irvin@northstar26 (Tim Irvin) (04/15/91)
When our users have question they send it to an alias that gets exploded to each of the Admins. So we each get a copy of the message. We then run into the problem of not knowing who is going to answer the question, without asking each other in person. It would be nice if there was someway we could "check-out" a question to answer to eliminate the confusion. Does anyone have any ideas, or is anyone currently doing something like this??? I would imagine this situation is not unique. ----------------------+-------------------------------------------------------- Tim Irvin | Internet: irvin@northstar.Dartmouth.EDU Systems Administrator | US/Campus Snail: HB 6028, Kiewit Computation Center Project NORTHSTAR | Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755 Dartmouth College | Ma Bell: (603) 646-2814 ----------------------+--------------------------------------------------------
tom@genie.slhs.udel.edu (tom) (04/16/91)
In article <1991Apr15.153017.8329@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> irvin@northstar.dartmouth.edu (Tim Irvin) writes: }When our users have question they send it to an alias that gets exploded }to each of the Admins. So we each get a copy of the message. We then run }into the problem of not knowing who is going to answer the question, without }asking each other in person. It would be nice if there was someway we could }"check-out" a question to answer to eliminate the confusion. }Does anyone have any ideas, or is anyone currently doing something like }this??? I would imagine this situation is not unique. since you seem to have news software at your disposal: why not create a local newsgroup (optionally private) called something like jackson.staff; change the alias to something that posts the question. the first admin who cares to answer the question mails to the user & the staff alias, thereby informing the other sysadmins that the problem is solved and (if the group is public) making the info available to other users who may find it useful. -- tom@udel.edu ...!{gateway}!udel!tom tom@genie.slhs.udel.edu "Themes were useless; Destiny was here, and the foot pedals were bleeding."
cgd@ocf.Berkeley.EDU (Chris G. Demetriou) (04/16/91)
In article <1991Apr15.153017.8329@dartvax.dartmouth.edu> irvin@northstar.dartmouth.edu (Tim Irvin) writes: }When our users have question they send it to an alias that gets exploded }to each of the Admins. So we each get a copy of the message. We then run }into the problem of not knowing who is going to answer the question, without }asking each other in person. It would be nice if there was someway we could }"check-out" a question to answer to eliminate the confusion. }Does anyone have any ideas, or is anyone currently doing something like }this??? I would imagine this situation is not unique. One thing you can do doesn't really solve the problem well, but get's the job done is what several of us (Staffers at the OCF) do... Optionally use mh to put all of your staff mail in different folder than your normal mail (using slocal). Read that folder (or your normal mail) *BACKWARDS*... (like: rmm;prev). It's a kludge, but it gets the job done - the only time you'll have multiple replies are when people are reading their mail at exactly the same time. Chris Demetriou cgd@ocf.berkeley.edu
mmorse@Z.NSF.GOV ("Michael H. Morse") (04/17/91)
> When our users have question they send it to an alias that gets exploded > to each of the Admins. So we each get a copy of the message. We then run > into the problem of not knowing who is going to answer the question, without > asking each other in person. It would be nice if there was someway we could > "check-out" a question to answer to eliminate the confusion. > > Does anyone have any ideas, or is anyone currently doing something like > this??? I would imagine this situation is not unique. There's a system called queuemh designed to handle this. Ftp it from boulder.colorado.edu. It's file pub/queuemh.tar.Z. I've never used it, but from the documentation it appears that some thought and effort has been put into solving something close to the problem you describe. --Mike -- Michael Morse Internet: mmorse@note.nsf.gov National Science Foundation BITNET: mmorse@NSF 1800 G St. N.W. Room 401 Telephone: (202) 357-7659 Washington, D.C. 20550 FAX: (202) 357-7663
trost (Bill Trost) (04/18/91)
irvin@northstar26 (Tim Irvin) writes:
We then run into the problem of not knowing who is going to answer
the question, without asking each other in person. It would be
nice if there was someway we could "check-out" a question to
answer to eliminate the confusion.
Funny, I read through all the answers (well, all the ones we've
received) to this question, and no one suggested using a shared
folder. Create a folder any old place (sakes, I might create an MH
directory for root if I were doing this), make it writable by the
group. Have each of the administrators create a symlink (assuming you
have symlinks...) in their mail directory to the shared folder. Make
sure deliveries to the group get delivered with group permissions.
Then, when someone wants to reply to a message, have them refile it to
one of their own folders (or, better yet, a group "answered" folder)
before actually replying.
There might be the possibility that simultaneous refiles could result
in two copies of the message existing, but it's probably not enough to
worry about.jerry@ORA.ORA.COM (Jerry Peek) (04/20/91)
Bill Trost <zephyr.ens.tek.com!tektronix!reed!trost@beaver.cs.washington.edu> wrote: > no one suggested using a shared > folder. Create a folder any old place (sakes, I might create an MH > directory for root if I were doing this), make it writable by the > group. Have each of the administrators create a symlink (assuming you > have symlinks...) in their mail directory to the shared folder. Make > sure deliveries to the group get delivered with group permissions. I agree about the shared folder. You don't need symlinks, though. Say the shared folder is named /usr/central/foo. Just type: % folder +/usr/central/foo of course, you can use other MH commands like scan, show, etc. Your current folder will be /usr/central/foo. You can work in it like any of your personal MH folders -- though the permissions have to be set right, as Bill mentioned. It also shows up in your "folders" (folder -all) list. One advantage of symlinks, though, is that they usually have shorter names. No matter which way you access the shared folder, you can annotate messages in it to show who's done what with them. For example, to put X-fixed: <current date/time> X-fixed: Joan Smith in the header of the current message, you could type: % anno -component X-fixed -text 'Joan Smith' The pick(1) command can search for these anno(1) strings. The scan(1) command can be set up to show them when you scan the folder. All those man pages will help; also see mh-format(5). If you've got the MH & xmh Nutshell Handbook, look in sections 7.7, 8.7, 9.7 and 10.2.5 for starters. --Jerry Peek, jerry@ora.com or uunet!ora!jerry
ziegast@ENG.UMD.EDU (Eric Ziegast) (04/20/91)
Jerry Peek writes: >No matter which way you access the shared folder, you can annotate messages >in it to show who's done what with them. For example, to put > X-fixed: <current date/time> > X-fixed: Joan Smith >in the header of the current message, you could type: > % anno -component X-fixed -text 'Joan Smith' >The pick(1) command can search for these anno(1) strings. I was thinking about that before I looked into using sequences instead. Isn't there alot of overhead used by pick (especially for long lists)? I figured that a sequence is only one line to process, while using pick could be upwards of 50 to 10000+. ________________________________________________________________________ Eric W. Ziegast, University of Merryland, Engineering Computing Services ziegast@eng.umd.edu - Eric@(301.405.3689)
jerry@ORA.ORA.COM (Jerry Peek) (04/22/91)
In message <9104201612.AA16307@jolt.eng.umd.edu>, Eric Ziegast wrote: > Jerry Peek writes: > >No matter which way you access the shared folder, you can annotate messages > >in it to show who's done what with them. > > ... > >The pick(1) command can search for these anno(1) strings. > > Isn't there alot of overhead used by pick (especially for long lists)? You're right about pick overhead -- it has to read each message file. But there are some good reasons to use anno and pick: annotations can have any arbitrary text (like peoples' names, notes about the message, etc.) that you want to put in them. They also automatically give you the date unless you use "-nodate". If you link or refile the message, annotations stay with it. There's no limit on the number of annotations, but you can only have ten sequences per folder. If you just want some simple categories of messages within a folder, sequences would sure be easier and faster. --Jerry Peek, jerry@ora.com or uunet!ora!jerry