Topic: Pending Tickets

Posted under General

user 370094

Member

There are pending tickets going as far back as 11 months ago that haven't been handled yet.

I am aware that the primary ticket handler is no longer handling tickets but is there some sort of plan to clear the backlog anytime soon?

maplebytes

Privileged

kemonophonic said:
There are pending tickets going as far back as 11 months ago that haven't been handled yet.

I am aware that the primary ticket handler is no longer handling tickets but is there some sort of plan to clear the backlog anytime soon?

There are only so many staff members, these things take time, especially if the ticket is over something "low priority". If you're referring to the BUR/Alias/Implication backlog, it's slowly being cleared, many years old requests have been approved or denied over the past month by BitWolfy.

furrypickle

Admin

For the sake of transparency: There is only 1 open ticket that was created 11 months ago. All of the rest are more recent than that. The only tickets that are older than 6 months are part of ongoing investigations.

All actually pending tickets are either 6 months old (a small handful) or younger (everything else). Which is still not ideal, but it's far from as dire as the first post sounds.

There is no 'primary ticket handler' position. There are several admins which regularly handle tickets. We also have some long term plans for addressing tickets as the site continues to grow.

It is worth noting that we have increased in traffic, users, upload addition rates, etc every year since 2008 and it is still climbing. This means that everything it takes to run this site, is part of a constantly expanding challenge (even compared to just the year before).

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About tickets in specific, and as a general reference:
If you report something that makes a claim but you include no links to proof (about tracing, about someone being underage, about someone being a ban evader, about a rumor you heard, about stolen credit/plagiarism, about a past history with a user from months ago, etc etc), then it generally takes us longer to investigate any claim that is made without any links or proof. Including what you know or can find about it, often makes processing a ticket go more quickly.

However, there is no guarantee. What may seem simple on the surface to outsiders, may in fact involve several staff working together, private communications both on and off the site to verify or check information against outside sources or parties, internal discussion of policy, or even private discipline that will not be seen by onlookers. A ticket can also be left open for a time after it has mostly been handled, in order to monitor the situation for another few days/weeks/months before considering it fully resolved. Also, sometimes there is simply not enough information or proof to act on it right away, so it may wait in the hopes that more information can be found, or verified, or that more behavior can be observed that allows us to make a final decision on it.

So if you have a ticket that has sat for awhile, it is sometimes because we are waiting on finding more information about it, or that we are monitoring one or more parties involved, or that we are discussing policy, or that we have taken some actions and are waiting to see how that plays out before officially closing it. It is not as simple as pushing a button and doing whatever was requested. Not if we want to do things right.

But we are also quite busy. All of the staff (except for NotMeNotYou, I think), are volunteers who have to find time for processing tickets, alias/implications/BUR suggestions, dmails, forum discussions, upload approvals, discord moderating, etc etc after our own real life obligations, jobs, health, and other demands on our time. This means that sometimes more will end up processed in a certain time frame, and other times less. So we tend to prioritize extreme situations, emergencies, dangerous types of rules, actual lawbreaking, and when things are on fire as the topmost priority first. Tickets which are less life and death are grabbed from the pile as an admin has the time for it and will sometimes wait longer before they get addressed. Tickets are not always handled in order. And behind the scenes, we are always busy.

With this in mind, you can probably see why including some proof/information alongside whatever is claimed in a ticket, can help to speed up processing a ticket on a lunch break or when someone has 15 minutes to grab a few out of the pile. It is not a guarantee, but the more clearly that a ticket gets to the point, summarizes what is happening, and includes some of the right information as proof or links... then the easier and faster that ticket might be for us to process. Usually. But not always.

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These are just a few of the many reasons why a ticket may take longer to be resolved, most of which will never be seen from the outside. We are also planning ways to improve things as the site continues to grow each year.

And of course, we always appreciate those who are patient with us as we work to shorten the time that some things wait overall.

JFrankParnell

Member

I will also add that a lot of tickets are for things that are dumb, like people reporting anything that they are offended by as pedophilia or “this person is harassing me because I don’t like their opinion.” Then there’s the pics that are consistently being reported; how many tickets have been put in over the 9/11 pic or the Nazi Tails one? Perhaps there needs to be a popup when you put in a ticket saying “don’t report things that you can easily blacklist” or similar. Might help in some small way to cut the queue down. That and somehow getting people to stop confusing the respond and report buttons…

alphamule

Privileged

jfrankparnell said:
I will also add that a lot of tickets are for things that are dumb, like people reporting anything that they are offended by as pedophilia or “this person is harassing me because I don’t like their opinion.” Then there’s the pics that are consistently being reported; how many tickets have been put in over the 9/11 pic or the Nazi Tails one? Perhaps there needs to be a popup when you put in a ticket saying “don’t report things that you can easily blacklist” or similar. Might help in some small way to cut the queue down. That and somehow getting people to stop confusing the respond and report buttons…

LOL, I read them sometimes for laughs. "Oh, that's probably a Lunar ban (1000 years)" <--- No wait, that's another image site starting with e and ending with i. ;)

Given that the report button takes you to another page entirely with "complaint" and similar language, can't fix not reading.

wat8548

Member

furrypickle said:
So if you have a ticket that has sat for awhile, it is sometimes because we are waiting on finding more information about it, or that we are monitoring one or more parties involved, or that we are discussing policy, or that we have taken some actions and are waiting to see how that plays out before officially closing it. It is not as simple as pushing a button and doing whatever was requested. Not if we want to do things right.

TBF there are a few reports for creepy comments which are approaching or even past the 6 month statute of limitations for reporting such things.

Things have noticeably improved recently, though. There are currently no open tickets which were created during the month of January, and everything older is a relic of the dark days of late 2022 when all admin activity slowed to a crawl. There's still a substantial backlog, but the time to complain about that was before it started getting cleared, not after.

alphamule said:
Given that the report button takes you to another page entirely with "complaint" and similar language, can't fix not reading.

I wonder if introducing a compulsory dropdown for comment reports, the same as post reports already have, might stem the tide?

faucet

Member

I don't think I've ever waited more than a few days for any of my tickets to be processed, some of the more important ones (underage users and etc) have actually been answered and actioned in minutes.

Only exception is the 11 month old one which isn't anything important. Today I learned I filed the oldest open ticket.

alphamule

Privileged

wat8548 said:
TBF there are a few reports for creepy comments which are approaching or even past the 6 month statute of limitations for reporting such things.

Things have noticeably improved recently, though. There are currently no open tickets which were created during the month of January, and everything older is a relic of the dark days of late 2022 when all admin activity slowed to a crawl. There's still a substantial backlog, but the time to complain about that was before it started getting cleared, not after.

I wonder if introducing a compulsory dropdown for comment reports, the same as post reports already have, might stem the tide?

Really? I just tested it and all 3 (this forum, a post, and comment on a post) all bring up the same new page with big warning in clear language saying "better mean it"/"Don't tickle the dragon!" warnings. :D

Also: Compulsory reference

Clawstripe

Janitor

alphamule said:
Really? I just tested it and all 3 (this forum, a post, and comment on a post) all bring up the same new page with big warning in clear language saying "better mean it"/"Don't tickle the dragon!" warnings. :D

If you know anything about retail (and I'm sure you probably do), people being blind to blatantly obvious signs is pretty much a constant. Considering people frequently click through buttons when installing software, often accidentally also installing adware or malware, I doubt adding in blinking type stating "REPORT POSTS HERE ONLY" with a fanfare and fireworks will make much of a difference.

wat8548

Member

alphamule said:
Really? I just tested it and all 3 (this forum, a post, and comment on a post) all bring up the same new page with big warning in clear language saying "better mean it"/"Don't tickle the dragon!" warnings. :D

That wasn't what I said at all. Post reports, unlike the other two types of reports, require you to go through an extra step before submitting. If you have to actively choose to click on a button that says "Creepy comment" or "Refusal to blacklist" or whatever, it should be sufficiently unlike the process of replying that it at least makes you think twice.

alphamule

Privileged

wat8548 said:
That wasn't what I said at all. Post reports, unlike the other two types of reports, require you to go through an extra step before submitting. If you have to actively choose to click on a button that says "Creepy comment" or "Refusal to blacklist" or whatever, it should be sufficiently unlike the process of replying that it at least makes you think twice.

Ah, so requiring you to select a reason. Got it!

wat8548

Member

kemonophonic said:
Holy shit! The ticket queue is almost empty!

As of today, it's actually empty for the first time I can remember.

Good job to the new staff for clearing that backlog. Now could we pretty please get AIBURs rolling again?

SNPtheCat

Member

wat8548 said:
As of today, it's actually empty for the first time I can remember.

Good job to the new staff for clearing that backlog. Now could we pretty please get AIBURs rolling again?

Holy shit, yeah it's empty. Didn't know the tickets were a mess just a couple of months ago, had a pretty good experience with it whenever I reported.

Benjiboyo

Blocked

wat8548 said:
As of today, it's actually empty for the first time I can remember.

Good job to the new staff for clearing that backlog. Now could we pretty please get AIBURs rolling again?

o7 Donovan is a goddamn miracle worker

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