I work for a small State agency and most of my work involves assisting folks from County agencies with minor tech problems. /bg
Why is my inbox constantly filled with emails like this? (Please blame the length on people who insist on treating email like a conversation.)
"Is something wrong with the system? It doesn't work."
All right, I'll play your silly game.
Me: Which system? XYZ or GHI? Are you unable to connect? Are you able to connect, but unable to log on? Is there any error message?"
"I can't get in."
Me: "Can't get into what? And can't get in as in you can't connect to the site or your login isn't working?"
"I can't get in."
Usually, by this point, I scream, slam my head on the desktop, and call them. So far, "I can't get in" has translated to:
I forgot my password.
I haven't used the system in a bazillion months and I need my account re-enabled.
The power is out.
I was using my password for system XYZ, but was connected to system GHI.
Our (their) computer network is down.
Their IT changed IP addresses but didn't see fit to notify us. Since security for some systems demands IPs match the whitelist...problem.
They've pulled a URL from....somewhere and it isn't ours. I dunno what they're trying to connect to, but www.friskysquirrelsandnuts.org isn't going to ping anything on our systems.
Honestly, how hard is it to type, "Hi! I connected to XYZ this morning and tried to login, but it didn't let me. Please find attached a screenshot of the error message I got"? Info dump, people. Info dump in your initial email and make me happy.
Why is my inbox constantly filled with emails like this? (Please blame the length on people who insist on treating email like a conversation.)
"Is something wrong with the system? It doesn't work."
All right, I'll play your silly game.
Me: Which system? XYZ or GHI? Are you unable to connect? Are you able to connect, but unable to log on? Is there any error message?"
"I can't get in."
Me: "Can't get into what? And can't get in as in you can't connect to the site or your login isn't working?"
"I can't get in."
Usually, by this point, I scream, slam my head on the desktop, and call them. So far, "I can't get in" has translated to:
I forgot my password.
I haven't used the system in a bazillion months and I need my account re-enabled.
The power is out.
I was using my password for system XYZ, but was connected to system GHI.
Our (their) computer network is down.
Their IT changed IP addresses but didn't see fit to notify us. Since security for some systems demands IPs match the whitelist...problem.
They've pulled a URL from....somewhere and it isn't ours. I dunno what they're trying to connect to, but www.friskysquirrelsandnuts.org isn't going to ping anything on our systems.
Honestly, how hard is it to type, "Hi! I connected to XYZ this morning and tried to login, but it didn't let me. Please find attached a screenshot of the error message I got"? Info dump, people. Info dump in your initial email and make me happy.
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