2015-02-04 11:46 GMT+01:00 Andrea Zanni <[email protected]>: > Thanks Ryan for the clarification. > My question is: what could we ask, as a community, to the WMF, o to > chapters? > Is there some tool/task/workflow that could receive help from Wikimedia? > Maybe a new software, or some trusted agents in key position, or something > else. > What could speed up the volunteers work? > > I would say:
- Organize recruitements of new Agents (it can ben done by the community) - Organize training sessions (it can be done by the community and supported by WMF or Chapters) - Get a weekly summary of your OTRS queues in your inbox - Better software (I would put it last in priorities has it is a complex migration) Sincerely, Pierre-Selim Aubrey > > > On Wed, Feb 4, 2015 at 11:38 AM, Rjd0060 <[email protected]> wrote: > > > James, > > > > > > I realize your tickets were already resolved but I thought I'd take a > > moment to clarify the issues that cause the delays in response. > > > > > > The Wikimedia Volunteer Response Team ("OTRS") relies on the generous > work > > of hundreds of volunteers from all over the world to handle hundreds of > > thousands of e-mails each year. > > > > The scope of these tickets range from vandalism reports or technical > issues > > to problems with biographies of living people and other generic edit > > requests, and dozens of other categories. A large percentage of the > > overall tickets received are "permissions" tickets -- e-mails used to > > verify the release of content on Wikimedia sites, typically from third > > parties. > > > > Like every project that Wikimedians work on, there are various things > that > > the volunteers are tasked to handle. The agents who take on this role do > so > > in addition to their existing editing activities, often at the cost of > > their own free time. Due to the trust and patience required to handle > these > > public-facing aspects of Wikimedia, the pool of available volunteers > tends > > to be smaller than in other areas of the projects. Unfortunately, > backlogs > > can occasionally crop up and take a bit of time to deal with, especially > in > > the more complicated e-mails (like BLPs), that can take up to an hour to > > process. It happens on every large Wikimedia project -- where some > backlogs > > never get cleared (just look at the English Wikipedia’s articles with > > unsourced statements! [1])-- so it is something I believe almost all of > us > > can relate to in one way or another. > > > > We had very good queue levels for much of 2014, but began noticing an > > increase in permissions and general information tickets (specifically in > > the English language) around the end of the year. Unfortunately, the end > of > > the year typically shows higher than usual response times, likely because > > of volunteer free time. While OTRS agents are very dedicated, answering > > tickets can be stressful at times, so it’s not typically the type of > thing > > you’ll want to during holiday vacations. Pair those longer response times > > with an increase in tickets because of our hard-working Wikimedians > adding > > content and submitting more permissions tickets in their holiday free > time, > > and it creates a bit of a backlog. :-) > > > > Just as in other areas of our projects, backlogs are inevitable, > especially > > in the more mundane and tougher areas. However, our dedicated pool of > > volunteers works diligently to clear these backlogs when they come up. > > While, again, it’s a tough job that’s not for everyone, we always welcome > > new applicants. Actually, we're continuously adding new agents. In 2014 > we > > added 62 new community queue accounts[2] to handle general information > and > > permissions inquiries. Additionally, our agent retention is better - we > > lost about half as many agents in 2014 as we did in 2013. But finally, if > > you really want to help with the backlogs, we’re always looking for great > > new team members. Feel free to throw up an application on > > [[m:OTRS/Volunteering]] if you think you’d make a good agent and we’ll be > > happy to review it. > > > > Basically, OTRS is tough job that runs into backlogs just like any other > > part of Wikimedia. However, we’re continuously working to add more agents > > and clear those backlogs as soon as they start. > > > > I hope this helps clarify the current issues. > > > > Ryan // User:Rjd0060 > > > > (OTRS admin) > > > > [1] > > > > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:All_articles_with_unsourced_statements > > > > [2] Community queue accounts are OTRS accounts with access to queues that > > answer general information inquiries about our projects, permissions > and/or > > photosubmissions tickets. Other types of accounts do not have answer > these > > tickets, but instead have access to a smaller subset of queues, such as > > those related to the Foundation (e.g., donations), chapters, or advanced > > rights on the projects (e.g., oversight, stewards). See > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/OTRS/Access_policy#Community_queues for > > more information. > > > > On Mon, Feb 2, 2015 at 11:52 PM, James Heilman <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > OTRS does not even bother replying to the consents I send them. Thus > the > > > images I have received releases for get deleted. Going forwards I am > > simply > > > uploading to En Wikipedia. Not ideal but not sure what the solution is. > > > > > > -- > > > James Heilman > > > MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian > > > > > > The Wikipedia Open Textbook of Medicine > > > www.opentextbookofmedicine.com > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > > > [email protected] > > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > > [email protected] > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> > -- Pierre-Selim _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe>
