What to do when there is a problem

[SteveColes]

Mostly, I'm talking about the system going down and either I don't know about or I'm not available.

 

[SteveColes]

Ok assume, you notice this system is down, I can tell you what to, that is who to call or where to put in a support ticket. But the problem is who does it. Without coordination of some kind, either everyone assumes someone else will do it or everyone does it and my web hoster get ticked off and we get bad response.

Any ideas?

 

[DaveO]

A list of responders who would be first, second and so on to reply. seeing as the site would be down phone numbers or other e-mail contacts would be needed. This could be distributed to the people who would have the duty of contacting the server or putting in the ticket. My .02, Dave

 

[clowman]

Say for example the system is down. All of the administrators/mods have the phone numbers for support. The worse thing I can see happening is everyone calls, and they get 10 calls about it. I think that's bad. Would the use of a chat program work here to see if anyone else has called it in? I use aim most of the time. Just a thought.

 

[SteveColes]

Well, I think a phone list would probably be the way to go. Participation would be voluntary. we would keep a list of each volunteer and a contact number. The list would be in the order they should be called. I would always be number 1. Say each week #2 would to the bottom and every one else would move up one.

The first person to decide that there is a problem (more on that later) calls the first person on the list and keeps going down the list until they actually make contact. The first person actually contacted then takes the role of reporting the problem to the hoster and coordinating recovery efforts with them. if you are the person going the down the contact list and you reach yourself, then you are the problem reporter.

The benefit of this approach is that for any single problem, my hoster only hears from one person per problem. If they were to get five calls or tickets for the same problem on the website, I can promise that our service will suffer or we will go low on their priority queue.

Instant messaging will not work because most of us are not really on the same one and probably don't monitor it enough.

So tell me what you think. Don't post any phone numbers yet, this is just a trail balloon

 

[DaveO]

I think that is a brilliant idea:icon_thum
Dave

 

[SteveColes]

I think that is a brilliant idea:icon_thum
Dave

Brilliant, no, exceptionally insightful, perhaps:rolf:

Thanks, how about the rest of you. Please comment one way or another, think of it as a poll:lol:

 

[clowman]

I'd have to say it's a workable plan for me.

 

[JohnsonMBrandon]

It sounds like a workable plan to me also. Only question I have is, if someone calls to determine who can make the contact to the "hoster" they probably could have already called and put in a ticket in the amount of time it took to contact someone to call the "hoster".

It does seem though as if this is the only option to make sure the basis is covered so I am all for it.

 

[SteveColes]

It sounds like a workable plan to me also. Only question I have is, if someone calls to determine who can make the contact to the "hoster" they probably could have already called and put in a ticket in the amount of time it took to contact someone to call the "hoster".

It does seem though as if this is the only option to make sure the basis is covered so I am all for it.

I agree that this is clumsy and some what slow. But one of my goal is to make sure that the hoster doesn't get multiple contacts. He will not respond well to that.

Do you have any alernatives? Please:eusa_pray

 

[D L Ames]

OK, its the FNG again. I think it is a pretty safe assumption that all of us have an email account so instead of the phone tree deal how does this sound.

1) We consolidate all of the email addresses for all of the Admin/Mods and pass them to each of us. Then each Admin/Mod builds an email distribution list(DL) in their personal email address book.

2) Each Admin/Mod is given the Hoster's phone and the instructions on how to report a problem or get a ticket.

3) First Admin/Mod to identify the problem shoots off a quick email using the DL to notify everyone that they are going to call the Hoster to report the problem.

4) Call the Hoster, report the problem,

5) Shoot off an additional confirmation email using the DL stating the Hoster has been notified.

If a problem arises, the first thing any of us should do is check to see if we have received an email from another Admin/Mod stating that the problem has been reported. If an email is there, then no further action is required. If there is no email, shoot off the first email to let everyone know you are going to report it, then pick up the phone and call the Hoster. I only added the second email (step 5) option above to confirm for everyone the problem has been reported.

Thoughts?

D L

 

[SteveColes]

I like it, I like it:eusa_clap

 

[clowman]

Ohh... I think it's a winner. Much better than calling around.

 

[D L Ames]

A point of caution though. Steve, yes, I did get the email you sent last night to all of the staff but, something I picked up on that could be a potential problem with the plan I laid out above is that many of the staff are using email accounts set up under ncwoodworker.net If the system goes down will these staff members be able to receive emails during the downtime?

D L

 

[SteveColes]

Good point! every email address I use, 15, goes through the machine that hosts this site. Depending on what the real problem is, all email would be down. Like the time, a tech in CA actually pulled the the power plug on our machine, by accident.

Ok, let me think about that.

 

[SteveColes]

Ok, I am going to start hosting all ncwoodworking mail at a completely differnet place. That should resolve the problem. But first I want to try it out for a few days before I make the big switch. I'll let everyone know the status as soon as I can

 

[mshel]

Well, I think a phone list would probably be the way to go. Participation would be voluntary. we would keep a list of each volunteer and a contact number. The list would be in the order they should be called. I would always be number 1. Say each week #2 would to the bottom and every one else would move up one.

The first person to decide that there is a problem (more on that later) calls the first person on the list and keeps going down the list until they actually make contact. The first person actually contacted then takes the role of reporting the problem to the hoster and coordinating recovery efforts with them. if you are the person going the down the contact list and you reach yourself, then you are the problem reporter.

The benefit of this approach is that for any single problem, my hoster only hears from one person per problem. If they were to get five calls or tickets for the same problem on the website, I can promise that our service will suffer or we will go low on their priority queue.

Instant messaging will not work because most of us are not really on the same one and probably don't monitor it enough.

So tell me what you think. Don't post any phone numbers yet, this is just a trail balloon

Steve,

I think this idea is right on the money.

MIke

 

[Steve D]

Phone trees are a pain but email is unreliable from a timliness perspective. I have run into many instances where emails took several hours to be delivered. I can also see a couple of us discovering the problem and then calling while emails are flying around in cyberspace. Photo galleries are a good example but now we can at least see an "I got it". Maybe there is a way that we could do it with some kind of IM buddy list but I haven't used IM in so long I don't know what the capabilities are.

Maybe we could post a code thread on Woodnet?

 

[SteveColes]

IM could be made to work, but which one. There are a few of us that have accounts, but you'll be hard pressed to get everyone to agree on one. MSN AIM AOL

 

[cskipper]

I have a yahoo email address so conceivably could have their IM (if they have one) and MSN.