I was wondering if there was a way to make a chat room so that people that are in the process of working through problems can get real time help from people that are available to answer questions. Right now, it depends upon messages in the forum and sometimes that’s not really helpful. I try to respond when I see a new message, but if we had a chat system setup, it might work better and people would have less frustration.
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That is a fantastic idea. Since most are in US your time difference would not be a big issue. With the rest of the world it is just a coordinating challenge. @Bee did a video test with me and might have some suggestions for a chat.
It looks like we do have the option to add chat:
My one reservation is that I like that everything in the forums is logged and searchable so that we can always go back and look at it whereas information in the chat is lost
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I have the same sentiment, but somethings are easier to work through in real-time. A good case would be for people just building their temp frame and/or trying to understand what to do in the software. For instance, there was just a post about “define origin” vs. “define home”. Took me 7 minutes to see the post and they might not have waited around that long for the answer. Whereas if real-time chat was going, I might have noticed it right away and could have responded when they were asking. That kind of thing.
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That is a good point @bar. However, if it is a new issue, it will be created on Git and if we had it before, it is covered somewhere. One goal would defiantly be to copy and paste essential infos from the chat to a documentation.
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I think that might work, maybe give it a shot and see how useful it is. However, I also like the idea of something I can install on my phone. I’m not always in front of a computer, but am quite often in front of my phone. I found rocket.chat as an open-source slack alternative as an example. It has a phone app available for it. Just throwing it out for discussion.
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If it provides a chat log, that could be used for later documentation.
Trial and error sound good.
I don’t particularly like the idea of real-time chat, it is so dependent on who
has the time to be available.
I tend to watch my e-mail pretty closely, but if I need to pay attention to
other stuff, I know that the messages will be there, and I can comment on them
if I want to. With chat, it’s long gone by the time I would notice (assuming I
went back through the logs)
People also tend to think a bit more about what they are writing when using
e-mail/forum than with chat, and are more likely to look and find an existing
answer instead of asking the same question again.
I agree that there is value in real-time support when troubleshooting, but
rather than it being hit-and-miss based on whoever happens to be awake, how
about trying to schedule a time and have some people commit to being available?
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The use case is more for someone needing a quick answer rather than a discussion on, say chain sag calculations or which linkage kit is the best. I know the forum has been used for back and forth conversations, but I was thinking it would be easier if it was a chat-based system. I think the babble plugin that @bar posted would be sufficient for that purpose. If it doesn’t work well, drop the idea, but I see the potential in trying it out (especially when a bunch of new kits get shipped).
I just followed a ‘semi’ live chat here ground-control-wont-run-on-mac-min.
A user waiting for a answer in the Forum would not be much to a difference to a user waiting for a chat partner. I’ll perhaps follow dlang on getting all posts by email. Still the chat is interesting, but would have to survive a real-time test.
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True enough… it’s not impossible to do using messages and emails.
There’s always Skype (sell your soul to M$) or WhatsApp (sell it to FacePlant).
My kids are big on WA, but the entrepreneur girl uses Skype for her business. Handy when you don’t know what continent you’ll be on next week.
Both support both text and video chat. The video could be handy, share the appearance of the magic smoke
Kirk
Guys - I already gave you tools for this. It just needs to be arranged -
https://github.com/MaslowCNC/CommunityGarden/wiki/Interwebs-contact-,-collaborating
It just takes 2 people being on the site at the same time. There are more complex solutions but this is down and dirty low requirements.
Enjoy
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I share your concern Bar.
It is hard enough capturing the knowledge then trying to sift through all the forums to then find the clarity required to document a functional component.
The key thing for me as you know is that a consolidated document is really missing. I am slowly working through the survival guide but it takes time to clarify your understanding then put it down in a coherent manner.
If there was a structured trouble shooting guide in the wiki section this would help. If you can’t capture knowledge and disseminate it outside of a real time support then you run the risk of going over old ground.
My view of the wiki section is that is should be structured like a real document with logical items and flow. At present things are not logically structured but this will happen over time.
Kind Regards Stuart
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I have a long background in support. Over the Phone & E-mail mainly. I’m trying to help document best practices here in the forums by way of the Wiki and linking it back into the forums. I’m also writing a more detailed book on my experience putting the Maslow together.
Do you mind if I quote you?
Thank you
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Bee, you are doing a great job and have helped me on many occasions. No issues with quoting me.
Was just trying to point out we cannot afford to miss any knowledge capture.
The wiki is excellent I just feel some of the topics should be shifted around.
Kind Regards Stuart
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Thank you for the kind words. It means a lot. There would be a couple of ways to deal with this. One would be to make each transcript into post. 2nd would be that the parties involved work together to document the problem and solution. The best answer is to implement a separate system for support tracking, open / closed , knowledge base.
Just my thoughts
Thank you
github has the wiki and issue tracking system, not real-time but if the people
who answer the real-time questions commit to logging the questions (and their
answers) somewhere it could work
I think the reason I was asking about this is getting lost. On Tuesday, someone posted at 11:25 AM asking where is “Define Origin” that was talked about in the instructions on cutting parts for the final frame. At 11:30 AM, I responded back that it’s “Define Home” and that the instructions needed updating. 5 minutes is quick, but not really quick if you are at a standstill in the middle of building your frame. And if I was not in front of my computer, I wouldn’t have seen it come up as I don’t receive email since it was a new topic I hadn’t participated in. Can you subscribe to a particular category and receive emails of all new posts. I love Maslow and I have a desire to give back by helping people work through things and try not to get frustrated (many times I’ve been frustrated myself)… and one thing that really helps is getting quick responses to relatively simple questions.
I totally appreciate you and where your going. It depends on the day if I’m in front of the computer. I have a lot more to say on the subject but need a few days. I hate to talk about things I’m not complete on. I would say I’m in a position to offer building several levels of customer support.
Thank you