Mailing List Archive

Alex,

First off, please allow me to thank you for your efforts over the
years in being an unpaid support contributor to SPF. Who knows how
many more adopters SPF has gained by your efforts? I would guess many.

I had a few quick thoughts about how SPF support might be better
implemented, if you get any takers willing to do the job for
free. You could think of this much in the way a multi tiered support
organization might operate.

Level 0 support - Free (the volunteers would handle these as the
current system operates today)
Level 1 support - Paid (some nominal fee [around $25] to be provided
to Alex to continue the job)

If the party contacting wants free support, they get what they pay
for (e.g., no committed response time, less experienced volunteers,
possibly face the "we don't know - you will need to submit a paid
support request to get an authoritative answer" response, etc).

Worst case, if there are no volunteers, only Level 1 support is available.

If it is important to members here to maintain quality "free SPF
support", perhaps the following thoughts will make some sense.

I don't know if some of the bigger companies on this list might want
to pony up some cash to support the paid support effort, but it would
seem a reasonable thing to do. I'd love to help here, so once we
reach some level of profitability with TZ, I'll commit to $1,000 per
year, but for right now I'll be happy to kick off the support fund
with $100 if only 9 other folks are willing to kick in and Alex is
interested in managing this process. Alex, if this works for you,
keep track of the contributors and tell us were to send the funds off list.

So then, if some guy from Colorado and his horse can do this, I'm
sure some of the wealthier companies can help here too (go find some
coin in the discretionary funds budget). Surely there are 100
companies out there interested in helping at the $1,000 level? Heck,
even if 1,000 entities can do what I am prepared to do right now with
$100, that really is not all that much to pay for having a support
system in place to help to ensure the implementations of a valuable
RFC works properly. Heck put up some kind of "SPF Support Supporters
Page" at OpenSPF.org to list supporters of $100 or more
annually. Perhaps even create supporter levels on that page to show
the levels of contribution, for example, benefactors at $100, bronze
at $1,000, silver at $5,000, gold at $10,000, or some such thing to
allow for corporate "bragging rights".

I wish that I had more time and / or resources to offer more support,
but unfortunately, right now it is not possible. Even so, I offer
the thoughts above for funding the implementation of some kind of
sustainable quality support structure for fellow list members to consider.

Best,

AlanM
The Commerce Company
TZ.Com - Travel Zippy

At 08:14 PM 12/20/2007, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>If there's anyone out there who wants to take over the not so rewarding
>but oh so important task of giving a helping hand to new SPF adopters,
>please step forward.
>
>I have done this for a couple of years but I am no longer willing to
>continue. That's why I will cease being an unpaid volunteer for the
>SPF support desk. Currently that would reduce the team of regular
>volunteers down to zero.
>
>Be prepared to invest some time (a couple of hours a week, sometimes
>more) on a regular basis. It's safe to skip a day or two, but you
>shouldn't keep people waiting much longer.
>
>You will have to deal with spam, abuse, ignorance and arrogance.
>
>On the other hand, these bad people are outnumbered by those who
>are willing to learn and understand they need to RTFM.
>
>Obviously you would need to know SPF well. You will also need to
>know SMTP and DNS. And you need a thick skin.
>
>Most (almost all) of the messages are in English. Occasionally a
>message in another language comes in. So far I've been able to make
>sense out of most of these by using babelfish.
>
>If no one takes over, then free private support as we know it is in
>danger and may have to be stopped (no: not the spf-help mailing list,
>I'm talking about support via private email, started from the web form
>at http://www.openspf.org/Contact ).
>
>If that would be the case, I will still do support but no longer for
>free. I expect that this will reduce noise and shouting, which is the
>main reason for me to have made this decision.
>
>regards,
>Alex
>
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On Thu, Dec 20, 2007 at 09:34:49PM -0700, WebMaster@Commerco.Net wrote:
> Alex,
>
> First off, please allow me to thank you for your efforts over the
> years in being an unpaid support contributor to SPF. Who knows how
> many more adopters SPF has gained by your efforts? I would guess many.

Thanks.

> I had a few quick thoughts about how SPF support might be better
> implemented, if you get any takers willing to do the job for
> free. You could think of this much in the way a multi tiered support
> organization might operate.

[snip some about money]


I think I have been sending out the wrong signal.

My decision has not to do with money alone. Sure, I would welcome
some token appreciation in the form of hard cash, but the main reason
to ask for money when opening a ticket, it that it will stop certain
kinds of posts:
* spammers
* people just willing to vent their frustration
* ignorant people thinking they write to their ISPs support desk, or
their webshop, or whatever

And if a spammer is willing to pay money to get its message delivered
to me, then I wouldn't be bothered by it anymore.

Getting paid to do the job as it currently is would take away a
litle of the pain but would probably not be sufficient. I really
need to get rid of those few bad emails, one way or the other.


This said, thank you for your ideas. And if you or anyone else has
more ideas, please do share them. I do want free support to continue
if possible.

Alex

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Hi,

I'm glad there were a couple of responses. Let's hope support can
continue.

I'm a realist (optimists would say I'm a pessimist) thus I would like
to stress once more the importance of checking in regularly. This won't
take much of your time, and ensures that those seeking help do not need
to wait more than a couple of days maximum. Anymore would, IMHO, be too
much.

Good luck!

cheers
Alex

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Alex van den Bogaerdt wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm glad there were a couple of responses. Let's hope support can
> continue.
>

I offered to join the support team (more than a year ago IIRC) and I am
still interested in assisting.

I have been implementing SPF for my clients and have also been
consulting for a number of local banks around SPF. I have therefore had
to become quite well acquainted with the nuts and bolts of SPF.

--
Graham Beneke
Apolix Internet Services
E-Mail/MSN/Jabber: graham@apolix.co.za Skype: grbeneke
VoIP: 087-750-5696 Cell: 082-432-1873
http://www.apolix.co.za/

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