Escalation

Technical support escalation

1. Support
2. Senior volunteers/Non-sysadmin staff (MissKat is most often on duty)
3. Senior staff (Rah or Afuna)
4. Sysadmin staff (Mark or Robby)

User in peril phone tree

Who to contact first:

1. Terms of Service/Senior staff
2. Anyone with contact info for Terms of Service/Senior staff (such as senior volunteers, non-sysadmin staff)
3. Anyone with contact info for senior volunteers/non-sysadmin staff

What ToS needs to know:

1. What is the username?
2. What sort of peril? Why are they in danger?

What ToS needs to find:

1. What is their physical location?
2. Is there a reason to believe they may be in imminent danger of their life?

Downtime

If the site is down, this wiki page may not be available. If that is the case, use your best judgment. Otherwise, try to follow these escalation procedures.

Before escalation, try to do some basic troubleshooting:

• Is it down for you?
• Can you load other internet pages?
• What errors are you getting?
  • How often?
  • Do they disappear upon refresh?
• Does DownForEveryoneOrJustMe.com think it's down?
• Can other people in IRC load it?
  • What does Fig say? (The command "fig, is dw down?" will tell the bot to check stuff on the back end.)
• How long has it been going on?
  • Is it persistant or intermittent?

If others are able to reach the site:

• Clear your browser cache, restart your browser, restart your computer (if possible). Also consider rebooting any network hardware, or if using WiFi, trying a different wireless network.
• File a support request, including any error messages you may be getting. (See Filing support requests for instructions.)
  • Consider including a traceroute.

If it is down for everybody:

• Locate a senior volunteer or staff (their IRC cloaks will contain "Delegate" or "Staff"), which can often be done by a simple inquiry of the form "Any staff or senior volunteers on duty? SOMETHING'S ON FIRE."
  • MissKat is the most likely to be on duty and paying attention at any given moment.
• Senior volunteers or non-Mark/Fu staff will confirm the error, and file/assist with filing support tickets and/or bug reports if warranted.
• After confirming that it is a hair-on-fire situation, Mark will be paged.

Other Site Weirdnesses

If something is not working as you expect it to, it is ok to poll IRC to see if it is not working for everyone else also.

If it is working for everyone else:

• Check the DW FAQ to see if the issue is in there
• File a Support request.
  • This helps staff track issues, and allows Support to do further troubleshooting

If it is not working for everyone else:

• Ping MissKat and let her know and/or mention it in #dreamwidth-support
• then file the Support request

Filing support requests

Even if you report an error you are having in IRC, please also file a support request if you can. Support requests help staff remain accountable (so issues do not get forgotten) and keep track of how many people are experiencing a particular problem.

• If you can reach Dreamwidth at all, file a support request from the web form.
  • Guide on filing support requests
  • There is a listing of some of the current known issues in the FAQs.
• If you cannot reach Dreamwidth, email support (at) dreamwidth (dot) org with a full description of what you are trying to do, what you expect will happen, what is happening instead, and the full text of any error messages you are getting.
• Include steps for replication
  • This could be as simple as "when I post an entry, it explodes" or as complex as a step-by-step walk-through of everything you do, including URLs and possibly screenshots.
  • The latter is preferred, but the former is ok too.

IRC problems

Sometimes there are problems in IRC. Note that this applies to moderated channels.

• Is it a situation where you (or someone without portfolio) saying something in that channel would help? For example, deflecting the topic to something that is not currently on fire?
• Does it require intervention from an IRC op? If so, (discreetly or otherwise) page someone who can attain that role. (It can help to holler both by role (can op up in #dreamwidth) and by name (almost anybody with /staff/ or /delegate/ in their cloak).)
  • PM people who can op up; if urgent, all of them in order of likely-to-be-there
  • holler in another channel which has people who can op up but doesn't have the individuals involved with the problem
• Is it long-term & not time-sensitive? Emailing <user name="denise"> might be a thing, even if you were able to de-escalate it.
• If there is an urgent type channel problem and none of #dreamwidth's own ops are around, seek help in #freenode