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Helpdesk_Auto reply

Have an auto reply for users writing to HelpDesk

In order to lower the pressure/urgency of each individual request to HelpDesk, making it easier to provide more edited information to the rest of the teams according to our mission, we want to have an auto reply for users so they can self-diagnose the most common problems. Main ticket is tails#17935

We want requests sent to Help Desk to get an automatic email answer:

Help Desk would still read the reports and extract the info we need for the “Gather qualitative and quantitative user data” part of its mission, but will not always answer a personally crafted message to users.

Requirements

  • Help Desk members must be able to easily propose changes, for example, to maintain in the message the list of current Top 10 issues reported by users.
  • Only email addresses NOT in a list maintained by helpdesk team (and maybe FT) will receive an auto reply. This list will include: tails contributors, list moderation emails, other Tails schleuder lists, etc.
  • The auto-reply adds a CC to tails-bugs, so it appears on the thread originated by the first email, and helpdesk can be sure that the user has received the auto-reply, when, to which address, etc. (We will get this auto-reply, because it will be sent to tails-bugs instead of our personal email which is on the exception list)
  • Technical writers also need access to edit the content of the auto-reply.
  • Non-WhisperBack emails: Only the 1st email in a thread triggers the auto-reply. Otherwise it would be very noisy for the user and send mixed signals ("we need more info from you but we might not answer a second time").
    • We can use email headers:
      • Send the auto-reply only if the headers "In-Reply-To:" and 'References:' are empty or do not exist, then:
      • Messages forwarded to us from tails-sysadmins@ will not receive an auto-reply because they have a Reference header that is not empty.
      • When we answer a user, we will not receive an auto-reply because the In-Reply-To is not empty
      • When a user sends an email (or a WhisperBack report) they will get an auto-reply.
  • Auto-reply sent if either of conditions are met:
    • "In-Reply-To:" and "References:" are present AND empty
    • "In-Reply-To:" and "References:" are NOT present
    • Recipient NOT IN exception_list
  • WhisperBack emails: Some kind of notification when sending a report How would we let them know about the newer hot topics?
    • WhisperBack users should receive a non-changing version of the Auto-reply, and also the auto-reply by mail if they add an email address. Because:
      • People sometimes do not read the interface messages, but they read the email.
      • The WhisperBack message can be localized, which the email will not be.
      • The user may be using an old version of Tails, so the known issues should be consulted online.
      • Adding a link to somewhere on our website would miss many people, but they can get a better message by email.
      • Embedding the current list in the notification would require to either fetch it in the background.
      • including the list in the image does not work, because it would be outdated as soon as the image is released and we won't be able to rely this mechanism for issues in the release itself, which misses most of the point. also, it will not work for old Tails.

Which email gets an auto-reply

HelpDesk receives:

  • WhisperBack reports
  • Emails sent to tails-support-private
  • Emails forwarded from other lists to which users write by mistake.
  • Mailing list moderation emails

Most users are writing to tails-support-private@.

tails-bugs@ only receives unencrypted admin emails from the lists, emails from contributors or helpdesk, and WhisperBack reports.

Questions:

  • Is it OK if all messages sent by tails-bugs members receive the auto-reply message too? (For example, if these messages have a special header that could allow you folks to configure your email client to automatically [delete] them?)

    No, that would be terrible, not green computing, etc. We think that for this situation, and others, we should have the possibility of adding emails to a list that NEVER receives emails. In this list we can add other email addresses like, tails-sysadmins or mailman bot addresses. Also, please read our idea about the In-Reply-To and Reference headers.

  • Is it OK if messages sent via WhisperBack don’t get an auto-reply email? - Can the last page of the WhisperBack report show the user a link to a web version of the auto-reply email? (Perhaps, after submission, a part of the auto-reply can be shown, and a link to "latest hot topics and such")

    • WhisperBack users should receive a non-changing version of the Auto-reply in the interface after (or before) sending a report, and also the auto-reply by mail if they add an email address. Because:
    • People sometimes do not read the interface messages, but they read the email.
    • The WhisperBack message can be localized, which the email will not be.
    • The user may be using an old version of Tails, so the known issues should be consulted online because they will be outdated.

  • Is it OK if every message, even if it’s not the beginning of a thread, gets an auto-reply email?

    • No, as 'Non-WhisperBack emails: Only the 1st email in a thread triggers the auto-reply. Otherwise it would be very noisy for the user and send mixed signals ("we need more info from you but we might not answer a second time").'

  • Can we track opening posts in email headers? Should we rely on the Re: in the subject line? - What about the "In-Reply-To" field:

    • We can use mail headers:
      • Send the auto-reply only if the headers "In-Reply-To:" and 'References:' are empty or do not exist, then:
      • Messages forwarded to us from tails-sysadmins@ will not receive an auto-reply because they have a Reference header that is not empty.
      • when HelpDesk answers an email, they will not get an auto-reply because the "In-Reply-To:" and 'References:' headers are not empty.
      • Auto-reply workflow:
        • "In-Reply-To:" and "References:" are present AND not empty, and receiver NOT IN exception list : NO
        • "In-Reply-To:" and "References:" are NOT present or EMPTY, and receiver NOT IN exception list : YES
        • "In-Reply-To:" and "References:" are NOT present or EMPTY, and receiver IN exception list : NO
    • we can rely on the fact that people writing an email to the help desk write to tails-support-private@ and receive a reply from tails-bugs@, so their second email will be to tails-bugs@

Implementation

  • Write a generic message

  • Write standard text to answer hardware support reports for which we can't do anything (tails#17966 (closed))

Deployment

Changes to HelpDesk workflow after completion

Once this auto-reply is in place, a number of other, important changes can be implemented in Help Desk’s workflow and processes (tails#17965 (closed)).

Actual Auto-reply

Migrated to https://tails.boum.org/support/help_desk_standard_replies/.