Introducing Support Staff?

[GoldenMerc]

Hi,

I was thinking earlier why Habbox doesn't have support staff plus what their roles would be if they were to have support staff, Due to the fact it normally takes around a day for a admin, or someone to get back to a ticket it brings me to the point of maybe its worth giving it a try?

Obviously giving 5+ random people admin permissions is stupid and idiotic BUT what if the support staff had access to /support, could reply to tickets then post on forums for appeals they believe in. Example ~
If HotelUser got banned for IP Scanning and he submitted a ticket pleading for his account to be unbanned, he was also on the autoban list thus so he couldn't create a new account. This could easily be solved by support staff which would ease up the administrators roles.

By doing this support staff would post a plead on the forum say 5 unbans every month or so they can unban someone worthy enough of a second chance, obviously if say Sierk hacked xxMATTYGLYKxx then it wouldnt be under the grounds of being unbanned. But the minority of bans on this forum are just to stop trouble, to stop people from coming back on, not even severe bans such as hacking etc.

Questions?
Ross

[Mark]

I guess it's worth a try, or hire one more Admin?

[GoldenMerc]

More administrators = more risk, thus i think its meant to be 1 Admin per 100 active users if im right.
Plus the chance to give more, exciting roles should be a key in Habbox's development. People wouldn't come onto a fansite if their was no jobs avaliable, then they can't get involved in the community

[xxMATTGxx]

It's a very interesting idea and first I've heard of it being suggested at Habbox. I'm not quite how well this would work because certain information would have to be made more available to staff, as surely they would need to know the autoban list and maybe why people are banned in the first place? So they would have to be quite trusted members of staff. Not sure if that is something we should risk by making applications open and letting anyone apply?

Hiring more admins isn't the question as their role can become quite pointless if it's just for the sake of dealing with support. I would say replying to support tickets within a day isn't that bad and if it was any longer than a day then that would be a problem.

I'll see what anyone else has to say about it as I'm not 100% this would benefit anyone that much. As support seems to be dealt with at a reasonable rate at the moment, including people who email Habbox as well.

[GoldenMerc]

It's a very interesting idea and first I've heard of it being suggested at Habbox. I'm not quite how well this would work because certain information would have to be made more available to staff, as surely they would need to know the autoban list and maybe why people are banned in the first place? So they would have to be quite trusted members of staff. Not sure if that is something we should risk by making applications open and letting anyone apply?

Yep its obviously got to be trusted, fairly known members but hiring people who are already staff isn't really fair, I mean theres a lot of people on Habbox who have previously worked in roles which requires trust and decided the job wasn't for them, Obviously being smart hiring someone who registered a week ago with 6 posts (this isnt anyone, well it prob is but i dont know them) would be stupid. I can't see having applications a good idea, Although i'd personally say hire a manager someone who knows what there doing then let them choose the people they want, e.g some of the mod team seem like they have the right attitude. Having access to the autoban list isn't in my eyes trust, having access to peoples email address's etc is. Il note the permissions i think they should have at the end :P


Hiring more admins isn't the question as their role can become quite pointless if it's just for the sake of dealing with support. I would say replying to support tickets within a day isn't that bad and if it was any longer than a day then that would be a problem.

100% Agreed


I'll see what anyone else has to say about it as I'm not 100% this would benefit anyone that much. As support seems to be dealt with at a reasonable rate at the moment, including people who email Habbox as well.
Well if you think about it, the current roles at Habbox arn't really unique and intresting, i mean you can get them on every single fansite around, But having a role like this would be unique, plus it means the community works a lot better.


Permissions ~
Access to autoban list
Access to ban reasons (upon request) ~ SO NO MODCP ACCESS

If you make it all sort of Request of the admin, so once a ticket comes in saying oh iv been banned for revesing a payment through paypal, we can request further information off you to provide a sheet of information to consider the ban.
Ross

[Inseriousity.]

It's true that jobs keep people interested but I don't think this is a good idea. I wonder how many 'unban me please' msn conversations there would be! While no-one can avoid some bias, giving it to so many people makes it easy to manipulate. At least with admins doing it, they are least likely to be swayed by it cos they have more to lose. The only way to counter this is to a) leave it as it is or b) make the support staff work on it together, which would just add more time on top of it rather than cut it down.

I'd say a day's waiting time was pretty good! If it was a week or two then yeah I'd agree but a day means I think whoever's doing it should be congratulated, especially as it must be one of those things that are pretty easy to overlook.

[GoldenMerc]

Yeh obviously some people would get messages saying unban me but most people on Habbox are banned don't return, thus so they wouldnt care if they got their old accounts back. THere couldn't be a chance of them being biased due to the fact they have to request the ban to administors e.g write up a scheme maybe even a scheme to stop them making trouble on the forum?
Ross

[Inseriousity.]

Oh I see, I can't have read that properly. Then I think the added bureaucracy would just make it worse. cos instead of admin - support ticket - decision. it would go support staff - ticket - thread in support staff forum - admin - decision. Surely the latter would just take longer.

[GoldenMerc]

It most likely wouldn't take longer due the fact support team would only have one role, admins have many roles such as scott who has to wash his clio, clean his teeth etc (joking)
Nah admins have more roles than one, thus support team would only have one role which would make the support tickets be done faster, To be fair its not really about speed considering 1 day respond time is pretty good, its more about making it more efficiant e.g if admins don't have to do that they can be getting on with some other work which means work gets done faster. Plus a cool role at hx

[Inseriousity.]

but that's the point, they'd still have to do it, they'd just have to do it from somewhere else.

[GoldenMerc]

It would still be far more efficiant if the admins had it on a plate to decide e.g let me write it up for you ;

Username ~ xxROSSJxx
Ban date ~ 4/12/12
Ban reason ~ Multiple infractions (6 infractions)
Reason for unban ~ The user has been using the account xxROSSYJxx for 2 years and has proven he is a good and contributing member of the forum, he hasn't had any infractions since the ban and should be considered to be unbanned.

Obviously then the admins can quickly check it over and unban then the support staff can write unbanned etc etc etc
Ross

[Inseriousity.]

Well unless tickets are 6 pages long for each one, I don't really see how it would be more efficient. All they'd be doing is doing the exact same thing in different places.

[GoldenMerc]

Not entirely, it would save around 5-10 mins per ticket, plus give the community another / better role

[Mr-Trainor]

It's certainly not a bad suggestion, and nice of you to share it :D. However, I'm wondering whether it could actually work well if it was put in to place, and I'm not really sure it would be that beneficial because as mentioned above, tickets are already replied to within a reasonable amount of time.

[GoldenMerc]

Yes but look at the roles Habbox offers, DJ, forum mod i could go to ch, hffm for them? obviously a completely different community but people do it if they can't get a job on here, it brings more excitement etc. Plus getting the community involved which is what Habbox is about.

[Inseriousity.]

The community doesn't need another job title. There've been a few failed attempts by general management in the past to create jobs for the older more-respected members of the community but they have essentially been pointless and removed because of it. I don't mind new roles but there has to be a function to them that would keep them worthwhile to the staff who are doing it and Habbox overall. I do not think sparing 5-10 minutes is worth enough.

As for the current roles, I wonder how many people have walked into hxhd and asked for a job. I wonder how many people have besieged the hxl request line asking when dj apps are gonna open. just because you've been there, done that, got the t-shirt doesn't mean that we need to create new unique roles to get people interested.

[GoldenMerc]

The roles braught in were horrible, boring and repetitive e.g Councill ~ it wasn't really worked correctly, it could have worked but it didnt.
The welcome forum commity (?) ~ just was boring.
5-10 mins depending on how many support tickets can lead up to hours though which can be used elsewere.

[Inseriousity.]

Going through admin tickets isn't boring and repetitive?
5-10 minutes can add up to hours if they are left for a long time but as it's done everyday, I wouldn't say there's much problem with that happening.

[GoldenMerc]

So say if 10 support tickets came through, thats like a hour and a half spare for admins. I wouldn't say its repetitive to be fair, i'd enjoy it.

[xxMATTGxx]

So say if 10 support tickets came through, thats like a hour and a half spare for admins. I wouldn't say its repetitive to be fair, i'd enjoy it.

The amount of tickets Habbox gets on a day to to day basis isn't that much really.

[GoldenMerc]

The amount of tickets Habbox gets on a day to to day basis isn't that much really.

Tell me figures matthew, as a leading director in this company i deserve to know :)

[scott]

Not every day we get a ticket, sometimes we can go 2 or 3 days without getting a ticket and then other days we can get 2 in the one day the support system isn't used that much :P I'd much rather be in control of who gets unbanned and not unbanned on the forum etc rather than passing it over to someone else to do - so if it was introduced then I'd want them to ask or tell me if it was done (That might sound like i want loads of power or whatever but it's the exact same as I need to know why someone gets banned/warned/infracted etc) and then it would just add even more people to go through and at Habbox I think we have enough of that :P

I don't think waiting 24 hours for a reply is that bad, I reply to them as soon as I can which generally is less than 24 hours anyway as I check it regularly throughout the day.

[-Danube-]

It's a nice idea in theory, but for it to be efficient we'd have to give them access to everything they would need, which basically creates more admins and more risk for the site. The reason why i say we'd need to give them access to things is because if they don't have it, then they would have to ask an Admin for say a ban reason etc etc and submit requests and stuff, which just prolongs the actual process. Rather than an admin just dealing with it straight away, you'd get the support staff having to submit requests to the admins for things etc, meaning that the admin is essentially still a major part in the whole process.

I really don't think there is much of an issue with the support system as it is? If it ever got as bad as Sulake then maybe we'd have to open a call centre ;)

[The Don]

Fine guys, i'll step up and take one for the team and become an admin...

[nvrspk4]

The reason I see to keep ban appeals to the administrators is the bans are a reflection of the moderation mentality. Support staff would have to be versed in Moderation Department procedures so that they could evaluate ban reasons. On a side note, they'd also need access to infractions and the restricted post section that only SMods and Admins can see (or perhaps that has changed). But back to the moderation mentality, they'd be judging moderation decisions without having actually moderated themselves. If you're picking people with lots of moderation experience, why aren't they SMods/Admins anyway?

Also, ban appeals is where you find issues with the moderation if at all, and bans are usually issued by Super Moderators. If there is a problem pattern emerging in bans, its best if the administrators are the ones checking as they will realize and will be able to speak with authority to the Super Moderators and correct issues with moderation as they arise. Also, creating a group that can override the bans of Super Moderators that have usually had quite a bit of moderation experience and have worked hard to get to that position is going to create bad feelings.

Finally, keeping the number of people who review bans small leads to consistent policies, instead of people getting unbanned based on who views the ban report. A 24hr response time to bans is pretty damn good. After all, wrongful bans aren't such a problem that you should be seeking support to appeal bans all that often.

Just my two cents.