Reception of Bruce Almighty

Translation of my article of 2015 for the community of Habrahabr.

The story of this joke-experiment begins exactly from the moment when my troubled head, looking at the process of technical support work and other cases of processing a large stream of requests, asked the question of revising this aspect in a more playful way: “What if a lot of requests are manually scattered into some thematic baskets like things before washing or debris in front of containers?”

The condition of the problem is the question of the answer

After grinding the conditions of the problem, the essence of the future experiment became clear: a typical question does not wait for a manually written answer, but casting into the basket a typical answer or folding the answer plug from the template phrases.

Fig. 1 For template question — template basket

The process stages in this case are not new: they are divided into the user and moderator part, are represented by the formation of the request (1), by entering it into the unprocessed stream (2), which is sorted by the basket moderator (3), verified and confirmed (4) for notification (5 ) and publications (6).

Fig. 2 Stages of the process

From the user’s point of view, there is nothing new: after getting acquainted with the current postulates that are broken into topics, the user does not find the answer to his question, forms a query (1) and, after some expectation, receives a response (5). In addition, you can provide for the collection and publication of similar requests (6), if there are any reasons for this.

Fig. 3 User scenario

The moderator scenario assumes an untreated flow (2) to spread over existing or formed baskets (3), check and publish the results (4).

Fig. 4 Moderator scenario

Ideas for an abstract example, to feel and polish this concept, came a few: the receptionist of a deputy, pop star or military registration and enlistment office. There were other options, but I decided to stop on the reminiscences of a single character, which would also not be disturbed by a convenient admin on sorting the endless incoming stream.

Reception of Bruce Almighty

How to cope with the flood of prayers, when the duties of the Almighty suddenly fall upon you? Bruce Nolan, the character of Jim Carrey in the movie “Bruce Almighty,” tried the card index and stickers, but eventually decided to use high technology. Based on my little research, I decided to make my version of the admin for Bruce.

So, after the user sends a request, the message gets to the Bruce’s reception desk, which can look something like this:

If the application’s operating mode (by default “instant”: the answers are immediately sent and published) switches to “cumulative” (answers are copied and descended by command) — at the bottom of the page the session panel appears:

To better understand the situation, Bruce can read the prayer fully or look at the profile:

After that, he can add a template response from those that are in plain sight …

… editing at will any array of text by clicking on it …

… or by completing the message with a non-template array by clicking on the free space in the text box or by clicking on the “Add message” button:

If a certain answer is repeated more than once, a new template is brewing, which can be created in a quick way or by using the “Create template” button …

… or in the template editor under the link “All templates”, where you can edit existing templates or drag them into the shortlist of popular ones:

It is possible to make templates not only short phrases, but also larger volumes, so that Bruce told, say, some parable:

If the case is ambiguous, you can redirect the request or postpone the decision for later:

Displaying the template panel can be configured for you:

Depending on the case, the newly-minted Almighty will be able to publish a response on the site or send an alert privately …

… and in the case of a cumulative mode — check the generated responses before mass sending:

Despite the power, there will most likely be slips or a desire to correct the panel, so in the waiting room you can use the settings, sharpening it for yourself or rolling back the database of answers to the desired state:

Here is a concept that emerged with the desire to try some toy folding functionality. On this my story affects your comments — welcome! :)