On 1/27/10 5:20 PM, "LuKreme" <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Do you want a weekly or monthly breakdown of the strange support calls I get?
>> Employees only, or the CEO's mother too?
> But that wasn't the question. We
> aren't targeting Letters at users, we're targeting it at PowerUsers.
I have no less than 100 users that get over a thousand emails a day from
different clients and media outlets. From Outlook, Gmail, CGPro, you name
the server and the client, we get email from it. They get attachments as
office docs, text files, movies, images, zipfiles, you name it. They have
email folders, (because they can go months, if not years between client
contacts) that number well over 50,000 messages.
They are email power users. They live and fucking die by email. They plan
the future of my company with it, and even a QUICK email server glitch
causes them to freak out for hours. Reboots require no less than 2 weeks
notice unless smoke is involved.
Not a single one of them knows fuck.all about email protocols, nor should
they have to. They need it to work and well. They often need support,
because they also don¹t know shit about dealing with bizarro hotel network
setups, weird SMTP issues and all the rest that happens when you travel in
an area that includes the carribean, central america, CONUS and Hawaii.
They are power users. They are not geeks. Learn.the.difference.
On 27-Jan-2010, at 14:11, TGC wrote:
>> Email is by far the most common issue my users come to me about.
> Yep, again, not the question that was asked.
Only if you think that only geek sysadmins count as power users.
> The
last time I talked to an admin about my email was when I had to have someone
remove a 10MB file from my mailbox so that I could check mail. That was
1992? 1994?
You¹re an email administrator, you¹re going to always have fewer problems
with email than everyone else. But you¹re still not the complete set of
power user. Not even close.
> But then again, I've been an admin since about 1995 (and a SysOp before
> that!) and have been running my own servers since then and supporting other
> users since 2001. The vast majority of email queries I get are "I didn't get
> this email" or "I can't login with *mumble* client."
> With the first I will check the logs and say either "yes you did get the
> email" or "The email never arrived" and with the latter I will see if they can
> login via webmail and if they followed the step-by-step instructions on the
> web site for how to setup their clients. The answer to the first is *always*
> "Yes" and to the second is *always* "No."
And of course, you have step by step instructions for EVERY SINGLE CLIENT,
and you have a copy of EVERY VERSION OF EVERY CLIENT IN CURRENT USE.
> The other calls are "I accidentally deleted this important email", so I get to
> recover it from the backup spool. This is lots of fun because usually the
> person can't tell me the address it came from ("It was from Bob at Acme, Inc.
> Or maybe my mom."), has only the vaguest recollection of what the subject
> might be ("Something about rocket-proppelled skates, maybe?"), and that's
> usually wrong, and can sometimes, with prodding, narrow down the date the
> message was received to a six-week span. I can usually still find it with
> some creative use of grep, and which point I drop it back into their
> INBOX/new/
Isn¹t it fortunate that their email clients use a common terminology so that
when you say ³it¹s in the new folder in your inbox² they know exactly what
you¹re talking about.
Also, what the HELL is your email client sending out. This is the raw source
of the body of your email:
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IHNhaWQgSSB3YXMgdGFsa2luZyB0byBteXNlbGbigKYKCgpPbiAyNy1KYW4tMjAxMCwgYXQgMTQ6
MDksIEpvaG4gQy4gV2VsY2ggd3JvdGU6Cj4gRG8geW91IHdhbnQgYSB3ZWVrbHkgb3IgbW9udGhs
eSBicmVha2Rvd24gb2YgdGhlIHN0cmFuZ2Ugc3VwcG9ydCBjYWxscyBJIGdldD8gRW1wbG95ZWVz
IG9ubHksIG9yIHRoZSBDRU8ncyBtb3RoZXIgdG9vPwoKQnV0IHRoYXQgd2Fzbid0IHRoZSBxdWVz
dGlvbi4gV2UgYXJlbid0IHRhcmdldGluZyBMZXR0ZXJzIGF0IHVzZXJzLCB3ZSdyZSB0YXJnZXRp
bmcgaXQgYXQgUG93ZXJVc2Vycy4KCk9uIDI3LUphbi0yMDEwLCBhdCAxNDoxMSwgVEdDIHdyb3Rl
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aGVuIEkgaGFkIHRvIGhhdmUgc29tZW9uZSByZW1vdmUgYSAxME1CIGZpbGUgZnJvbSBteSBtYWls
Ym94IHNvIHRoYXQgSSBjb3VsZCBjaGVjayBtYWlsLiBUaGF0IHdhc+KApiAxOTkyPyAxOTk0PwoK
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YSBTeXNPcCBiZWZvcmUgdGhhdCEpIGFuZCBoYXZlIGJlZW4gcnVubmluZyBteSBvd24gc2VydmVy
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X19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fX19fXwplbWFpbC1pbml0QGxpc3RzLnJhbmNoZXJvLmNvbSBtYWls
aW5nIGxpc3QKTGlzdCBoZWxwOiBodHRwOi8vbGlzdHMucmFuY2hlcm8uY29tL2xpc3RpbmZvLmNn
aS9lbWFpbC1pbml0LXJhbmNoZXJvLmNvbQo=
It's not an Apple Mail thing, because other people use mail and can send
plain text. I'm guessing it's related to this bit:
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
But whatever the reason, it's coming across as pure unadulterated ass.
Here's the Unfixed version when I hit reply:
On 27-Jan-2010, at 14:07, Thomas McQuillan wrote:
>
> Show of hands. How
many
> people on this list have spoken to 'an
> administrator' about their email
> recently?
Not in 15 years. Well, except that one time when I had a really
> high fever and was semi-delirious. At least other people said I was talking to
> myself
On 27-Jan-2010, at 14:09, John C. Welch wrote:
> Do you want a
> weekly or monthly breakdown of the strange support calls I get? Employees
> only, or the CEO's mother too?
But that wasn't the question. We aren't
> targeting Letters at users, we're targeting it at PowerUsers.
On 27-Jan-2010,
> at 14:11, TGC wrote:
> Email is by far the most common issue my users come to
> me about.
Yep, again, not the question that was asked.
The last time I
> talked to an admin about my email was when I had to have someone remove a 10MB
> file from my mailbox so that I could check mail. That was 1992? 1994?
But
> then again, I've been an admin since about 1995 (and a SysOp before that!) and
> have been running my own servers since then and supporting other users since
> 2001. The vast majority of email queries I get are "I didn't get this email"
> or "I can't login with *mumble* client."
With the first I will check the logs
> and say either "yes you did get the email" or "The email never arrived" and
> with the latter I will see if they can login via webmail and if they followed
> the step-by-step instructions on the web site for how to setup their clients.
> The answer to the first is *always* "Yes" and to the second is *always*
> "No."
The other calls are "I accidentally deleted this important email", so I
> get to recover it from the backup spool. This is lots of fun because usually
> the person can't tell me the address it came from ("It was from Bob at Acme,
> Inc. Or maybe my mom."), has only the vaguest recollection of what the subject
> might be ("Something about rocket-proppelled skates, maybe?"), and that's
> usually wrong, and can sometimes, with prodding, narrow down the date the
> message was received to a six-week span. I can usually still find it with
> some creative use of grep, and which point I drop it back into their
> INBOX/new/
--
"Hi Dad! It's 3am, do you know where I
> am?"
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Someone should save your messages, they're a great test case for the email
rendering engine.
--
John C. Welch Writer/Analyst
Bynkii.com Mac and other opinions
[email protected]
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