About Katie Expertise I answer questions about the AllExperts service. For example: How does the system work? What are the reasons for this particular policy or feature?
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Experience
BA in Economics (minor in Computer Science),
Columbia University
MS in Technology Management,
Columbia University
Question QUESTION: Hi Katie,
Because there is ambiguity about the exact mianing of the term maxed out" as describing the availability of an expert to take a question (e.g. when does the time period end/begin on a daily basis? is probably unclear to a first time or even a frequent user of the service), I would like to propose an alternative or two for that status.
How about "Try again later" as being equally descriptive of the non-availability of the expert, and it would then also be descriptive of the status of experts such as myself who makes him/herself availabile for additional questions by upping the number of questions to be taken during the 24 hour day as time permits. I find it inaccurate to be described as "maxed out" whenever my maximum is reached, because I have every intention to become available once again as time permits. At least it would be good to modify the settings options to allow one to choose this default as an alternative to "maxed out" when the pre-set value is reached. It would open the door to questioners returning to the site later in the day with higher probability and therefor increases the hits/day of the service.
Because the clock begins at 12:00 gmt which is the equivalent of approximately the last quarter of the day in the US time zones, approximately, it would truly be accurate to describe the return to availability of everyone
as "later" in the day as seen in the continental U.S.
Please let me know what you think of these alternatives. Thanks for your consideration.
Roland
ANSWER: We could always use "Unavailable til 12:00 GMT"?
---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------
QUESTION: Hi Katie,
Actually I was hoping for something less specific as to availability. I am hoping that there is a phrase (such as "Try again later") which would be accurate yet allow those of us who increment our availability one question at a time to do so without giving the misleading impression that we are done for the day. Because the clock resets in the latter part of the day (for those of us in the Continental US, Alaska and Hawaii) and availability then begins anew, this would be not an inaccurate descriptor for every expert. I believe that "maxed out" is an unfortunate choice for experts like myself who are adding availability throughout the day. It would thus encourage potential questioners to return to the site. If you don't want to eliminate "maxed out" would it be possible to establish this option "Try again later" for those like myself to use as an alternative status?
Roland
Roland
Answer Thanks for the suggestion. I've forwarded this idea to the rest of the team so we can discuss it at the next meeting. But since you are the first and so far, the only one to ask for it, it may take a while before it becomes a priority and gets implemented.
