SAP Relay only allows to add follows / followers users

[Johan_H]

Currently you can only add members to a chat who are following you or whom you are following.

Why not be able to invite any SCN user to the chat?

[jerryjanda]

Hello, Johan:

Seems our paths keep crossing today.

Are you asking about a direct chat? Or a group chat?

I'm trying to get more information about whom you can or can't communicate with in a group chat. If that's what you're looking for, I can share more once I know more.

For direct chat: This is by design, and to my knowledge, is the same in SCN. The reason is to prevent people from getting spammed (because they can only get messages from those they follow).

If I misunderstood the feedback, please let me know.

--Jerry

[Johan_H]

Hi Jerry,

I have to say that I ever only used the chat once, and that was when the current SCN had just gone live. So to be honest I am not entirely sure in what ways the chat generally is used, or what the idea is.

I was just clicking around in the spirit of beta testing, and figured that, if I were to use it, I would probably use it as an extension of a Q&A session.

In that case, the person I am trying to help, is probably not following me, and I am probably not following them. Which would mean that I cannot use the chat for that purpose.

The problem with direct chat I think I understand, although I do not know how the system alerts users about having been added to a chat.

I would think that a chat does not need an invite mechanism, as I would assume that a chat session is simply a part of an ongoing discussion. But again, what do I know.

The simple solution to this would be to limit only the invite mechanism (a message?) to the follower rule. That way, coming from a question, I can easily move to a chat session, also with a "perfect stranger".

Regards,

Johan

[jerryjanda]

Hi, Johan:

I'm not sure if I completely understood all that, so please forgive me if these answers don't address your questions.

First, I believe you are saying that you would like to chat with someone involved in a Q&A. But in such a scenario, it would be preferable to keep the conversation within the Q&A...as it could be helpful for people searching for similar information later on. And if you're engaged in a discussion with someone in Q&A, it could lead to mutual following (although I realize that's an assumption on my part and not always a fact).

RE: alerts, you'll receive a notification (via your profile/avatar) when you receive a direct mission...but, to be honest, you won't know it's a direct message until you go into your notifications area.

I hope that helps. If you'd like to test the chat functionality further, I'd be happy to test with you. I regularly report feedback to the relay team, so if you and I experience any problems, I can make sure the info gets to the right people.

Best regards,

--Jerry

[Johan_H]

Hi Jerry,

Let me try to elaborate.

Jerry Janda wrote:

...
First, I believe you are saying that you would like to chat with someone involved in a Q&A. But in such a scenario, it would be preferable to keep the conversation within the Q&A...as it could be helpful for people searching for similar information later on...

In my experience with current Q&A, most questions are about an acute problem, "why is my query not returning any results" or "I keep getting an error when I use this property in my code", that sort of thing.

A much smaller percentage of questions pertains to systematic or principle problems, how-to problems if you will.

I see a lot that the person asking the question will request a team viewer session or a phone call. I am not saying that that is a good thing. As you said, there would remain no log of the help received.

The use for a chat session that I see, would be to take this "direct" help to the chat. For history purposes you could consider adding an option to save a chat to a log of some sort.

Jerry Janda wrote:

... it could lead to mutual following (although I realize that's an assumption on my part and not always a fact)....

In my experience mutual following happens next to never. That a user starts following me, because I helped them, happens surprisingly often, but compared to the number of different people I help out, you could also say next to never.

If the (admirable) point is to prevent spam from the inboxes of more popular users (usually people who help out a lot in the Q&A sections), and assuming that my previous point above has merit, then the solution I mentioned sounds better than to force people to follow one another.

Jerry Janda wrote:

...
RE: alerts, you'll receive a notification (via your profile/avatar) when you receive a direct mission...but, to be honest, you won't know it's a direct message until you go into your notifications area...

I figured as much, and understand the point about the problem of spam. Again the solution I suggested would take the spam-risk factor out of the equation and allow users to use the chat for the purposes mentioned above.

Regards,

Johan