Use supportbot in the English forums
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Sorry, I didn’t know where else to ask this.
I noticed that there’s a supportbot in the French support forums that automatically detects threads about WP.org sites, and replies to them with a canned message. It seems to work pretty well.
Is there a reason why this isn’t currently used in the English forums too?
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There was, https://en.forums.wordpress.com/profile/supportbot and it was retired by Staff in the English forums. I sorely miss the little fella on days when there is a large number of “not a wpcom site.” Thanks for asking.
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The support bot was only useful when bloggers posted URLs for the sites they were actually referring to. In many cases there is no URL posted at all or the one provided by the software ie. the primary blog for the username account are not the relevant URL.
I don’t miss the bot. Some may even say I became the bot. ;) However, I’m not panning the idea of bring it back.
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P.S. I clicked the tag in the sidebar and read through a thread that brought back the good old days and hilarious fun we used to have here before everything and everyone became “professional”, and that’s not to mention taking Calypso lessons. lol :D
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You beat me to that one :) You’re the one constant in the ever-changing forums.
I don’t miss the bot. Some may even say I became the bot. ;)
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@themagicrobot
I’m happy to note you enjoyed my comment. :) Offline I’m a plain speaking Canuck who is into spontaneous improv comedy replete with arias that can shatter wineglasses (I’m a mezzo soprano but prefer gospel, blues, jazz and soul), as well as bird and animal calls. I use my voice to pacify and provoke and even pound people into shape while making them LOL. Some say I’m the queen of sarcasm, but sarcasm doesn’t go over well online and there’s no place for it when answering support questions. Boo hoo :( -
Yes we have to be careful with sarcasm these days in this politically-correct world but personally I think there’s still a need for a light-hearted touch now and again in the forums to break up the endless “Go away. This is WordPress.com!!” replies.
PS: I prefer gospel, blues, jazz and soul and am currently listening to Irma Thomas’ “Wish someone would care”. I know off topic posts are frowned on so I’d better say that I too would like to see the return of the Supportbot. He had a cute Gravatar/image.
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He had a cute Gravatar/image.
I agree.
I know off topic posts are frowned on so I’d better say that I too would like to see the return of the Supportbot.
It’s a weekend and we are all Volunteers so maybe this hijacked thread won’t be deleted.
I ❤️ it and have been known to sing it. I also ❤️ Straight From The Heart and I’d Rather Go Blind.
Now I’m going to sing both as no one else is at home. (I’ll put my Pomeranian on the porch first because he’s turns into Pavarotti and sings with me. )
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Spooky. Etta James was singing “I’d rather go blind” two songs before the Irma Thomas one on my mix tape……. Perhaps now I need to say:-
I know off topic posts are frowned on so I’d better say that I too would like to see the return of the Supportbot.
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If the success rate for the supportbot isn’t deemed to be sufficcently high enough to implement it in the English forums, there might be other methods a8c could use to address the same root problem at an earlier point.
For example, the form for posting threads asks users to “Select the blog you need help with”.
A conditonal field could be added that firsts asks if the site they need help with is hosted here at WordPress.com.
If the answer “no”, they could recieve a “.com vs .org” message with a link to the .org support forums.
If they answer “yes”, then they could be shown the current “Select the blog you need help with” message.
It wouldn’t weed out all of the “.com vs .dorg threads”, but it might help to reduce them
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I agree. It can’t be beyond the wit of man.
A conditional field could be added that firsts asks if the site they need help with is hosted here at WordPress.com.
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@themagicrobot
I ❤️ Etta too and now I’m singing ♬A Sunday Kind Of Love” while getting ready to load up the hounds in my wagon and meet the ferry.I’m over and out when it comes to providing support today and happy hour is coming soon.
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A conditional field could be added that firsts asks if the site they need help with is hosted here at WordPress.com.
I say Yes! to that too.
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TL:DR; I haven’t had my morning coffee yet!
When supportbot was active, these forums were a different place. The interconnectedness of COM and ORG via Jetpack was but a twinkle in the CBBQTT‘s eye and Calypso was a Greek nymph or a music genre. The majority of people actually posted directly in the forums rather than through the support contact form. If you used the contact form, it also displayed your most recent forum threads. Beyond that, I don’t really remember all the changes in support that have occurred over the 10 years that I’ve been here, other than recently having seen a thread from 2010 where a certain Support lead announced there would be more Staff presence in the forums. (!) “-)
Beyond reminiscing, yes, I agree that the current contact form could also be changed so that it first points people to self-help solutions rather than funneling everything into the forums where many topics such as refunds, domain issues, and the like depend on someone seeing them and tagging them for Staff, if Staff don’t see them first.
Now, pardon me while I go try to squeeze 2 days of cooking into the next 6 hours.
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@justjennifer I agree. There should be two directions to go via the contact form. People with questions about refunds, domains etc that only staff can answer should be directed one way. People with more general questions (usually the who can’t be bothered with reading through the support docs and want instant gratification) could be sent another direction where they have the chance of being replied to by a volunteer more quickly who can hopefully provide a “do this” “do that” solution.
And as I am just a simple soul with one WordPress.com site, one account and one password perhaps you could explain to me (which is partly why this thread was started by @garysixtyeight in the first place) why the forums contain so many people with WordPress.com accounts and old empty “Hello World!” sites linked to their names yet are asking questions about self-hosted sites (which they often don’t name)??? Why have they got WordPress.com accounts? Is it all to do with Jetpack?
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@themagicrobot – part of the “problem” is that users in the contact form don’t really see the Support site. Yes, if you go the lengthy route to get to the contact form, there is some mention of it in a list of other things, but they are easy to miss. If related support docs would appear after the user entered a question in the contact form, even that would be more helpful than it is currently.
About your question, yes, I do believe its Jetpack, Calypso, et al, that is the cause. Granted some users aren’t even certain that they have ORG sites because they have access to the contact form on COM (as witnessed by the wpcomhelp tag added to their post).
But this isn’t getting my cooking done and I have miles to go before I sleep. :)
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Good Morning :)
There are no imminent plans that I know of to bring back the bot. We want support to be personalized within our community and a bot just can’t send a personal vibe.
I will pass along the suggestions about the contact form. We appreciate this feedback and all the work that you put in to the community :)
PS – I want to know what’s cooking, justjennifer?
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@lizkarkoski- thanks for taking the feedback from this thread forward. Any step towards encouraging users to look for solutions first is welcome, like routing users to this page https://wordpress.com/help/ which today I believe is only accessible through the ? button in the Calypso dash. Thanks again.
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Hi justjennifer –
No problem :) You’re correct, wordpress.com/help is only found through the ? in the new editor or by direct link.
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