Support Rework

[Rafi]

My apologies if this does not belong in the "Forum Suggestions" section, but this post doesn't really fit in any of the other support sections, so I thought I'd give it a try in here.

Providing support is not easy. You need the right people in the right positions. You need to have these players online and responding 24/7. EclipseRP has players from all around the globe, all playing during different timeframes. My experience with support (EU) hasn't been the best. I died untold amount of times due to bugs. In this case, the only way to contact an admin is through in-game "/report 2", which so far has been answered 0% of times I requested it. Hopping on the Discord server, I always see atleast 2-3 admins online (not busy or away). Seeing this gets extremely frustrating.

To make providing support easier and more efficient, I suggest the following:

Discord Rework

1. Dedicated Support Channels

Providing support through voice with the possibility of screensharing instead of text-based support should prove to be much more efficient than the way support is handled now. Simple issues can currently be handled through the #i-have-a-question text channel, but more complex issues can often not be resolved through this channel.

Suggested rework

The Waiting for Support #X channels would only allow one person to be in it. Support should only handle one case at a time, not two, three, four or more. We prevent this by capping the amount of users that are able to join a channel.

If a Support user is online and sees there are people waiting for support, he can then drag them into the dedicated Support #X channels and handle their support cases. Regular users can only be dragged into these, they should not be able to join these channels theirselves. These channels should allow screen-sharing to make resolving issues easier.

If a support case cannot be resolved by Support users, the issue should be redirected to someone with more privileges or knowledge, preferably an Admin. To do this, drag the member with an issue into the Waiting for Admin #X channels. 

Once a case has been resolved, Support users should drag the member in the Issue Resolved channel (which could be muted).

People with the Support role should not be in these channels 24/7. Obviously, they can still play and enjoy the game. They should however keep an eye on these channels and see if many people are having complex issues, so these can be resolved as quickly as possible.

I should also state that these channels are only to be used by members when they have already posted about their issue in #i-have-a-question, but they were unsuccessful in solving it. This should be clear to the members.

2. Dedicated Knowledge Text-Channels

In the Discord server we have right now, too much info is hidden behind pinned messages that many people never get to see. You'd be surprised how many people are still new to the whole Discord product and its features. These members will find it hard to navigate through the Discord server. You could argue that someone could always point them in the right direction, but this is inefficient and will not ALWAYS happen. Why make it hard when you can make it easy?

Group information in dedicated Knowledge text-channels. Discord has pretty good formatting, so displaying this information should not be that complicated.

Suggested rework

This is easier than having to search through a channel's pinned message (the narrow view is annoying and cannot be searched).
Regular members should not be able to post in these channels. These channels solely act as Information Boards to access information.

 

 

This might seem like a rant, but it isn't. I love RP and EclipseRP, but with the current state of the server (that contains a lot of bugs), you will see many (new) players resort to support, only to get their support request ignored. Staff can also be hard to contact, as some have their Discord status on "Do Not Disturb", which makes it easy for staff to overlook a DM. This "lack of support" will hurt the server as it discourages new players to stay, and is also a huge frustration for many of the regular players. Which, from a business standpoint, is not very good. 

I would love to hear anyone's opinion on this, and discuss this further in the comments!

 

Thanks.

Edited May 6, 2020 by RobinMiller
Feedback

[Loose500]

+1 this would be a great change since iv been trying to contact anyone ingame for the last 3 days and it can be frustrating sometimes.

[Jaquan Smith]

-1

[Rafi]

2 minutes ago, Jaquan Smith said:

-1

Do you have any feedback Jaquan? 

[Jaquan Smith]

Just now, RobinMiller said:

Do you have any feedback Jaquan? 

I just don't think that they should waste their time by making more voice-channels. Also, the support stuff should wait 24/7 for you in voice chat while they playing themselves? Don't think so

[Rafi]

9 minutes ago, Jaquan Smith said:

I just don't think that they should waste their time by making more voice-channels. Also, the support stuff should wait 24/7 for you in voice chat while they playing themselves? Don't think so

It was probably not clear from the post, I'll make sure to edit this in. To answer your question: Support should not be waiting in these Support channels. They should vaguely keep an eye on Discord activity (2nd monitor, mobile phone) and respond when people ask for support. I know Support is not a full time job, but right now I barely see Support users typing in #i-have-a-question. Most of the questions are being answered by other regular players or donators who have some hours on the server. I don't think this is wrong, but when more complex issues arise, these regular players won't be able to solve those.
 

Quote

Most of the questions are being answered by other regular players or donators

This also brings up the question: what are the Support roles doing, and are they necessary?

 

Edit: 

Quote

I just don't think that they should waste their time by making more voice-channels.

It's hard to agree with you on this one. Making these channels and making sure the correct privileges/rights are set is very low effort. If this solution proves to work a lot better, the few minutes worked on creating these channels will prove to be extremely valuable.

Edited April 28, 2020 by RobinMiller

[alexgrant]

To give feedback on this, I agree with both suggestions;

Myself, being a longtime user of discord still don't even check the pinned messages that often, mostly because using this is indeed very narrow as said by you, and I'm sure I'm not the only one who thinks this way and most of the people never check the pinned messages. So, getting some text channels as the example you provided would be very usefull, people can find a lot of the info through forums etc., but let's be real, it's 2020. Having these text channels would provide (especially new) players some quick to find answers that will probably reply to about 65% of all questions asked.
 

Ingame support has been lacking indeed, bugs occure a lot of the times and that's ok, it happens. We know this isn't a 10 billion dollar company but what is stated above is true, we need another way to contact support!

I think the suggestion on this is great, the voice channels that allow 1 person in at a time is a great queu option to have.
Although there should be a set of rules on when you are allowed to queu up for this kind of support, otherwise I think a lot of people will go in them with questions that can easily be found in faq or through the player-to-player support we got now.

 

Conclusion, these options should definitely be considered by admins and looked into.

-Alex Grant

[Rafi]

1 minute ago, alexgrant said:

Although there should be a set of rules on when you are allowed to queu up for this kind of support, otherwise I think a lot of people will go in them with questions that can easily be found in faq or through the player-to-player support we got now.

Thanks for your feedback Alex! You have a good point. I think this is the biggest weakness of the proposed support system.

Steps that could be undertaken are the following:

• Only allow members with a specific role to join these voice channels to request support (e.g. member must be verified and have the "Member" role)
• State within the rules that one should always have a look at the Knowledge Base channels first before contacting Support through voice. It's easy to Ctrl+F these channels. This could also be set as a message in the Character Select screen in-game when a new player his application to join EclipseRP has been approved.

In the end, this responsibility lies with the member requesting support. By setting up a Knowledge Base that is easy to navigate and contains much information, you can reduce the amount of questions the players can solve theirselves.

[tjbanana]

+1

[Dim]

+1, I wouldn't expect them to dedicate a whole lot of time to this, would just be nice to have.

[Rafi]

Bump

[THNDR]

Hi @RobinMiller

You can always PM a member of support individually if you need to send a screenshot/screenshare. Other than that I think the current system works fine. Not sure if the situation has improved since the last recruitment of 23 new support members.

Don't know but I see a lot of support in #i_have_a_question, and I'm pretty active there myself.

[WobblierDog15]

I agree with the dedicated help-information channel.

[Rafi]

3 hours ago, Thunderboss said:

Hi @RobinMiller

You can always PM a member of support individually if you need to send a screenshot/screenshare. Other than that I think the current system works fine. Not sure if the situation has improved since the last recruitment of 23 new support members.

Don't know but I see a lot of support in #i_have_a_question, and I'm pretty active there myself.

Hey @Thunderboss, thanks for your reply.

I'm not quite sure when the 23 new support members were recruited, but since the creation of this post, my in-game /reports have been answered most of the times! 

When it comes to DM'ing members of support on Discord... This is where I have been a lot less successful. I'm either unable to DM them because we're not friends, their status is on "Do Not Disturb" so they do not receive an alert when DM'ed, or I just get ignored. I've been trying to get in touch with multiple Support members for a few days now to resolve a Forum Issue, and none have responded.

I just think it wouldn't hurt to give the support system these additions. Implementing the solution would be quite low-effort, and be much more manageable than how it's done right now I think.

Edited May 7, 2020 by RobinMiller
typo

[Ranger]

Hey, thanks for the suggestion.

If you need to speak to a member of staff in discord, you can feel free to request it and I'm sure someone will be fine with chatting in voice. In terms of the knowledge channels - we have a channel dedicated to questions, and there is a good amount of information posted on the forums.

Suggestion Locked & Archived.