Forums > Suggestions > Allow users to comment on their escalated items
Havoc Crow (29859) on 3/23/2015 7:41 AM · Permalink · Report
There are some major problems with "escalating" submissions:
- the contributor cannot see the approvers' comments, so he cannot tell what is wrong with his entry
- he also cannot fix his entry or comment on it, so even if he learns what's wrong with the entry, he cannot correct it himself
It's happened to me--I've got a couple of escalated submissions and I have no idea what's the problem with them, unless I trouble approvers by sending them PM's or cluttering the forums (forcing the approvers to search through the escalated item queues if they want to give me an answer). And in at least one case the reason for escalation is something that I could easily explain away, but I cannot comment on it in any way.
So, it's my suggestion to re-think the "escalation" feature a little, so that it doesn't completely lock the contributor out of the loop.
NĂ©lio (1976) on 3/23/2015 1:38 PM · Permalink · Report
Don't think I agree with that one. Escalating a submission means that we're not comfortable or able to deal with it, for some reason. If a user can provide more information to help the approver handle it, then instead of escalating the item, the approver should WIP it back to the contributor and ask for clarifications. We should get as much info as possible before escalating an item, so that the admin doesn't have much trouble handling it.
Of course there will always be exceptions, but it seems like a big change for something that shouldn't be frequent.
barthon (66) on 3/23/2015 9:21 PM · Permalink · Report
Showing detailed submission progress, including comments by approvers, to contributors would be gratifying for the contributors. There are lots of places on the web where you can just submit your input to a black-box type of process and then only hope approvers are having a good day. Making the process transparent at the every stage here would be something different and encourage further contributions.
That said, I appreciate that's probably not a priority given loads of other stuff to do.
NĂ©lio (1976) on 3/24/2015 2:25 PM · edited · Permalink · Report
The thing is that some of those comments need to be private. Sometimes approvers/admins need to talk between themselves about the submissions, the contributors, or issues in the system. If a conversation is needed with the contributor, then WIPing it back is the way to go.
Indra was here (20755) on 3/27/2015 2:31 PM · Permalink · Report
[Q --start NĂ©lio wrote--]Don't think I agree with that one. Escalating a submission means that we're not comfortable or able to deal with it, for some reason. [/Q --end NĂ©lio wrote--]Doesn't work well in practice. Personally I used to just escalate stuff that only admins can handle. Everything else doesn't really need escalating, since approvers can leave comments on an item without escalating it.
Just skip, don't escalate.
click here to win an iPhone9SSSS (2261) on 3/23/2015 7:13 PM · Permalink · Report
I'd like to be able to send one more comment to the approver, though the entry were already approved, or rejected. Sporadically, I have felt the need for this feature.
chirinea (47495) on 3/23/2015 10:28 PM · Permalink · Report
[Q --start ᕛᏫʓ WASD keyboards ✖➷ʆ◔ wrote--]I'd like to be able to send one more comment to the approver, though the entry were already approved, or rejected. Sporadically, I have felt the need for this feature. [/Q --end ᕛᏫʓ WASD keyboards ✖➷ʆ◔ wrote--]Just PM the approver.
MrFlibble (18234) on 4/19/2015 7:48 PM · Permalink · Report
I'm not sure about the commenting thing - this can be done in the forums or via PM after all - but I would certainly appreciate if the users were notified whenever one of their submissions got escalated, and preferably with a comment from the approver stating the reason for escalation. (I'm sorry if this has already been implemented; it wasn't the case last time I checked.)
From my somewhat limited experience with escalated submissions, I should say that the current way of handling this might get quite discouraging from a user's perspective. The reasons for escalation are not obvious for the user, there is no notification (once I learned about a submission having been escalated several months after it had happened), and the user cannot do anything to improve the submission, or even just plain discard it.
Except for a couple of times when I was able to sort the problem out in a PM conversation with the approver, most of my escalated submissions that were eventually approved got through during the crisis here, when the noble Karsa Orlong almost single-handedly managed all the submissions.