Support Center?

[fowlplay4]

What's wrong with emails?

The way I see it there's at least three kinds of support:

- General Support (Bans, Server Issues)
- Account Support
- Stefan/unixmad Support (Things PWA don't have rights to or can't do)

I'd be interested in knowing the actual drop/gain they may have taken with the drop of the Support Center.

[salesman]

Originally Posted by TSAdmin

The reason a Support Centre isn't made on the login server is because if for some reason someone can't even log into the client (Account locked out, globally banned, servers lagging badly, etc etc), how are they supposed to contact the Support Centre? So internal Support Centre is a no-go.

What about people who cannot connect to the internet? You should drop email support because there's probably one person out there with no internet who has a question for you. We should use the good ol' fashioned stamp and envelope .

People who cannot login would need to use email or the forums. I'm interested to know how many problems you deal with actually involve people who cannot use the client (in comparison to those who can).

Originally Posted by fowlplay4

What's wrong with emails?

The way I see it there's at least three kinds of support:

- General Support (Bans, Server Issues)
- Account Support
- Stefan/unixmad Support (Things PWA don't have rights to or can't do)

I'd be interested in knowing the actual drop/gain they may have taken with the drop of the Support Center.

It's really doesn't matter how we submit our questions or ask our problems as long as we're getting the support we need and deserve. If emailing works fine for everyone, so be it, but with threads like this popping up every other day, it obviously isn't working. The problem is that nobody knows how to get support...there needs to be links from the website and client.


EDIT:

Originally Posted by TSAdmin

It's not just that "Some people can't access it, so don't make one?". Not sure how savvy with scripting you are, but GUI's are clientside. Clientside scripts are rather insecure and easy to alter illegally. The last thing we would want is to put sensitive information into a clientsided support centre. Local support centres, such as the one on Era, don't require sensitive information such as personal details, and half the time only require "Account/Community Name", and a reason for submitting a ticket.

I don't think security would really be a problem. Sensitive information would be handled serverside, and it's not like you'd be passing any information that isn't already handled on Graal anyways?

Originally Posted by TSAdmin

Also, just to sort the beans from the cherries, the PWA don't have any form of rights to just randomly pull things like this out of our asses and implement them. We handle the tickets, emails, whatever. We don't handle the management, integrity and security of the what we're using. That's where Stefan and Unixmad come in. So, we can search for years for a new support software, but we're also the ones losing out, not just you. I think it's getting way too uniform with the community to believe that "Global" means we're all equals and could do the same thing as the next person in the team. That's simply not true. Just because you don't see Xor, Bell or myself making a coffee, doesn't mean it's because we're lazy, incapable or negligent. It just means you're looking at the wrong people for it.

I'm not sure why you think this thread is directed at you? Nobody has accused you of being lazy, or said that you should be the one developing this.

[TSAdmin]

Originally Posted by salesman

What about people who cannot connect to the internet? You should drop email support because there's probably one person out there with no internet who has a question for you. We should use the good ol' fashioned stamp and envelope .

Sounds like a different department. Different company completely, even! :o Sounds like if someone can't access the internet they should contact their ISP via phone and worry about online stuff when they get their internet back. Sounds like you're just saying something like this to be a smart ass :o

Originally Posted by salesman

It's really doesn't matter how we submit our questions or ask our problems as long as we're getting the support we need and deserve. If emailing works fine for everyone, so be it, but with threads like this popping up every other day, it obviously isn't working. The problem is that nobody knows how to get support...there needs to be links from the website and client.

I'm doing my part (Check signature). I can't do anything about the website though.

Originally Posted by cbk1994

Easy to alter illegally to do what, exactly? As long as you're validating the data serverside, which is a must for any script, there's no problem. The only security risk is that some staff member could use a script to read the text value from the GUI once they're on that staffs server, so some kind of global weapon would need to destroy all of the support center GUIs before serverwarp (which should be possible since it's also doing things like reconstructing the taskbar on serverwarp). The support center can even be enhanced to send emails alerting the poster that they have a new message. The only real problem with this is that guest accounts often are not unique (players can share the same PCID in some cases) so sensitive data might be leaked that way.

I'd rather see an online support center implemented, but unless you're willing to host it yourselves, which would only piss Stefan off, I guess that's not happening.

Well, the problem is Stefan. Our Support Centre has a leak because of Support Trio's software, and now he shoots down every suggestion? It's likely because he's way too security conscious. It doesn't matter if we validate via ServerSide, there's still risk and from my point of view, Stefan is way too security conscious to take "risks".

[salesman]

Originally Posted by TSAdmin

Sounds like you're just saying something like this to be a smart ass :o

Kind of, yeah
The point I was trying to make though was that a scripted support center would still benefit a lot of people.

[TSAdmin]

Originally Posted by salesman

Kind of, yeah
The point I was trying to make though was that a scripted support center would still benefit a lot of people.

I'm not disagreeing. Heck, I suggested it ages and ages ago when the Support Centre first went down, but the arguments against it that I post are the ones I was presented with when I suggested it. Thing is, I understand all standpoints. I understand that it would be a good substitute, but I also understand that with the amount of problems this company has had with support, Stefan won't want to get it wrong and piss off people anyway.