Helpdesk is back!

I’d be more in favour of keeping the helpline the helpline. I found it clever and inviting. Especially in physical form, on the wall, where I would like to see it return, as well.

So I’ll suggest a rename of the “helpdesk”. How about “drudgeryreport”?
Or maybe “choreboard”?
“virtualjobjar”?
“grabatask”?

I’ll also echo, these really need tied in to the AD for authentication.

Is it going to have an auto response of “Have you turned you power off, then back on?”
:joy:

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I’m still fairly new here but my background is IT with a client base that ranged from the same building to world wide locations including oil rigs off the coast of Africa. I can honestly say that there was never a user who was happy to place a ticket! I know, how can that be! On the flip side, we needed that ticket system to help manage our workload, identify problems and make sure those problemss were resolved.

An example of why we need it here at DMS: Tuesday as I walked into the laser lab John told me about a problem Mike had told him about in the 3D lab with one of the pc’s. I had no problem with this and I went and checked out the pc. I checked the logs, events, disk space, virus definitions and pending updates. No problem was identified. So I went back to John to see if he had any more info. on the problem and he didn’t have anything more to add. Shortly after we saw Mike and he explained the problem, and one extra yet most important fact: it happened last week. So at this point with no other problem found we all considered it closed. I found Stan and just gave him an update so he’s aware of what’s going on in the environment and he says that he worked on and fixed a problem with that machine last week.

I apologize for the length of this text, but I hope it shows how a ticket system would have saved a lot of peoples time and effort. Also if the ticket system is searchable we could have looked at the ticket that was entered, if it’s reoccurring and previous fixes and even more importantly if it was closed!

I honestly think that if everyone supports it and uses it we will make the environment better for everyone.

And to the team, thank you for your hard work on this project!
Troy

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Unfortunately submitting tickets to volunteers is not the best way to get them handled. When I was chair of electronics people would submit tickets on “Broken” soldering irons. After too many 1 hour trips to DMS to only find they were unplugged, you start to ignore stupid tickets.

Not that tracking issues isn’t a bad idea but most people do not know how most ticket systems work. We should not expect them to get it right the first time. It has to be 7 year old easy!

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And unless it’s easier to use than this effort so far appears to be (having to have a github account to submit a ticket as the primary out-of-the-gate stumble, in my opinion), it will be as under-used, under-appreciated, and as derided as previous efforts. Which is not say we should stop trying; a usable ticketing system could be a great thing.

But…

This is not a business, where you can insist people use a ticketing system as part of their workflow whether they like it or not. In your example above, Mike would have had to turn in a ticket, which, unless remarkably simple, they will not. They’ll complain to their neighbor, but not submit a ticket. Part of why I say this is that this incident was very likely not reported in the existing system (submit issue & request thread in Talk). By Mike (primary) or John (secondary). Or you. Or Stan. All of whom could have simply entered a thread on Talk to report this incident, what was done, who was affected, etc. for posterity and future reference/work reduction. But did not. We cannot FORCE members to use a ticket system. And unless it gets a LOT easier, we cannot even encourage volunteers to use one to make their future lives easier. The price today is not worth it to them for a less-problematic future.

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Seems like this is not that far-fetched with our existing Microsoft Active Directory and Okta system.
https://help.github.com/articles/about-authentication-with-saml-single-sign-on/

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So…recently, tried to submit a ticket…first I tried iTop, then I tried to figure out how to do it through the Wiki, then someone mentioned a QR Code, then I tried to figure out how to do it through Talk…and now I’m supposed to use Github?

Interesting…hopefully the new plan takes into consideration how those of us who only visit the space a couple of times a year can know how to participate without having to go through ITO 101 (Issue Ticket Orientation 101) each time we visit the space.

I’ll use any system that’s put into place…if I can figure it out.

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(having to have a github account to submit a ticket as the primary out-of-the-gate stumble, in my opinion)

That’s why there’s the email for submitting tickets.

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Please don’t let this happen:

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I tried checking out the link you provided, but it was restricted somehow.

Blockquote

It is restricted to members only…