At 8:11 AM -0800 12/3/97, Claire McNab wrote:
> Most list instructions are much too verbose, and most are badly
> written
Yup. Mine included. V1.0 of my new server instructions tried to deal
with the problems in the instructions in my old server, and went into
the frothy bloats. I'm now working on V1.1, and I figure I can dump 40%
of the text. Or shift it out of the way to focus on the essentials.
There's a third piece you missed here, Claire. Most sets of instruction
DON'T ANSWER THE QUESTION. User sends e-mail to a list with a bad
instruction. What happens? They get the generic server help file back.
anywhree from 10K on up of text. Unless the user is skilled enough to
(a) locate the error message, (b) interpret it, and (c) read through
the help file and interpret it to find the answer, we've just sent them
a huge chunk of useless text. Either they keep fumbling, give up, or
write the postmaster looking for a real human.
Imagine if list servers recognized the error, and sent back a note
explaining what they did wrong and how to fix it? Instead of "Syntax
error, here's the list of commands:", send back "you attempted to do
this, but that didn't work. Here's are the things to try.....".
I've been working on that with my new server system, and it's truly
amazing how it's cut down the amount of mail to postmaster screaming "I
don't CARE ABOUT SYNTAX JUST DO THIS DAMMIT". And cut the error rate,
since I don't have users trying nine varieties of a command praying one
works.
I've still got pieces to implement, but the pieces there have really
helped. Because people get custom information based on their situation.
And since so many error run to common themes, I can catch stuff,
automate it, and solve lots of problems by doing it once.
When I moved my first list from my old (listproc) server to my new
(majordomo and stuff) server, I was averaging 175-250 admin messages a
day, where that was basically anything NOT a daemon error message I had
to look at and deal with (even if it's boilerplate, it requires a human
body). I'm now running about 20 more lists than when I first opened the
new server system, and the admin set requiring my attention is down to
under 50 a day. I came back from four days of turkey to 45 messages.
And about half of those will get taken care of when I do my last three
automation sets -- you shouldn't TRY to hide from 100% of the mail,
because it won't work and it'll upset your users big time, but if you
can have the system answer your question?
> most of my help files. One thing that really seems to help is a good
> webpage, with an index at the start to key questions: "How do I leave
> the list",
One thing I'm adding to my web site, a very visible page JUST for
unsubscribe instructions and links. Because I'm finding when folks want
to get off the list, they don't want to navigate around looking for the
instructions, they want it easy to find. So I'm gonna give it to
them... Signing up, they don't mind browsing. Leaving, they just want
to grab their coat and call a taxi. Understandable -- in retrospect....
So I'll make it as easy as possible, because it's one less excuse for
them to justify stupidity or braincramp.....
> The final thing is that we should all remember what our lists are
> *for*. Technical lists may be a difft ballgame,
I run a lot of those. Nope, they aren't. Just because a user is a
computer nerd or any kind of techie person (or just plain old smart)
doesn't mean they're skilled at mail lists. Any more than being a
professional truck driver (even a good one) qualifes you to drive
Formula 1. You don't have to be SMART to use mail lists -- you have to
learn how to use them. So being smart at any other skill doesn't mean
anything about list usage, other than perhaps an ability to learn them
more easily.
Computer people mess up with mail lists just like "normal" folks do.
That's not their specialty. The only people with *no* excuse for
screwing up on mail lists are people like us, who build, maintain and
run them. And we're a really limited audience, but I'd be curious as
heck what the error situation for the mailing-list-guru-lists are.
Because one can bet they're not zero... (grin)
--
Chuq Von Rospach (chuq@apple.com) Apple IS&T Mail List Gnome
<http://www.solutions.apple.com/ListAdmin/>
Plaidworks Consulting (chuqui@plaidworks.com) <http://www.plaidworks.com/>
(<http://www.plaidworks.com/hockey/> +-+ The home for Hockey on the net)
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