Join the AMA (Ask Me Anything) with the Firefox leadership team to celebrate Firefox 20th anniversary and discuss Firefox’s future on Mozilla Connect. Mark your calendar on Thursday, November 14, 18:00 - 20:00 UTC!

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Testing of offtopic tag by a Forum Moderator

  • 14 cavab
  • 1 has this problem
  • 28 views
  • Last reply by x74028282

more options

Testing of new forum features. No need to reply.

Related contibs thread https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors/709835?last=56002&page=2#post-55999

Testing of new forum features. No need to reply. Related contibs thread https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors/709835?last=56002&page=2#post-55999

Modified by John99

All Replies (14)

more options

Adding offtopic tag, no hyphen, IF that is possible.

more options

See my edit here:

https://support.mozilla.org/forums/contributors/709835?&page=2#post-55992

P.S. I'm glad I replied within 12 hours so as not to auto-escalate this!

Modified by AliceWyman

more options

OK to delete this thread?

Based on the reply below I'll leave this thread alone.

Modified by AliceWyman

more options

Thanks for the comments Alice.

P.S. I'm glad I replied within 12 hours so as not to auto-escalate this! 

What is wrong with it being escalated ?

I would prefer to keep this as an example and demonstration. Consider

  1. This serves as a reminder to helpdesk of unresolved issues
    • that the offtopic tag is not available
    • or if it is then we have not got proper guidelines on its use yet
    • using the tag may have undesired effects, and only dea lwith one classs of offtopic
  2. After 7 days or whatever the thread will still be escalated and serving as another useful example
    • It will have dropped of the easily available viewing options, so we are still in danger of dropping the ball.
    • Remember now we have no simple view unsolved option
    • It will at some point get a one shot escalation
    • After that the current situation does not provide any easy method of escalating a stalled thread. So even with the new system threads may drop through the net and add to the unsolved list.

What do you think ?
Is it ok to leave this on the Forum. I think it serves a useful purpose. I am not trying to continue the discussion about the forum here; merely as a demo posting a single thread in the real AAQ Prod. instead of in Stage.


P.S.
By posting this I think I observed an undocumented feature (Not a euphemism for a bug ! More of an enhancement in the new UI ).

If an OP posts and then as an after thought makes the next reply; maybe adding additional information, it used to be lost to the no reply filter. I think it now still shows as needing attention because the rule presumably tests for another user posting.

more options

Looks like Kadir (or Madalina?) has added the "offtopic" tag. I've tagged this thread "offtopic". Both offtopic and off-topic tags are now available.

more options

P.S. Threads are no longer auto-escalated after 12 hours of the OP was the last one to reply. (From what I've gathered, it's now 72 hours?)

more options

P.S. Threads are no longer auto-escalated after 12 hours of the OP was the last one to reply. (From what I've gathered, it's now 72 hours?)

I think it is now supposed to be escalate at about 24 hours but with a 72 hour target. Per https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors/709846?last=56070#post-56068

I have not checked properly but I think this thread no longer displays unless the offtopic checkbox filter is used. So then contributors see only offtopic questions. I guess that may be a reasonable and intended method of doing this.

I do not think this (offtopic tag) has locked the thread.

more options

Here's what patrick said in /forums/contributors/709846?last=56070#post-56068

We are auto escalating cases that reach 24 hours with no response. We are using a 72 hour SLA to respond to these cases. 12 hours was a bit too ambitious and was impacting the other work that the Helpdesk does. So far we're meeting the 72 hour SLA. 

Here's what I understand is happening right now on off-topic questions:

Tagging a thread "offtopic" lets you use the "Off-topic" checkbox to filter for those tagged questions. Moderators will still have to find, review, and then manually lock the thread, if appropriate.

Also, An "offtopic" tag doesn't hide the question by default, like I thought it might do (neither does the "escalate" tag hide those by default). When I commented earlier that I thought it would work that way, I was going by Kadir's comment in https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=928901#c4 where he wrote:


The focus is on "Needs Attention". That's where we want to steer people to. The goal is to have as few question for as short as possible in that area.
The "Needs Attention" area should be further subdivided into "new" questions and questions where the "answer didn't help". People should be able to see one or the other or both. By default we'd display both kinds of questions.
Questions can also be escalated or off-topic. These are not states, but additional information about questions that people can use to decide if they want to get involved. By default we would not show off-topic or escalated questions.

I took By default we would not show off-topic or escalated questions to mean that threads tagged offtopic or escalate would not be shown by default, among the other listed questions. I thought you would have to check the "Off-topic" or "Escalated" filter box to see those. It's not happening that way. Whether that's a bug or not, I don't know.

more options

As of Dec 16, 2013, threads with replies, which need attention because the last post was by the OP, are no longer auto-escalated.

Ref: Bug 950759 - Turn off auto escalation for questions that have a reply

more options

I do not see the logic of escalating a question because it needs attention, and promptly removing it from the needs attention view.

As long as it is seen in the escalated view HelpDesk, Tier 1 or anyone may find it if they wish.

The majority will just look in the needs attention view. The escalated threads that need attention are now hidden from the majority of contributors !!
Surely that just increases HelpDesk workload unnecessarily, because was it not hidden tier 1 may well have answered it.

more options

The escalated threads aren't hidden yet.

/forums/contributors/709835?&page=3

(Me)
Like I said before, escalated and offtopic threads are not being hidden by default and do show up in the "Needs Attention list. Is this a bug or did you change your mind on this?
(madalina)
Yes it is a bug. Kadir and Rehan are working on fixing it. Thanks for catching that one!
more options

Not yet

but they will be if the bug is fixed

more options

Posted by Kadir in /forums/contributors/709835?page=3#post-56110

Alice, it's this bug https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=952515 Thanks for catching it! Also, I removed the "off-topic" tag, so we have "offtopic" only now.

This thread is no longer tagged "off-topic" since Kadir removed the tag ..... and somehow the "offtopic" tag I added on 12-18 is also gone. This thread IS tagged "escalate" now (???)

John99, I won't touch the tags any more or add any new posts since it's your thread and you may what to test further.

more options

Registered as contributor