Great Western Coffee Shop

In summer of 2017, we trialled a live chat system on the Coffee Shop. We quickly tailored it to ensure users were 100% clear they were talking to a fellow passenger.  We also started to see patterns of questions / responses and look towards standard answers.

The trial finished with conclusions:
* A very useful service to operate especially to reach guests but
* it used an awful lot of personal time which none of us had
* our volunteer agent(s) needed to be pretty savvy

Times change.   I am today (21.3.2020) re-learning / testing the software again, initially visible to members rather than to guests (and it might remain that way ...
* Some of our members may be going stir crazy in weeks and months to come and welcome interaction
* Some of us will have more time to (wo)man the service than we had
* For the friendship and support, we can step a notch or two down from that "pretty savvy" level.

The probability is that this service will run during the current lockdown crisis, but beyond that "who can tell"

So far, three of us (mods / admins) looking to volunteer as "agents" though for today at least (as I muck around) with the technical stuff, I will be the only one answering. Almost certainly we'll expand the team.

The "Chat on / off" at the top of forum pages allows you to switch the frankly intrusive (on some devices) "Talk to us" button off and on

Almost undoubtedly we'll come up with standard texts / responses for agents to cut and paste; good for consistency and speed though less personal. I am inclined to make no secret of the use of these standard messages and indeed offer agents a numbered library where they can easily paste from.

I doubt we will be "open all hours" - rather look to having a published set of core hours or a diary - to be worked.

The software / site we're using is tawk.to - hence the thread title.

With the pubs and restaurants closed, with no live sport on the TV, with the kids at home too bored with home schooling, with (perhaps) the next shortage on the supermarket shelves being alcohol rather than loo rolls ... there will be a whole lot of people going stir crazy this Spring.   We are not looking to become a counselling service - but we are intending to be here for a quick word between friends.

I can't seem to find the "chat off" switch/button and I would dearly like to because, quite frankly, it is already annoying me with its intrusiveness.

My eyesight (through glaucoma) is bad enough already without trying with some difficulty to read a line only to find a bleedin' chat box at the end of it covering the text so I have to scroll up and then try to find that bloody line again.

I suppose I should be grateful that it isn't a "talking paper clip"...

The "Chat Off" is provided for people who get annoyed in that way - something we added during previous testing.  Top of the page, right hand side, just under the image that changes for each page:

(http://www.wellho.net/pix/bleedinbutton.jpg)

... unless your browser window occupies roughly half of a standard monitor screen (full HD), in which case that line doesn't fit in the window (viewport) width and "chat on off" will be in the middle on a line of its own.

Thanks - found it now, although it's position on my PC was some way  to the left of that image.

Chat now off and if I need to contact anybody there's always the PM system!

The chat system is like the 05:17 Westbury to Swindon - not everyone's cup of tea but really useful if you need it.  You are welcome to turn it back on at any time if you need / want to use it.

Sorry to be churlish, but my reaction was the same as Robin's. I'd missed Grahame's announcement, so didn't know how the green blob and Roger "The Saint" Moore's skewiff halo had got on my screen. Couldn't wait to turn it off, but I hope that it's of benefit to other members.

It's like marmite - love it or hate it.   That's why we put a switch on it.  You can switch the ******* thing off.

Some very interesting conversations during testing today.  Some do love it!

Now ... as it's likely to stay, I can have word with our treasurer and see if we can license something a bit less gross.

For me the major issue was that it came without warning, and I am very suspicious indeed when anything appears on my PC screen that I wasn’t expecting or didn’t intend to raise.

If there was a notification that this was to happen, I didn’t see it. When I log on to the forum I tend to look for the unread posts and then, initially at least, only read the ones where the title appears to describe something that m ight interest me.

“Ta[wl] to us – goin...” would not have fallen into that category...

Looking again at the history of the thread now, I see that notice was given by Graham at 0839 on Saturday 21st August, which would have been well before I logged on that morning. On the basis of the timing of my post on the thread at 1208 I suspect that I first encountered it at about 1130. The advice on how to turn the thing odd appeared in the seventh paragraph of a long post which, although I read it before I posted, did not actually tell me how to find the off switch on my machine because everybody’s could be different depending on screen size, manufacturer, and no doubt a number of other reasons.

As I said, it was not expected so I didn’t have a clue where it came from. Ominously, or so it seemed at the time, it had no reassuring little “X” in a box in the top right hand corner so I couldn’t see a way to turn it off. As I was reading Kernow Otter’s post in members Roll Call at the time, in the first sub board of the forum, for a split second I thought that my computer had been hijacked by the Mayor of Lostwithiel...

However, the advance notification appeared in News Help and Assistance which, if I have counted correctly, is the 37th topic out of 43 on this forum. It would not have been possible for anyone to see that advance notification before they encountered it, unless they logged on and rushed straight to the 37th sub0thread on the board. I may be right or I may be wrong, but I somehow doubt that very few if any member did that.

Whilst I accept that 20/20 hindsight is a marvellous thing, might I suggest that this could have been better handled by giving at least a couple of days notice, posting it in Introductions and Chat which is at the top of the board, and giving the notification a title that might encourage people to actually read it?

All that said, I am now beginning to wonder whether News Help and Assistance ought to be the first sub-thread on the board anyway.

No perfect way of handling anything, I fear. And, yes, hindsight is marvellous.

Evidence suggests that most regular visitors start with "unread post since last visit" or "recent posts", both of which did / would have highlighted the announcement topic; yes, I grant you that "news and assistance" (if your habit is going through topics) is well down the list.  Your idea noted (and it will be by other admins / moderators too), but we do need to be careful not to replace one problem with another, and space above the fold is limited.

Front page changes are not all that unusual ... there's also been (1) a big new link appeared at the top "Coffee Shop during Coronavirus", and (2) "Espresso" was added just three weeks ago.  And (3) the addition of the "Data Manager" role  too. In addition to (4) - chat.  We are in exceptional times, and some of the changes have been with exceptionally short noice. It's been / being done to her ensure we're very much around as a travel and now also more social interaction support service - which we can be, when many other groups, partheships, clubs and heritage / volunteer organsations are having to suspend normal operation.

I think it's a good idea as long as those who it's causing issues for can turn it off (which they can).

In these very strange times we should use as many ways of keeping people in touch as we can for those who want and need it.

I would have preferred an "opt in" to an "opt out", but the innovation was well-intentioned and I agree that as much communication as possible is desirable.

In another Forum a member thought from a post that I'd made that I lived near him and offered to help out with groceries. Actually we're 29 miles apart and I'm in a better situation than millions.

But it was a nice gesture that I appreciated.

The default 'direction' was thought through - balances weighed.


 ;D ;D

It looks like I've managed to switch of the bubble which was a bit irritating.  Continuing to "play" - difficult one to test away from the live system!

I've noticed that when the speech bubble is switched on that scrolling and pinching to zoom on my Android device becomes temperamental.

The bubble should be gone - just a text line on a green background now.

I have set the whole thing up with a timer too - the talk offer should not be present from mid evening until tomorrow morning; I will also add a "these are the hours" page.

I think I have got rid of the "talk to me" nagging too

grahame, May I ask do you need any more chat volunteers?

Thank you for asking.  At the present time though, no, we don't.  There's a handful of us, and that's working well to shake out early issues as they arise.  Should it take off and become very busy, there's a chance we would need more people - but if we were to move out of the core moderator and perhaps data manager team, we would need to provide a solid set of briefing papers for new agents and training too - and that is significant work.