7 replies to this topic

[Jared Thaler]

Recently there have been a couple threads complaining about slow responce times and requests handled out of order.

On the opposite hand there have been complaints from the helpers and helper trainees that it is difficult to tell swiftly if a post has been responded to.

So what I want to know is, would people be interested in a board tracking tool that would make it easier for the helpers to find posts that have not been addressed?

For Example, (Text below is mock up, the links don't really work. Numbers are all fictional.)

Report for July 21
Outstanding Malware Removal Requests.
New Today: 45
24-72 hours old: 70
over 72 hours old: 45

Each of the links could lead to a listing of all threads in that category in order of oldest first.

Outstanding Requests would be any thread in the Malware removal forum that had not recieved a responce by at least a helper trainee, and which was not yet closed.

Are you saying you would have a way to distinguish whether a person at a helper rank has responded??  If so, would it interfere with the running of the forums in any way??

Yes, and, unfortuantely Yes.

I could parse the board for a list of threads and then do a search on each member of each of the helper, helper trainee, and etc groups, to determine what threads they had posted to.

Each time the process runs, it would place a load equivelent to the following:

One "Forum View" + 1 for every full page worth of posts added to Malware removal since last run.

One "Search Malware Removal Forum for Posts by User X" for each Helper, admin, etc.

At the current board population that should be no more than 200 page views, once the program was running on a regularly scheduled basis. (Traffic would be much greater first time run)

Adding in helper trainees would add roughly 700 page views.

All of these would be more efficient done from inside the board, rather than from outside, via modifications to the board, but that would depend on the board admins having both time and familiarity with the boards code as well as a willingness to maintain the code through upgrades of the board and etc. Since from the sound of it, the admin has more useful things to do with there time, it's probably up to us to do it externally.



I am sure with time and thought I could derive more efficient routines. These are just my rough thoughts on how to approach the problem.

[cnm]

A simpler solution would be for us to make a forum or subforum for unanswered threads. The mods and admins could move the unanswered ones there, and move them out when they have been answered by a qualified helper. Or they all start out in unanswered location and get moved to "In progress" when a helper has taken it on.

You might want to add that option to your poll.

[H@ns]

If that option is added, i will chose that option. Maybe it's an option to make everyone posting his or her log into the section with no-ansered logs.

Or maybe we could make an archive for the answered posts (read-only, and per request moving to the section in which people can say anything about that log (fe: topicstarter haves still probs and want to post his HJT log again)

[Jared Thaler]

I'll happily add that option just as soon as someone shows me the button to change poll options... I can't seem to find it.

I think it is a great sugguestion if the mods are willing to implement it.

Perhaps Malware removal should have two sub forums?

New requests could still be made in the current forum, but there could be a forum for requests in progress and one for requests completed, so that *only* requests for which no helper / helper trainee has take responsibility will be in the main forum?

[cnm]

Up where the poll part is, do you see an Edit button for that part?

[Jared Thaler]

I see an edit buton next to the "quote" button on the bar above the text of my initial post, below the poll, but no buttons at all up on the poll itself.

Maybe you need mod permissions to edit it?

I've attached a screenshot, in case I'm looking in the wrong place.

Attached Thumbnails

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[cnm]

I guess so. If you decide you'd like an edit, send me a PM with the exact text of the item you want to add and I'll edit the poll for you. Note that it will go in as the last choice unless I laboriously move all the items around.

[kurosh]

A simpler solution would be for us to make a forum or subforum for unanswered threads.  The mods and admins could move the unanswered ones there, and move them out when they have been answered by a qualified helper.  Or they all start out in unanswered location and get moved to "In progress" when a helper has taken it on.

This is indeed a simpler solution, and I like the idea of being able to go to one forum (knowing that all the topics there are in need of a qualified response) but it would take a lot of human resources (which could be better spent answering malware removal requests with solutions) to track and move threads around. It would not be "real-time" either.

Here's another suggestion that may work?

Create a program (as Jared Thaler suggested), but instead of running it externally or modifying board code, it could be designed to interact with the board database... it would "watch" for Helpers (or above) to answer a topic, and when that happens, change the status of the topic... possibly move it automatically from one forum to the other? A best of both worlds approach.

Just a suggestion. Being new here, I apologise if this idea has already been discussed / voted against. I'm not a coder, but I know that something like this should be fairly easy to implement... it just needs to have access to the topics database, and be able to modify where the topic is located. (similar to how a mod currently moves a topic) If run internally (on the server), it would pose no bandwidth problems, the search would be relatively short (since it is only looking at one forum, "New" or whatever it is called), and therefore it could be done close to real-time ... say every 10 or 15 mins.? Possibly even more frequently, depending on what kind of load it has on the server... that could be tested and adjusted as necessary.

Personally, I think this may relieve this ongoing debate of how to track who needs a response.

Best Wishes,
Kurosh

Edited by kurosh, 12 August 2004 - 05:36 PM.