Contacting the Thalia Team
Thalia has three separate customer support Request Tracker queues:
thalia-support@mit.edu is for general questions about use, bug reports, customer issues, and feature requests. We may also handle class/demo signups on this line.
thalia-request@mit.edu is intended for potential customers to request demonstration accounts or new domains.
thalia-copyrights@mit.edu is specifically for copyrigt infringement complaints.
Note that we do not currently have a separate line for other forms of abuse (like harrassment or inappropiate content). While the queues are intended to have topics, we recognize that users will occasionally choose the wrong queue. If that happens, the report can be shuffled to the appropriate queue.
Customer communications should refer to these queues as the primary entry point for communications with the Thalia team.
Primary contact will be made by a Thalia QA representative. If the primary contact cannot resolve the issue, or is unavailable, responsibility for RT items falls to project management. We aim for no more than 24 hours between an item entering the queues, and the initial response from a Thalia team member.
Other e-mail addresses:
thalia-info@mit.edu is currently a moderated e-mail list of current customers. Change to make this list an unmoderated, members-only list is in process, to give Thalia users a place to discuss use of the system. While team members are welcome to discuss on this list, we note that it is not managed as an RT queue, and so is not managed. Intensive customer communications on specific problems ought to be shifted to the RT queues.
thalia-dev@mit.edu is for internal communications among team members. It is *not* a customer support line, and is not connected to an RT queue. We should cease suggesting customers send e-mail to this address.
Copyright and abuse reports
When a complaint of copyright infringement or abuse contrary to MIT policies is registered, the questionable content must be frozen - it should not be viewable by the public, and rights to overwrite or delete the content should be removed from the owner, in case the content is evidence in potential legal proceedings.
Once frozen, the issue enters arbitration, in an attempt to find the true status of the item in question. This will likely require several rounds of communication with both the item owner and the filer of the complaint. MIT Stopit (http://web.mit.edu/stopit/
) is also likely to be involved, as misuse of MIT computer systems is their purview.
If an item turns out to not be in violation, rights will be returned to the owner, and the item returned to its original state. If it turns out to be in violation such that removal is required, it shall be deleted from the Thalia system. If it turns out to be the subject of egal proceedings, Stopit and the Office of General Counsel should be consulted to determine how to proceed with documenting the issue for the particular case in question.
Account Requests
At this time, any MIT user may request a user-account on demo.thalia.mit.edu (the production demonstration domain). Such accounts are intended for experimentation and familiarization with the Thalia system. We make no guarantees as to the persistence of said account, or the data entered into it.
Requests for a new domain shall enter the domain qualification process
Support Requests
When a support request is filed in the RT queue, the primary contact will have to determine if it is a question, bug, or feature/imrovement request.
If it appears to be a bug, an attempt to reproduce and qualify the thing should be made before contact with the customer, if possible. If it cannot be reproduced, the customer must be contacted for more information on the apparent problem. The customer should be informed if the bug is already a known issue. If it is not a known issue, a bug issue should be filed in Jira for entry into the prioritization processes of the development team.
Questions on use ("How do I do this?") do not need such review. Reference should be made to Thalia help, if help already exists. Frequently asked questions should be documented for inclusion into the help files.
Enhancement requests (new features or feature improvements) should be filed in Jira as such, to enter into the prioritization process of the development team, and the customer told that the feature is under consideration.
When a reported bug is fixed, or a requested enhancement included in a release, the reporter of the issue should be informed (see Regular Customer Communications).