Proposal: New location requests management approach

par_moderator

Proposal: New location requests management approach

Post by par_moderator »

You know that recently the number of location requests has grown significantly.
Several days ago I have received a PM from Marty.
He asked me if I need a help from moderators with location requests management.
Yes, I do :)

Here's an idea how to make location requests much simple for me.



I have created a special topic "Pending requests" in "Add location" forum.
This topic is supposed to contain all location-ids that are waiting for submission to YoWindow.

When a new location requested, one of our moderators would copy the location-id (with location and country name) to this topic.
One line for a location.
Example:
972803; Mtubatuba/KwaZulu-Natal/South Africa
983395; Leisure Bay/KwaZulu-Natal/South Africa
974149; Mooketsi/Limpopo/South Africa
1021389; Balgowan/KwaZulu-Natal/South Africa
948738; Tinley Manor/KwaZulu-Natal/South Africa


Then my job is easy.
I just copy/paste this list to our internal software to update the data-base.
After that I will update the "Pending locations" post with a corresponding message.
Like this:

----- Added! ------
972803; Mtubatuba/KwaZulu-Natal/South Africa
983395; Leisure Bay/KwaZulu-Natal/South Africa
974149; Mooketsi/Limpopo/South Africa
1021389; Balgowan/KwaZulu-Natal/South Africa
948738; Tinley Manor/KwaZulu-Natal/South Africa


Now it takes around 30 minutes for me to review 20 posts and add the locations.
With the new approach I think it would be a matter of 5 minutes.
Eventually giving me more time to work on YoWindow.


What do you think guys?
Do you like the idea?

[UPDATED]
Oops, I have submitted this topic as par_moderator.
This is a test account I just have created to test moderator editing permissions.
The "Pending locations" topic is going to be locked for regular users, but editable for moderators.

Pasha
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Re: Proposal: New location requests management approach

Post by FvE »

Hey Pasha,

I like this very much.
This way it's easier for us to adjust the many wrong requests as well.

One last question (and a very old one too):
Will there be, at some point, the possibility for users to add there own locations?

That way they will experience directly if they've asked for an administrative division.
It would take a load of your 'things to do'.
And it will keep the more active users, not the ones with just one post for a location (I always try to sense if they're possible spammers).

Fred
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par
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Re: Proposal: New location requests management approach

Post by par »

Hey, Fred :)

I wish I could extend our system with location submission form, but it would through our project several weeks back.
I really do wish it happen some day.
But the time is the limit as usual.
This is a very hard task.

The problem is not in the form programming, but in the system architecture of YoWindow.
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Re: Proposal: New location requests management approach

Post by FvE »

Oke Pasha,

Understood and no problem.
Just think of it as a future option to lighten up your tasks. :)

Thanks for explaining.
Fred
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Re: Proposal: New location requests management approach

Post by FvE »

Pasha,

I had a look at the location requests.
The oldest unanswered dates from december 30th.
Do you want me to copy all of these to your new request post?
I will gladly do so, if it helps you, but I'm also trying to prevent double actions.

Thanks,
Fred
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Re: Proposal: New location requests management approach

Post by countryroads »

Hi Pasha,

I like your concept a lot more than what I had suggested. Your concept is simple and does not require reworking the forum. Good Job. :good:

I would like to suggest the following Moderator steps.
Step 1 - post the users request 'geoid;city/state/country' to Pending Requests
Step 2 - post back to the user that his or her request has been published to 'Pending'. It could be as simple as saying 'Request is Pending'. The user will know that their request has been read and something is being done about it. We Moderators would know that one of us has already posted it to 'Pending'.
Step 3 - after you have updated all of the 'Pending Requests', we Moderators could first check the database to make sure we can access the new location and then post to user that their request has been 'Updated'.

These steps would also get rid of the requests that appear to be unanswered due to '0 replies'.

I would like to know what the other Moderators and you think about these steps. If you all like and agree with these steps, what words should we use so that we are all doing the same thing?

Thank you for the first step. :good:

Marty
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Re: Proposal: New location requests management approach

Post by FvE »

Hi Marty,

I like your suggestions.
However, in order for us to keep the work limited as well, I would like to suggest answering step 2 and 3 in one reply:
"Your request has been put under pending requests.
Please check here every now and then to see if the database has been updated"
We could even add something like: "This may normally take up to about 10 days".
Thus giving Pasha some air.

What do you think?
Fred
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Re: Proposal: New location requests management approach

Post by Mallorca »

Hi friends,
1. I agree with the "mix" from Marty and Fred.
2. What shall we do with requests having a wrong ID? Check all requests before moving in the pending area?
Werner
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Re: Proposal: New location requests management approach

Post by par »

FvE wrote:Pasha,

I had a look at the location requests.
The oldest unanswered dates from december 30th.
Do you want me to copy all of these to your new request post?
I will gladly do so, if it helps you, but I'm also trying to prevent double actions.

Thanks,
Fred
Yes, Fred, please - please :)
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par
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Re: Proposal: New location requests management approach

Post by par »

I like your suggestions, guys.
I think the best thing to do is just start the new approach and see how it is going to work and adjust it over time.

One more thought.
The user may subscribe to her topic to wait for the reply, so it maybe good to answer each user induvidually. But I'm afraid it would put a load on you guys.
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