Supporthelp

From SupportWiki

The privilege that allows a volunteer to transform a screened answer into an approved answer which is sent to the user. This privilege also allows a volunteer to perform any action allowed by the interim privs.

A person holding this privilege will often be called a supporthelp or an SH.

Supporthelps can write reviews for other volunteers, though this is not a requirement of the privilege. Volunteers with a supporthelp may also answer questions relating to the category in which they hold it in learn_support.

Upon gaining the supporthelp privilege in a category, a volunteer is given membership to that category's support community (eg. support_general or support_styles) and to lj_support. They will also be given membership to the community in which reviews for the category are posted (except in the categories which use a training community instead of the reviews system).

In some categories the supporthelp priv bundle comes with additional privileges. In Style Systems, supporthelps gain the canview:styles priv (which allows them to view non-public style layers). Supporthelps in the Syndication category gain the syn_edit priv (which allows them to edit syndicated accounts) and an additional bundle of privs that allow them to view the history related to any syndicated account.

All supporthelps have the ability to view a user's public support request history as well as access to the Memcache Purge tool and the Duplicate Entry Killer tool. Supporthelps are also given op status in the IRC channel #backofthebook. Supporthelps can create new Support tags for their category.

According to a traditional saying, "newest supporthelp degreens the board".

Contents 1 What do I need to know as a new supporthelp? 2 How do I approve an answer? 3 When should I leave comments instead of answers? 4 What do I need to know about changing summaries?

What do I need to know as a new supporthelp?

There are many aspects to being a supporthelp priv. The must fundamental task of a supporthelp is to answer and approve things on the board, but most supporthelps do much more than that.

Supporthelps do not have to handle any request they do not want to, even if they know how to, but if they do handle a request they must approve an acceptable screened response rather than writing their own if an acceptable one is already present. Supporthelps still have the options they had as a screened user and interim. You can still leave screened answers for others to approve. You may still ask questions in learn_support.

Supporthelps are also given membership and the ability to post in lj_support. When you first gain supporthelp, you should look over the Support policy memories in lj_support. Some of the entries about policies will be friends-only; please review these. The category might have more information for you in the memories of its official community.

Many supporthelps will do more than just work on the board. Supporthelps are welcome to become involved with reviews, mentoring, answering questions in the Support communities, spotting volunteers in need of reviews, bringing up issues for discussion, and reporting volunteers when necessary. To get involved in these activities, discuss it with the relevant category admins, who will direct you to the information you will need.

As a supporthelp priv you will be expected to serve as a good example to the other volunteers. While all volunteers are expected to be courteous and respectful, it is more strictly enforced on supporthelps. Other volunteers are considered to still be in training, and as such, mistakes are more understandable. However, we do not expect supporthelp privs to be perfect. It's perfectly fine if some mistakes happen. You may be informed of such mistakes by e-mail, but it doesn't mean anyone thinks you're a bad priv. It just means we want you to learn from it and improve. Mistakes of fact or policy are completely understandable, and in most cases are harmless in the grand scheme of things.

While we like all volunteers to follow up on the requests they try to answer, we especially encourage supporthelp privs to do so. A supporthelp can manage a request through its entire life-cycle. By following up on requests, you learn what information is most important to include, both for answers and internal comments. Supporthelps are not done learning simply because they've completed training. Some categories encourage post-SH reviews; contact your category admin(s) to see if you are eligible for one.

How do I approve an answer?

Deciding which answer to approve is not always easy, and there are no firm rules that will always work. However, this section provides some basic concepts to make it a little clearer.

Do not approve answers that violate any of the Support policies.

Do not approve incoherent or poorly written answers, but in general a single typo is okay. If the typo causes the answer to be offensive or confusing, then that would make it unapprovable. If an average person would be able to figure out their problem given the content of the answer and the included links, this answer is approvable.

If an answer is close to approvable but not quite so, and the request is not urgent, it is encouraged for supporthelps to email the volunteer to improve the answer. It is never required to do so, but doing so helps the request get answered and the volunteer improve. It also increases volunteer morale, particularly if this is a request on which the volunteer has put forth considerable effort. If you do this, please IC on the request with a time limit under 24 hours that the volunteer has in order to resubmit their answer, before another volunteer may be approved instead.

Supporthelps are expected to approve the first approvable answer. However, if a user re-submits an answer with small improvements on their earlier approvable answer, many supporthelps choose to approve the re-submit as if it were the first answer on the request. This can mean that screened answers left in-between the re-submits may be passed over, but as the volunteer had the first approvable answer on the request, they would have been approved anyway.

It is good, but not required to leave explanations of why you approved what you did if it is not obvious. These notes are helpful both to I2s, so they can learn what the standards are, and to other supporthelps, so they can answer learn_support and review questions more accurately.

When should I leave comments instead of answers?

Comments are used to ask questions or give additional information. However, if a request is ambiguous, it does not necessarily need a comment. Whenever it will be faster and simpler, an answer should simply address all possible interpretations. A supporthelp should comment requesting additional information only in those cases where the request does not contain sufficient information to resolve it.

Comments can also be used to correct mistakes. If the approved answer neglects to mention something important, a comment can add that information. Some supporthelps prefer to comment rather than answer if the user has already solved their problem, but this is up to the individual supporthelp.

What do I need to know about changing summaries?

Be sparing with changing summaries. When changing a summary, preface the change with a "/", to alert those who do not have supportviewinternal that the summary has been changed.

If a request has unusual circumstances but an unremarkable summary, changing the summary to something more descriptive can help make that request easier to find later, when researching requests of that type. Summaries may also be changed to add bracketed summary tags to denote language or the need for admin attention.