[Pydotorg-redesign] pytdotorg-redesign notes from PyCon Open Space session

[Anna Ravenscroft]

On Friday 11 April 2003 13:57, Kevin Altis wrote:
> > From: Mats Wichmann
> >
> > At 10:54 AM 4/11/2003 -0400, Fred L. Drake, Jr. wrote:
> >  >Mats Wichmann writes:
> >  > > If people with /requests/ did the entering into the tracker it
> >  > > might work.
> >  >
> >  >Of course, if there were a tracker that created issues from incoming
> >  >emails, that would work like a charm.
> >  >
> >  >I'm certain this has been done before.  ;-)  I'm not familiar with
> >  >what trackers are available that work like this, much less how to set
> >  >them up, though.
> >
> > I've seen it work fine with several systems
> > if people follow a submission template. I
> > suppose something could just snarf up a piece
> > of email to webmaster and save it as the
> > body of the issue without processing, but I
> > think without enforcing a template it's going
> > to be pretty tough for it to be useful. And
> > I don't see any way to enforce a template,
> > "webmaster" is like "postmaster", it's an
> > address that's expected to be there and
> > people just send to it, free-form.
>
> [Note that we probably shouldn't continue cross-posting to
> marketing-python, so I've taken that list off of this reply.]
>
> A typical help desk system would have some stock email reply templates with
> FAQ answers, links to the FAQ page, tutor list, and other places to get
> additional help. A web interface to the pending emails should allow any of
> the people on help desk duty to send a stock reply with a single click. A
> basic email can go out right away with some of the stock answers and an
> issue tracking number.
>
> If the person who sent the original email requires a follow-up, the issue
> tracking number in the reply can be used to look at their original
> question.
>
> If we expand the Help page http://www.python.org/Help.html to include a
> form then a bulleted list of say the top 10 questions and answers can be on
> the page. We can try that for a few months and see whether it reduces the
> incoming email burden. To some extent that's what the current Help page
> tries to do.
>
> Are the questions that come in actually answered on the Help page? Is there
> an online archive of old messages that can be scanned to look for common
> questions...?
>
> Is there an off-the-shelf solution we can use? I don't know. Anyone want to
> volunteer to do a bit of research? We have to accomodate the straight
> emails to help at python.org or webmaster at python.org... as well as submissions
> via a web page.

AB Strakt has a helpdesk app that would probably handle this, programmed in 
Python. It's possible they'd be willing to do something like this... Someone 
would have to check with them - I'd suggest asking Laura Creighton 
<lac at strakt.com> about it.

cordially,
Anna Ravenscroft