A Very Simple Request for a Very Small Change

[Darrius Gothly]

Lots of the things we've been asking of the Marketplace Dev Team have been things that require some number of hours to implement. Regardless of the cause or focus, they all require the team to open up some code somewhere, make changes, test the changes and then eventually push them out to the live Marketplace. But I have one that will take none of that .. and in fact can be done with about 20 seconds of effort per team member.

From time to time I have sent emails to various employees at Linden Lab .. from the top dog on down. When the subject of my email is particularly time-sensitive or crucial to bring to their attention, or at least to get noticed, I will use a simple Email convention to assure delivery. Called "Request Read Receipt", it causes the recipient's Email Client program to create and send back a simple plain-text message that certifies the message was received and viewed. Most Email Clients allow the sending of a Read Receipt to be either automatically sent, automatically denied or to prompt the user per message.

Even though I have sent a fair number of messages with Request Read Receipt turned on, and even though the recipient Linden replied to some of those messages, I have not ever received a Read Receipt.

I would like to ask that Linden Lab in general and specifically each employee on the Marketplace Dev Team enable this feature to generate and send a Read Receipt. It would be best if it was done automatically, thus obviating the need to spend any time deciding, but I suppose it would be just as acceptable to set the option to prompt the recipient on a per-message basis.

Enabling this feature would remove one of the biggest problems surrounding the whole "Lack of Communication" problem; that being the feeling that our attempts to communicate with them are ignored completely. Receiving a Read Receipt would at least tell us that they got the message even if they do not respond. Without the Read Receipt though, left without knowing one way or the other, we do not know if our email landed in their Spam box or dropped off the 'net somewhere along the way .. or even if Aliens from Zorba Greaton ate it. We just do not know .. and that leads to even more frustration.

It's a simple change, one that would not expose LL to any more liability, issues, ridicule or anything else. But it would demonstrate a level of manners that could help dispell some of the anger that grows out of the black hole surrounding the Lab.

So what ya say Rodvik? Can we at least have this tiny little act of kindness? Please?

[Rya Nitely]

It's a very simple request for your personal convenience. But if I understand this correctly, you are communicating directly with individual Lindens through email? I would say that 99% of residents/merchants don't do that. So what you are requesting here is something most people wouldn't need.

The only times I've sent emails to a Linden is in response to ones they've sent me. Not saying there's anything wrong with it, I just don't think they would encourage that form of communication as it could get a bit spammy for them, and also difficult and time consuming for them to open and read this form of communication from everyone so that your 'request read receipt' would be triggered. And once the sender gets the blank email they would expect their request to be actioned or their questions to be answered. Also very time consuming. So it isn't really a 20 second thing.

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Darrius Gothly wrote:

So what ya say Rodvik? Can we at least have this tiny little act of kindness? Please?

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So when you talk about we, I would guess it's a small number of people.

 

But Good luck with that.

[Nefertiti Nefarious]

"Even though I have sent a fair number of messages with Request Read Receipt turned on, and even though the recipient Linden replied to some of those messages, I have not ever received a Read Receipt."

That "feature" is usually disabled to deprive spammers of the ability to find out which addresses are "live" versus which aren't.

If giving your e-mail blasts the "simple act of kindness" you think they deserve means helping spammers tareget employees (if it's set to auto-reply with the receipt) or adding time to EVERY e-mail transaction (if it's set to manual) ... you are going to continue to be frustrated.

Every company I worked for recommended setting it to "automatic no", even for their sales staff.

[Darrius Gothly]

Well .. further proof not EVERY idea I have is a winner. *grin*

I always set it to "Prompt" because the Spam filters I have and my general habits of not opening email unless I recognize the purpose/sender has served to defeat that nefarious purpose (no pun intended .. honest). When someone does take the time to request a Read Receipt, I take that to mean they are invested in the message reaching me for some reason, so I allow that little bit of validation and send the receipt.

@Rya - I know very few folks email Lindens directly. But there are times when we all encounter something that a specific Linden should know about but might not. It's often something we don't want to broadcast on the Forums, and IMs just do not allow for full explanation. (Especially for someone as "wordy" as me.) Perhaps if more folks did send emails directly, it might inspire some more open and honest communication.

I operate under the belief that the more I know about what's going on, the better I can do my job. That may run counter to how LL operates, but it serves me well at least.

[Rya Nitely]

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Darrius Gothly wrote:

I operate under the belief that the more I know about what's going on, the better I can do my job. That may run counter to how LL operates, but it serves me well at least.

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hehe, I'm sure you'd know that even in the real world companies usually supply information on a 'need to know' basis - and for good reason. Because when management tries full transparency it is almost certain to come back to bite them. Things change, but staff will hang their hats on any information they receive, and will take it very badly when it doesn't happen that way. The environment here is very much like working for any company, where you could parallel the Lindens role to management and we're the workers.

As a worker within a company you'd be told to just get on with it under the conditions as they are, and leave actions, decisions, changes to management. Oh, I know that management often make a show of 'listening' to employees, but how often do they act on what they hear? Same happens here.

Now, I'm not saying I like it that way, but it's the way things are. It won't change and maybe because it isn't practical to change it.

[Luna Bliss]

Rya said:

"....real world companies usually supply information on a 'need to know' basis - and for good reason. Because when management tries full transparency it is almost certain to come back to bite them. Things change, but staff will hang their hats on any information they receive, and will take it very badly when it doesn't happen that way. The environment here is very much like working for any company, where you could parallel the Lindens role to management and we're the workers.

As a worker within a company you'd be told to just get on with it under the conditions as they are, and leave actions, decisions, changes to management. Oh, I know that management often make a show of 'listening' to employees, but how often do they act on what they hear? Same happens here.

Now, I'm not saying I like it that way, but it's the way things are. It won't change and maybe because it isn't practical to change it."

The problem is that this type of virtual world is very different from the typical corporate company you described, and treating it so has been the primary reason for SL's decline.

[Deja Letov]

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Darrius Gothly wrote:

It's a simple change, one that would not expose LL to any more liability, issues, ridicule or anything else. But it would demonstrate a level of manners that could help dispell some of the anger that grows out of the black hole surrounding the Lab.

So what ya say Rodvik? Can we at least have this tiny little act of kindness? Please?

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Actually I think it would. Getting a notification isn't going to speed up their responses at all. So, sending a notice that they received an email the same day you sent it yet they didn't respond for a week...well...the second you complained about it on the forum, and that you knew they read it, well, there is the ridicule coming from the peanut gallery on the forums.  In fact, I would think it would actually increase the anger many of us feel already towards them because then we would really see just how long it takes them to respond to us and most definitely would only increase the feeling of the lack of communication problem we feel because we would then KNOW our attempts are ignored completely. And of course as already mentioned the issue with spam is of course a factor as well. I'd like to see a  better ticket support instead. The one we use at my company is very detailed. It gives the time it was opened by you, the time someone looked at it. Who it was assigned to and at what time. When did they first read it. When did they respond, etc. Basically every event that happens with that ticket is tracked and reported. And maybe when submitting a support ticket a contact module could be added in to be able contact a specific linden within the company. I don't even know if that would be a stable and reliable solution because I can pick out flaws with that as well, but as much as I'd like to see communication improve I don't see them turning that feature on no matter how much we beg for it.

[Darrius Gothly]

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Deja Letov wrote:

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Darrius Gothly wrote:

It's a simple change, one that would not expose LL to any more liability, issues, ridicule or anything else. But it would demonstrate a level of manners that could help dispell some of the anger that grows out of the black hole surrounding the Lab.

So what ya say Rodvik? Can we at least have this tiny little act of kindness? Please?

---

 

Actually I think it would. Getting a notification isn't going to speed up their responses at all. So, sending a notice that they received an email the same day you sent it yet they didn't respond for a week...well...the second you complained about it on the forum, and that you knew they read it, well, there is the ridicule coming from the peanut gallery on the forums.  In fact, I would think it would actually increase the anger many of us feel already towards them because then we would really see just how long it takes them to respond to us and most definitely would only increase the feeling of the lack of communication problem we feel because we would then KNOW our attempts are ignored completely. And of course as already mentioned the issue with spam is of course a factor as well. I'd like to see a  better ticket support instead. The one we use at my company is very detailed. It gives the time it was opened by you, the time someone looked at it. Who it was assigned to and at what time. When did they first read it. When did they respond, etc. Basically every event that happens with that ticket is tracked and reported. And maybe when submitting a support ticket a contact module could be added in to be able contact a specific linden within the company. I don't even know if that would be a stable and reliable solution because I can pick out flaws with that as well, but as much as I'd like to see communication improve I don't see them turning that feature on no matter how much we beg for it.

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Aye, I suppose that's true. If indeed the Read Receipt is sent out then the response that eventually arrives takes a week or so, yeah I can see how a lot of folks would get bent pretty bad about that.

Of course there's also the perspective that it might force them to be more responsive to their customers .. acting as a wee bit of fire to their feet .. so to speak.

I am a little concerned by the Spam issue folks keep mentioning. The company I worked for had very rigorous anti-spam filters. Those I communicated with among my customers and job-related vendors also had them. Some were so aggressive that you couldn't even send a ZIP file lest it get rejected. Is it common for high-tech computer and IT oriented companies to not have Spam filtering? Srsly?!?

I do totally agree on better Support Ticket tracking and management. It seems they've got a fairly short list of canned answers they can pick from, and the choices they make .. or maybe the options they have .. just do not really cover all the situations they routinely encounter. Most definitely I would LOVE to see "Activity Tracking" too that logged every time anyone touched the ticket for any reason whatsoever.

[ImaTest1488314069]

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Darrius Gothly wrote:

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I am a little concerned by the Spam issue folks keep mentioning. The company I worked for had very rigorous anti-spam filters. Those I communicated with among my customers and job-related vendors also had them. Some were so aggressive that you couldn't even send a ZIP file lest it get rejected. Is it common for high-tech computer and IT oriented companies to not have Spam filtering? Srsly?!?

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Considering how tech savvy some of the griefers in sl really are, and I mean the real griefers, I would expect that they can get past a lot of spam filters. In fact, I know they can. Because I've seen their type do it plenty of time to companies that are coming under attack, or scrutiny because of poor decisions they've made. I saw it not long ago at a company. All it takes it one person to get past that spam filter, to create a nuisance. It doesn't even have to be a harmful nuisance, it can simply just be annoying. Even minor annoyances can be big headaches and cause a company to rethink how they deal with incoming communication. Although it's actually not that hard to get past a spam filter to begin with, if you really want to. Don't have to be a rocket surgeon to do it.. Depends on the type of spam though, and who you're sending it to.

I agree it's a great idea, and it has a lot of merit. I just don't think LL ever would, and I don't think the reason has anything to do with the potential for spam or anything like that. I think it's pure laziness on their part because it would require, or at least we'd come to expect, that such an action would make them more responsive. That's just too much work for them. Sadly.  Or, I should say, they've given us no reason to believe otherwise, lately.

 

[Darrius Gothly]

You mention the other tine of the two-prong Spam fork. (Wow .. talk about mixed metaphors! LOL) Virus/Malicious Spam. Although not technically Spam, most folks usually lump them together. That's probably why a lot of companies have such tight email restrictions; not the Spam but the virii and attack emails.

I also would hope for more responsiveness. This thread actually came about because of my personal "twitch" about not getting replies .. or in fact any response .. to important emails. Since emailing the Lindens is so bloody easy, I have been known to fire off messages to them over issues that don't necessarily even require a response, only that they see them. The Read Receipt is just my way of making sure it actually reached their eyes. Call it a UDP with Acknowledgement.

Ah well .. as others have proven to me, this probably isn't one of those ideas that will fly. But I gave it a shot. Thank you for your input ImaTest.

[Deja Letov]

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Darrius Gothly wrote:

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Deja Letov wrote:

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Darrius Gothly wrote:

It's a simple change, one that would not expose LL to any more liability, issues, ridicule or anything else. But it would demonstrate a level of manners that could help dispell some of the anger that grows out of the black hole surrounding the Lab.

So what ya say Rodvik? Can we at least have this tiny little act of kindness? Please?

---

 

Actually I think it would. Getting a notification isn't going to speed up their responses at all. So, sending a notice that they received an email the same day you sent it yet they didn't respond for a week...well...the second you complained about it on the forum, and that you knew they read it, well, there is the ridicule coming from the peanut gallery on the forums.  In fact, I would think it would actually increase the anger many of us feel already towards them because then we would really see just how long it takes them to respond to us and most definitely would only increase the feeling of the lack of communication problem we feel because we would then KNOW our attempts are ignored completely. And of course as already mentioned the issue with spam is of course a factor as well. I'd like to see a  better ticket support instead. The one we use at my company is very detailed. It gives the time it was opened by you, the time someone looked at it. Who it was assigned to and at what time. When did they first read it. When did they respond, etc. Basically every event that happens with that ticket is tracked and reported. And maybe when submitting a support ticket a contact module could be added in to be able contact a specific linden within the company. I don't even know if that would be a stable and reliable solution because I can pick out flaws with that as well, but as much as I'd like to see communication improve I don't see them turning that feature on no matter how much we beg for it.

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Aye, I suppose that's true. If indeed the Read Receipt is sent out then the response that eventually arrives takes a week or so, yeah I can see how a lot of folks would get bent pretty bad about that.

Of course there's also the perspective that it might force them to be more responsive to their customers .. acting as a wee bit of fire to their feet .. so to speak.

I am a little concerned by the Spam issue folks keep mentioning. The company I worked for had very rigorous anti-spam filters. Those I communicated with among my customers and job-related vendors also had them. Some were so aggressive that you couldn't even send a ZIP file lest it get rejected. Is it common for high-tech computer and IT oriented companies to not have Spam filtering? Srsly?!?

I do totally agree on better Support Ticket tracking and management. It seems they've got a fairly short list of canned answers they can pick from, and the choices they make .. or maybe the options they have .. just do not really cover all the situations they routinely encounter. Most definitely I would LOVE to see "Activity Tracking" too that logged every time anyone touched the ticket for any reason whatsoever.

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We have anti-spam filters at my company...we are IT based, I'm sure you knew that already though. However, because we are IT based, and customers send us files all the time, we can't be too intense about it. We are less concerned about spam and more concerned about virus and malware, especially when a customer is sending us files to inspect. As much as we try though, some spam does get through to us. And because our customers email us from any variety of domain host, we can't filter too hard or we never see our customer emails, because the system might think it's spam. Personally I don't care about spam, the amount I get is small and I can quickly delete but I'm sure if I had my response system turned on, it would increase since I just validated to them that my address is real. Having said all that, it's why we highly encourage our customers to use the support ticket system. They can send us files there, email us and track everything. Honestly, rather than a response that my email was read, I would like to be able to login somewhere and see that my ticket was successfully put into the system and then the date and time it was assigned to someone. That would serve the same purpose as a return receipt of the email and clear them of any spam liability issues. Plus...then we can still all get ticked off when we see a ticket submitted a month before it was assigned.

 

[Darrius Gothly]

My business email address was plastered all over quite a few web pages. Not only was it in the corporate directory and "Contact Us" pages, but there were quite a few online tech docs as well as end-user instructions, etc. that had my address blazoned across them. Spammers didn't need to "verify" my email address to know if it was for real, they could mine our website and dig out 100's of addresses. From what I've seen, spammers don't even care if an address is live or not. I have one email address that I've had since the late 90's that has never sent out a reply or even opened an email, yet it STILL gets email at the rate of 20-80 per day. (I use it as a honey-pot.)

The virus issue though .. that's a big one. But it still doesn't discount the use of a Read Receipt. Especially in those cases where no reply is needed, just sending a Read Receipt can signal "Got it" without requiring any more action.

Even though I've agreed .. this is a feature request that will never happen .. it's still something I wish people would use more often. (Yeah, I have my personal quirks .. and I cherish them all. *grin*)

[Deja Letov]

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Darrius Gothly wrote:

My business email address was plastered all over quite a few web pages. Not only was it in the corporate directory and "Contact Us" pages, but there were quite a few online tech docs as well as end-user instructions, etc. that had my address blazoned across them. Spammers didn't need to "verify" my email address to know if it was for real, they could mine our website and dig out 100's of addresses. From what I've seen, spammers don't even care if an address is live or not. I have one email address that I've had since the late 90's that has never sent out a reply or even opened an email, yet it STILL gets email at the rate of 20-80 per day. (I use it as a honey-pot.)

The virus issue though .. that's a big one. But it still doesn't discount the use of a Read Receipt. Especially in those cases where no reply is needed, just sending a Read Receipt can signal "Got it" without requiring any more action.

Even though I've agreed .. this is a feature request that will never happen .. it's still something I wish people would use more often. (Yeah, I have my personal quirks .. and I cherish them all. *grin*)

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No they don't care if it's real or not to collect it...but they charge differently to other companies based on the validity of an email address, so from a financial standpoint, they would love to verify. But keep in mind, they are not going to manually verify your address is real by hitting your website. They are sending to sometimes millions of email addresses in a list. They just harvest them with bots...which is why a lot of people now go to doing their email address on websites instead of putting me@myemail.com they do me at myemail dot com.  I'm pretty sure they've even figured that out, but I do know there are confirmed spam lists that sell for a large amount of money over general harvested ones. They are the ones that have been confirmed either with auto receipts or by the hidden image that many spammers use that is coded with a special value or the idiots that click on a link to follow. When they do this it puts a note in their database that it was read by a real person so that email must be legit. Then they can put that on a special list and charge more for it. Many years back i was working for another company that actually did a bit of spamming and they always bought the more expensive confirmed email lists.

I agree with you on Virus's. I don't think a confirmed receipt does anything with virus. I only brought it up how we handle them cause someone else mentioned them. Virus's should be checked with a virus program as it lands in your inbox and has nothing to do with responses.

I definitely think we need something in place to help communication. Not that they are listening to us mind you. LOL

 

 

[Czari Zenovka]

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Darrius Gothly wrote:

 

(Yeah, I have my personal quirks .. and I cherish them all. *grin*)

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I like  your quirks.