To Web-Walkers:
Summary of February 16, 1997, Web-Walkers meeting:
Undergraduate Admissions gets about 100 messages per day, at least when
people are requesting applications. They have three e-mail accounts.
They process all requests that they receive. They have added to their Web
pages answers to the most commonly asked questions.
We talked about automating replies. Some groups do that; some look at the
subject and send an automatic reply based on words that appear in the
subject; some send an acknowledgement of receipt. Undergraduate Admissions
would like to use the feature that some e-mail software has to
automatically send a "received" message, but they are using Siren mail and
Siren doesn't have that feature. UNC-CH (perhaps ATN working with
Undergraduate Admissions) should see if we can get that feature added to
Siren mail.
We might be able to use filters to funnel messages to the appropriate
offices; people seem to send messages to whatever e-mail address they
happen to find. Filters might work something like telephone systems --
"press 1 for admissions..."
We looked at http://www.unc.edu/campus/faq/email.html. The FAQ page is too
hidden; people don't know it exists. It should have a button on the bottom
of at least the top level pages, like Directories, Search, Comments, and
Help have now. In fact, it should replace Comments on those pages. People
use the Comments button to ask general questions; they should be forced to
go to lower-level pages so that their messages can go to the appropriate
office.
Some commercial sites are now hiding their e-mail address, making people
explore the information that is available before shooting off a question.
Some sites say they will read the messages they receive but not reply.
People do not distinguish between buttons for comments on Web page design,
comments on content, questions, and general e-mail.
We are getting a lot of very general questions and questions on research
topics, from school children, college people, and the general public. We
agreed that suggesting the use a search engine is an acceptable response.
We generally felt that messages (other than "Hi" and crank messages)
should get a polite response. If a message contains profanity, try to
ignore that and answer the question.
Many of the campus Web pages do not have phone numbers; there should be
phone numbers so people can call with specific questions.
The list of campus departments is too buried; it's hard to find. [I added
it to the FAQ.]
Some campus Web pages are browser dependent. Should we put up front
somewhere that people should be using Netscape 3.0 or greater?
Attendees: Judy Hallman (judy_hallman@unc.edu, http://www.unc.edu/~hallman/)
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 1998 12:03:05 -0500 (EST)
From: Judy Hallman
To: Web-Walkers
Cc: Publication Services
Athletics Department
Online Admissions Applications
Graduate Admissions
Continuing Education
Registrar
Visitor's Service
ann_dodd@unc.edu, Victoria Gless
david_lanier@unc.edu, abroad@unc.edu, outdoor@unc.edu,
Stuart Bethune
Subject: Summary of February 16 Web-Walkers meeting
Processing e-mail messages coming from Web pages.
Julia Bryan, Grad. Studies & Research, jrb9501@email.unc.edu
Philip Dixon, Davis Acquisition, pdixon@email.unc.edu
Judy Hallman, ATN, judy_hallman@unc.edu
Gary Lloyd, Registrar's Office, grl.our@mhs.unc.edu
Theresa Lostaglio, AIS, theresa_lostaglio@unc.edu
Pupesh Pradhan, Daily Tar Heel, pradhan@unc.edu
Donna Redmon, Registrar's Office, donna_redmon@unc.edu
Margi Strickland, Ugrad. Admissions, mstrickl@email.unc.edu
Landon Whitt, Psychology, landon_whitt@unc.edu
Campus Webmaster, UNC-Chapel Hill