red flags

[Jake]

red flagged topics should stay at the top of the pile, oldest at the top.
seems like a sensible feature to me :)
what do you think, and is it implementable?

[bunnywabs]

That sounds sensible, I get bored of bumping flagged threads even if no-one else does...

:p

Mind you, a blue-top to deal with the red flags would be nice too! Some have been unanswered for three days now, which is very unlike the Forum. If there is a problem with blue-top resource, being told might be nice so expectations can be managed...

[Reset]

What a great simple idea, why didn't I think of it.

Could it not be made automatic, then you would,'t need a blue top.

[Chris]

Mind you, a blue-top to deal with the red flags would be nice too! Some have been unanswered for three days now, which is very unlike the Forum. If there is a problem with blue-top resource, being told might be nice so expectations can be managed...

There have been a couple of topics on this (where have all the blue-tops gone, for example). Maybe the main posts I did on it were in experienced members forums... yeah, the blue tops seem to have stopped posting, think their normal job took over - seems to me that support is very busy everywhere at the moment (look at the indicators on call waiting times on service dashboard).

Good news is we are getting a couple of full time forum employees starting at the end of this month, with more to follow.

[bunnywabs]

What a great simple idea, why didn't I think of it.
Could it not be made automatic, then you would,'t need a blue top.
The red flags are to attract priority attention from the blue-tops. That was what I was trying to say...red flags are placed by the Experienced Members.

[bunnywabs]

Good news is we are getting a couple of full time forum employees starting at the end of this month, with more to follow.
Thanks Chris :D

[Chris]

Also (and as a result of new starters I guess), I'm going to change the call button to "Request Support" or something like that (rather than "Call Admin").

Always looking for new full time helpers... pretty sure these jobs were published nationally!

[BuffsMad]

There have been a couple of topics on this (where have all the blue-tops gone, for example). Maybe the main posts I did on it were in experienced members forums... yeah, the blue tops seem to have stopped posting, think their normal job took over - seems to me that support is very busy everywhere at the moment (look at the indicators on call waiting times on service dashboard).

Good news is we are getting a couple of full time forum employees starting at the end of this month, with more to follow.
And if support is busy all over then is that why phones are sending customers here.lol

Back on topic - a prioritisation of posting is an excellent idea, just a bit of filtering really - and some of these icon sets are not necessary (would we miss angry faces) and I would imagine they could be used for some sort of priorty system if all else fails, if it was filterable.

[bunnywabs]

...and some of these icon sets are not necessary (would we miss angry faces) and I would imagine they could be used for some sort of priorty system if all else fails, if it was filterable.
I for one would be delighted to see the demise of the angry face - it is rarely helpful and often puts me off. A crying face might be a better choice?

[BuffsMad]

Bunny - now crying faces would be just silly.

http://smilies.sofrayt.com/fsc/sobbing.gifhttp://www.chins-n-quills.com/forums/images/smilies/cry2.gifhttp://www.feebleminds-gifs.com/smiley-faces20.gif

You knew I would - its entrapment.:eek:

[bunnywabs]

I knock 'em up...

lol

[Topaz]

Maybe the main posts I did on it were in experienced members forums...

Puzzled, there is a special forum for the 8 experienced members? Have I understood that correctly?:confused::confused:

[bunnywabs]

Puzzled, there is a special forum for the 8 experienced members? Have I understood that correctly?:confused::confused:
Yep there is a private area for the EMs; I would have throught Hatari would have mentioned that to you.

[Topaz]

Yep there is a private area for the EMs; I would have throught Hatari would have mentioned that to you.

:confused::confused:Why should he? Does he have access to it?:confused:

[bunnywabs]

:confused::confused:Why should he? Does he have access to it?:confused:
No he doesn't - he isn't an experienced member. I thought he would have mentioned it as judging from your posts on the forum he shares a lot with you.

[Jake]

yep, and a separate section for the staff (only seen by blue/orangetops)

[BuffsMad]

yep, and a separate section for the staff (only seen by blue/orangetops)

I have a secret place too.

[Topaz]

No he doesn't - he isn't an experienced member. I thought he would have mentioned it as judging from your posts on the forum he shares a lot with you.

Aaahhh no he does not live in my pocket:D Does that disappoint you.

[Viking Freddy]

I have a secret place too.

I don't think you should be sharing that with us on this forum.lollollol

[bunnywabs]

Aaahhh no he does not live in my pocket:D Does that disappoint you.
No feelings either way to be frank :|

I have my own suspicions and information anyway. We shall see what we shall see.

[Topaz]

I don't think you should be sharing that with us on this forum.lollollol

lollollolNo maybe I should not be, just that my pockets are too small and he is such a big man:D;)

[OCE_Stephen]

Hey buff, I am sure we all have a secret place........lol

[BuffsMad]

Hey buff, I am sure we all have a secret place........lol
lol........lol

[bunnywabs]

Hey buff, I am sure we all have a secret place........lol
Remember you are on a train Stephen. I would like to see you arrested...

[OCE_Stephen]

Remember you are on a train Stephen. I would like to see you arrested...

THANKS.................

[bunnywabs]

:eek: Typo!!! Should have been "wouldn't" :eek:

[Jake]

of course it was a typo ;)

[OCE_Stephen]

Whatever.......lol

[bunnywabs]

...or was it? :p

UTube video of our leader being arrested on a train for sharing his secret place, anyone?

:D lol :D

[Squawk]

Flagged threads do not need "bumping", they appear to EM's (and presumably to tt staff too) in the "subscribed to" section, the same way that normal topic subscriptions appear to anyone else. If I was tt staff I would start at the top of those topics and work down, then go browse the rest of the forum.

[bunnywabs]

If flagged threads were attended to first - i.e. if the system Chris & Squawk describe worked well, why would we bump threads? Many red-flagged threads in Broadband Speed & Stability today were on page 3.

Now that may not matter to the EMs and staff, but you guys number 10 currently, and we number roughly 110 times that (active). We bump threads to keep them visible to us too!

Also, random posts get added to flagged theads which pushes the reason for the flag downwards - sometimes by twenty posts or more. So when the thread is looked at by a staff member, either it takes ages to find out what is required to be done, or the wrong thing is done because of later-posted 'suggestions'.

There are not enough people to issue flags when flagged and not enough staff picking them up. I'm sure everyone does their best, but guessing which EM will log on next to get an urgent thread flagged is tedious and counter-productive.

Full rant mode is available on request.

[trinity]

There are not enough people to issue flags when flagged and not enough staff picking them up. I'm sure everyone does their best, but guessing which EM will log on next to get an urgent thread flagged is tedious and counter-productive.

Full rant mode is available on request.

We recently had a discussion about EMs and the possible need for more.
The concensus was that we have sufficient at the moment: there is currently a shortfall of Admins to deal with flagged messages at the moment anyway.
I believe that the system is working as well as it possibly can at present, but the mass telephone outage at the weekend did nothing to help.

[bunnywabs]

Very respectfully trinity, I disagree. Or maybe I disagree that the EM role is still appropriate. There are too many times when no EMs are on-line, and no effective mechanism for other experienced (small 'e') members to request flags.

There are at least a two dozen members I can think of that could be relied upon to flag responsibly.

In fact I would go further and say that all members of a certain standing (possibly publically elected, possibly selected by the staff, possibly based on post count or, dare I mention it, Reputation) should have the ability to flag. If the ability were abused, it could of course be suspended or rescinded.

My view is that EMs should become, or be replaced by, a role commonly known as a 'moderator' - with the ability to move posts and lock threads for example.

In any case, it is unhealthy for any 'body' to have a number of unelected, permanent members - accountability to the members through re-election or fixed-period appointments by the Administrators would be preferable.

That said, the existing EMs do an excellent job, it is just my personal opinion that the role needs to evolve. Those EMs who did not want the moderator position would effectively lose nothing by retaining the ability to flag.

The EM forums should be removed though and be replaced by the oft-requested chat area for members.

I bet no-one disagrees with me at all... lol

[trinity]

Very respectfully trinity, I disagree. Or maybe I disagree that the EM role is still appropriate. There are too many times when no EMs are on-line, and no effective mechanism for other experienced (small 'e') members to request flags.

My view is that EMs should become, or be replaced by, a role commonly known as a 'moderator' - with the ability to move posts and lock threads for example.


EM's don't have the same power as a moderator of course, and its something that possibly needs to be looked at. However having said that, I'm not aware that forum 'Moderators' or 'Administrators' are elected anywhere else, or serve for a fixed term. Certainly this doesn't happen on any other forum that I belong to.
As Squawk says, all flagged posts appear in our settings menu and although some posts might have to wait for a few hours until they get flagged, I'm not aware of any being missed completely.
Even when messages are flagged, they cannot be attended to any quicker than they currently are.
At the moment I believe that the ability to 'lock threads' and 'move posts' is best left in the hands of those currently responsible for it. The problem is that they too are not always immediately available, but its far far better to have a forum such as this, than not to have one at all.
Things might improve when EM comes back from holiday next week. Certainly she gets the accounts and phone queries sorted out very quickly, which is something no member can help with.

[bunnywabs]

You're right in that moderators aren't usually elected and so on, but that doesn't mean necessarily that other forums have the only model that works, or indeed that would work best here.

I am keen that more of the routine admin tasks such as splitting and locking threads is delegated because last weekend showed that with a high volume of posters, one-issue-per-thread goes right out of the window. In short the model that has served well so far wouldn't scale. Plus time saved on routine tasks is time the staff can use doing the work on they can do.

Threads do get missed, and possibly more often than the majority of EMs are aware of. Squawk and (when he is around) Blackeagle flag posts for me on a very regular basis, the other EMs (yourself included) do so on an occasional basis. Ady, Andy, Stephen and Chris all agree to action threads from a PM - which is unsatisfactory in many ways, but currently often the only way.

The point is often that a simple profile change can go un-done for over 24 hours if we wait for an EM sweep to pick it up. This seems needlessly inefficient and provides a much slower service to the originating member. A big plus point of the forum has always been the speed of service, and it seems undesirable to compromise on that simply to preserve a status-quo.

No doubt many of these issues will disappear below the surface once Emma returns and the two full-time staff are in place. Nevertheless, the past few weeks or so have been illustrative of what will happen if the ratio of active members to staff exceeds a threshold.

[BuffsMad]

Actually I am happy for the EMs to continue as are at current numbers. (Comforting to know that flagging is more refined than it appeared.) I think this flagging could still be refined further with categories/tags: such as profile change; line test; router.......(I'm sure a full list could be compiled later if accepted.) There would then be no need to bump the pertinent post or stifle related discussion or move on to another aspect of ther problem that could have buried that pertinent post.

Although I am not yet clear what the intensions are for the forum - if it was to go to a more formal support resource I would expect that flags could involve sending it to an support section for action and sending back with commentary i.e. Flagged for Admin: Profile Change which locked the thread, moved it to support resource, comes back with action taken - and the flag would include estimated timescale (for routine issues with contact options).

Regardless of any of that, the flagged posts are growing and the actions taken on them are not always timely or visible (no criticism intended) and we have no knowledge of whether planned works (improvement programme or no) are factors..

[Reset]

Although I am a "nobody" on this forum I can see that the people who flag the posts and generally problem solve have a limited ability (on the forum).

The biggest problem is a lack of staff personnel to act on the amount of problems that are there, now I know this is just a voluntary place to be and how the staff do it in there own time, before anyone start banging their drum,but as the offshore phone staff are now directing people to this forum is it not time it came out of beta and went full time with it's own staff.

TT will baulk at this (because it costs money) but surely common sense must prevail at some point as everyone here can see the benefits of the forum.

There are plenty of knowledgeable and helpful members out there, all this place needs is STAFF personnel to access the parts members cannot.

[markdyer72]

it wouldnt be too bad if some EM's may even have access to changing profileswhioch would take the strain off the admin especially when only asimple profile change is needed to solve the problem and keep the OP very happy....just a thought probs never happen lol

[Didactylos Typist]

So why do the flags have to be red?

Could other flag colours denote solved issues?

DT

[Jake]

few good ideas emerging here... :)
i think that this is my most successful threadlol

[Squawk]

I just logged in and got 5 pages of new posts, accumulated in the last 12 hours or so. There is no way that I can read all those threads now, the forum is just way way too busy, so I am cherry picking, either topics that I remember contributing to, those where the OP is also the most recent poster, and where the last poster is not an admin or one of 3 or 4 people.

Was gonna have a look to see how long the list of flagged threads is, but it turns out to be pretty short, Ady, Andy and Chris all on the boards atm.

[bunnywabs]

I like the multiple-colour flag idea, but I think two would be enough (who has time for categories/sub-categories and so on) --- Red for truly urgent things, and Orange/Blue/Green/Whatever for important but possibly routine things like Profile Adjustments and so on.

In situations where there are twenty or thirty flagged threads, there is no way to ensure that someone whose broadband service has died gets attended to before someone wanting a change to Fast Path, for example.

BTW same deal tonight. No EMs, many unflagged but deserving threads. Now these may well get flagged up in the next 12-24 hours, but how am I (or whomever is looking at the thread) to know that? Where's the 'closure' for us non-EMs?

Satisfaction that you have helped is a big part of being on the Forum and I think the EMs have become too used to having the abilities to recognise the issues they would face if they couldn't flag.

How about one EM per week has Kryptonite added to their tea to remove flagging powers, so an appreciation can set in?

lol :D lol

[Topaz]

How many of the experience members actually log on each day or even each week. Might be interesting information.

Have the experienced members agreed a coverage pattern between themselves, the EM shift rota, so the site is covered most of the time by an EM.

On the other hand, is it Ad hoc so some days/times there are no experienced members in attendance online for most of the day?

[davebuts]

At the risk of red pips or what ever can I please ask why part of this topic has been removed.

TA Dave

[bunnywabs]

We went massively off-topic for a while. The admins have trimmed it back.
Which is fine.

[davebuts]

Thanks for that bunny, do they do that now then as it was not done in the past. But I do agree with it if it goes off topic a long way.

Dave