Support Center Links
 

Well it occurred to me that I can no longer tell people to go to the support center when they're having trouble and/or threatening me.

Should either:

1. Re-installed for public again.

or

2. Have support center links redirect/point (http://support.graalonline.com) to the announcement with global contacts, or even a thread specialized for it.

It's just so much easier on both parties to use the support link vs discovering it through the forums.

Yeah, this is pretty important.

They seemed to have no interest in bringing back the old support center and I don't blame them; it's been nothing but trouble and a security risk.

However, I wouldn't object to a new support center... something is sorely needed.

Yes, yes it is. E-mail is okay, but when 1 person e-mails more than one of us (In separate e-mails) and we both start getting involved, it introduces a new level of difficulty in solving it, especially without the ability to "Assign" and know "That's this person's case. I can look in and comment to help, but I must trust they will handle it". Also being able to "Comment" on the case file in the support centre was a valuable feature. You can't do that with e-mails.

Scripted support center!

Did I hear a "GDT!!!" or what?

wouldn't really help the people who can't log in for what ever reason. :p

I have recommended several new support center suites to both unixmad and Stefan, both unixmad and Stefan have said that they are not interested in having a support center any more due to the security problems we've had in the past.

I really, really hope they will reconsider this in the future though.

I get frequent problems, the only thing I can do is tell them to either forum PM them or e-mail them.

Therefore, I'm all for a new support center if it can be created so it can't be hacked/etc.

Some kind of scripted support center from the login server would be cool, or at least better than nothing. The only thing it would be useless for is people that are globally banned (which can be dealt with via email, i guess), and people who cannot access the client and/or login server (can ask for help on the forums?).

There should also be contact information for global staff and links to the forum's tech support sections.

I not only miss the ability to assign but still monitor. I miss the ability to research history of tickets. Its also a bit annoying and time consuming when someone sends me a separate email for each response they send. I have to go back through all the emails to figure out what on earth they are talking about.

While my preference would definitely be a new support center, the alternative of at least redirecting the support links would be a plus.

Well, I think it would be useful to do that, yes. An in-game support center could work, but there also needs to be a centralized way to contact globals if you aren't able to access the client as you said.

For this, I believe there should be a new email address ([email protected] and [email protected]) and when an email is sent to it, it automatically forwards it to all of us. That way, we can solve most issues in-game, and extreme issues via email. [email protected] could be for general support and accounts could be for account/password-related inquiries and would only be sent to those people who are handling accounts.

With this method, the globals could work together, and each time we reply to an email, could simply CC it to the email address, for example, if an email was sent to [email protected], we could respond to the client and then cc [email protected] to send a copy of the response to all of the other globals.


We cannot work as a well-oiled machine if we are all working separately as we are right now. We need some method of centralized organization in order to properly handle support.

That's exactly what I thought myself, but it might be tricky to keep track of who is dealing with what and have people dealing with the same issues twice.

Which is happening. Another issue I've noticed is that if a player emails one of us and doesn't like the outcome he emails the next person down the line to attempt to get a different result. We have no way of knowing if someone else has already investigated a situation unless a server staff member mentions it to us. While a centralized email may help resolve that it won't help if all of us are getting all the emails and we all start working on the same problem.

Yeap, I was just about to edit my post and say this before you posted it.

Use a gmail account, star emails that are being worked on, leave emails that havent been worked on yet unstarred.

Well, you could have a centralized email account and, assuming your email client supports it, make folders for each PWA member. When a PWA accepts a task they move it into their folder and then use the method Aeko mentioned above to keep track of what's been done and what hasn't.

graalonline.com is using google's gmail system for companies last time I checked so what aeko said is doable.

How about some socket scripting on top of an in-game support centre and have a small web interface? It'd allow people who can't get on the game to report problems aswell.

I believe Xor is now using the centralized email for iphone tickets. Thats also a possibility for support but still leaves out one of my biggest concerns. Being able to tell if we're actually speaking to the owner of the account vs someone who is trying to cause trouble for a player.

The old support center used to show us the IP information which was helpful numerous times since anyone could make up whatever login name they wanted for an account. It gave us something to compare to.

It's hard enough convincing/getting them to install new/updated software, let alone create it.

Wouldn't it be possible to find or create a hack for vBulletin that allows users to post threads, and only the original poster and specified support staff can view or post in the thread? Just an alternative idea..

A popular term for this behavior is "private forum", and I believe that vB already has this feature in-built, no hacks needed. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Doesn't gmail let people see if they responded to an email right in the inbox? I haven't used it in ages, but if the globals really wanted to, they could get Stefan to craft @graalonline.com's email system so it works like that.

They can have [email protected], and folders like "Tig", "Bell", "Xor", "TSA", so if say, Tig sees an email meant for Xor, he can move it to the "Xor" box and Xor could check it later.

The only way to do this is not a private forum, but a moderated one like our Graal main forum.
Everyone is able to post a thread, but it is as long invisible as a staff member approves it.
This way it is possible for everyone to post and the staff can read and deal with the issues. When they have questions or come to a solution, they can contact the user by forum PM.
When the problem is solved staff can delete it. And it stay all the time invisible for the other users.

I agree but what I suggested, for the most part, can be created by the community, which seems like the only way of getting things done these days.

No no, you don't understand. Basically, for the average user, a private forum is completely empty, until he or she posts a thread. Mods (or, in this case, support team members) can see all threads posted, the users can only see the ones he or she has created. Seems like a good solution.

Edit: To avoid confusion: forums which need access rights granted are also called private forums, I know that. But I'm talking about the ones where you can only view your own threads.

It seems like everyone wants to script the kitchen sink these days instead of focusing on scripting stuff that would make playerworlds more successful.

It was just a suggestion really. I prefer Crow's suggestion over mine. I never said I wanted to script it either but, as you say, there are people would potentially want to script something like that so why not let them?

It's all fine you saying where everyone's focuses should be but remember it's all voluntary and we do this for fun.

But seriously I know what you mean.

I would so rep you for that one if I could, haha

Seriously though, many of these are very good ideas but none of them actually resolve all the issues involved in a support center. First and foremost it does have to be secure. Sensitive information is often provided there and stored for future reference. It also needs to be searchable as well as showing the ip of the submitter.

While many people complained about the old support center, I do miss its flexibility.