3qnAHklUMfbq D1yFjp1uuy1+pr0sXUCjj5WhEKGoPZT2IPDcy0KMcOIu9fw6ZpUTIv+i5Az25qvp fryQ0vJNmBob0/HsS7a3ck+C3ylO8LrTdJJr6Iw7r8N2szZDgTtrrLaWotbVFxAm Ig3fj9Ql7q9Xa8ejkCvR3TwnwyKZDD5e9uxvX+ApNBRbux9mejFrmzOtjjGvd3Jr kbyfvmjTRGjo8+z6GBzArzL9COrmFNsqufOfL+jEYlJA+pY7wK0L4unBOa1+VFPU L/w4Q3Q65phxqDRbmejH2jj81GE3FdrnSnCA9kdC1Ixy2qv9eTo33NifltL8JV7y uWk5A9ZA77ie0sfq0Rh7MUsO7s6yjQS1NWPW9Y73o9e121DY8TockKiPWoSCgwSe ypl+F9gYFO9lKFtbtVYqmX9bSFT7AZTW/RWm4Xhb44kxqyekPDNVcZ/1sLhtzf2L wmkvOz9u3D/BGBRgyPjyJa6m4Rca+ZjLVi+nbZtuzpRl5lNK2Yv11OPmjdO+Y+sy qakUSf9UeczyQypuHKJm =ke/Z -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Roger Dingledine <arma@mit.edu> escribió:
Hi Colin,
I had a good chat last week with one of the volunteers that you recruited some months ago to help with the helpdesk. He told me that he wasn't answering tickets anymore, since it is just a deluge of tickets, mostly the same over and over, and without any feedback mechanisms from the helpdesk to the other support pieces (faq, stackexchange, etc) and dev teams, there isn't really an end in sight.
I suspect I agree with him -- taking a step back, it seems wise for us to enumerate our support mechanisms, and try to prioritize and triage so we do what is most scalable and most sustainable.
That said, I don't think many of us have a good handle on where the helpdesk is right now. So it's hard for us to know where it should fit in this triaging.
Can you summarize for us how many tickets it's getting, how many (and which) people are active, whether most tickets are getting answered (and after how long), what languages they're in, and whatever other questions I ought to be asking?
Then we will be in a better position to try to help you.
Thanks! --Roger
Just as a side note: In Valencia there were some talk about resuscitating the service in spanish if we find three volunteers. I said I'll be one of them. Blame me but I don't remember who said to be the second one. Regards Noel er Envite
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512 Noel Torres:
Just as a side note:
In Valencia there were some talk about resuscitating the service in spanish if we find three volunteers. I said I'll be one of them. Blame me but I don't remember who said to be the second one.
This sounds great! Sadly, most of the other queues do not have multiple maintainers at the moment. I believe previously, when Lunar was running the help-desk, that it was stated 2 people would be enough to open a new queue. Was there any reason for the switch to 3 maintainers? - -- Colin Childs Tor Project https://www.torproject.org Twitter: @Phoul -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQIcBAEBCgAGBQJW4AMcAAoJEJWQHABkmqq5SYUQAI4psZcQ+UaK11ztxSoFxaey 376MDs82q4SHR18Ije+wFz47ICvSzjnrjqrYQBRXHRW7Js2wBQprUSD0cIUbqfXx yoRd8bgv6fPmwTf5NH4lRE5FndhLqAdkf8yUawJcd1cc1TRF75htr3DuMND9CMTb 1SsvabP+w7EAv8ClPk6YkLL04aUA17obJ6bDs/C4BXd5I85q6L5TjT2u0uB6jXKZ XOPe5JaDTWhutKAF1CvGDZi/0NvPv8m9mzTQsOyAFESesT4DB8TYBZIUqvc6onym Gw4k25C9yfy9TCbeJuI9s4h4D6Ih+tjq+SrV9KHzZcxaKZ9h2t2EMJeHEnk7D42q dRQSXHTkOZXiQmAuSLz1XaEzmobpyFB3jIT8XW+ualOrJLpc2PnSrG4X3Nq74Qny j2cyMb65OteqonTkc7/XR96ALV4xsjV6vnRCVdaDeObA7ax3/Kuji3xLCPdoGoOx SWIyj/5FZ6PgnEVjVmvPYY9643P+FHzJxIb9OsD1W9hBv359JItt8WAUMs9gwFSz plZQJ5rx92sK2Evltp72gJML5Wn8U9EfovAe+Kh+5GsvO0RqxfGZU4B5Dc5mKIkd AOKis1JgG+4AnzvE9A96GVTvhiUV6vIXiRWgrxlS51MiOjhlvSBaDKRDjexzCpPB f+gXm0poqKFpOELEUfrb =yjoK -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Colin Childs <colin@torproject.org> escribió:
Noel Torres:
Just as a side note:
In Valencia there were some talk about resuscitating the service in spanish if we find three volunteers. I said I'll be one of them. Blame me but I don't remember who said to be the second one.
This sounds great!
Sadly, most of the other queues do not have multiple maintainers at the moment. I believe previously, when Lunar was running the help-desk, that it was stated 2 people would be enough to open a new queue.
Was there any reason for the switch to 3 maintainers?
No particular reason, besides involving three people implies than in case of any absence (illness, leave, holidays with the family, being interned in some secret NSA/CIA jail) there will be still two people working.
- -- Colin Childs Tor Project https://www.torproject.org Twitter: @Phoul
(Missed you at Valencia) Regards Noel er Envite
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA512 Noel Torres:
Colin Childs <colin@torproject.org> escribió:
Noel Torres:
Just as a side note:
In Valencia there were some talk about resuscitating the service in spanish if we find three volunteers. I said I'll be one of them. Bla
me
me but I don't remember who said to be the second one.
This sounds great!
Sadly, most of the other queues do not have multiple maintainers at t he moment. I believe previously, when Lunar was running the help-desk, t hat it was stated 2 people would be enough to open a new queue.
Was there any reason for the switch to 3 maintainers?
No particular reason, besides involving three people implies than in case of any absence (illness, leave, holidays with the family, being interned in some secret NSA/CIA jail) there will be still two people working. This makes sense, and sounds like a good idea. It should also help towards not being in a situation again where its just 1 person, if we have time to find a replacement and still have 2 people working.
(Missed you at Valencia)
Yes, sorry for that. There were some unfortunate circumstances that prevented me from being able to attend this year, however I hope to see you at the next meeting. Thanks! - -- Colin Childs Tor Project https://www.torproject.org Twitter: @Phoul -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- iQIcBAEBCgAGBQJW4AhKAAoJEJWQHABkmqq5DMwP/Rzjr2dAUykl0sCPwsEYzD8p sub3m0dUxkelzIzZuXqSOPuJ94l4Brs3PX8Lf2yfUny5aBaiK44rJ81CxQmcx/FE TdkqESVLMhAoozT/RNEoj56quPdi70znZlDkAugqcKWwFpfDF7Wf/wtj1GkS4Jgq QSeZXNlV5PkUvIshx/SCp+y7FdRKkSXyvP0fth6aMo3OG/LUQxrhz6jgh/BLz95O JUrkocftXRWSGwThIWoD6tCVRC1AnbvJ97B1Cf95BoNYn3C/4JDz++bUyFFFYRr0 RudoPBWS9+HbuhdoqCvgouRhMcGsaak+dweKTbwD9B2hJO6k3AyCO1TQOsJh2qoe DGgQx2esRuCDChnAAUA5nZpYpZBR0Mg2atJHZVcBQvuXnGMv7/5uAEiRiGU4+MQY dC1/rNtMpVKr8YMGK8lhO8oqoDYFcEnNYMVtGEP3mM1mVgkFgjQWKiYafXHwQosi CVFj5x2kz75vmQybhy30DbBm4Sj3ceF6bcN1YyT3gBTKXD7+BfqtheHW8JSKtTao bhJXMLdhoGq18E6bDqKrZe4ICAfKD0JfOph9gNJRFI3FCEvC/ITCugeGPMy69QCC sYLCbZr9lFOMzrJlmOpUC7Kw5JakL0m9+/zFDFFfEFZhiOWQR5YQOAU/B150NyCG 7/l0ZjOIOwaASuV52E2b =LH7l -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
participants (3)
-
Colin Childs -
Noel Torres -
Roger Dingledine