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How do you "summon" another user on answers.splunk.com?

jeffland
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

I've seen this from time to time and couldn't find any official help on the topic, so here's my go at it. I summon @sideview to find out if it is really this simple to call people for help directly!

Assuming this works just like that, I wonder why it doesn't (at least not in the preview) with @martin_mueller. If it does, apologies in advance for calling you both here without a proper reason on a friday afternoon 🙂

While I'm at it, what about adding some info on this to the FAQ?

1 Solution

sideview
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

Ahoy hoy.

The best and fastest way to get an understanding of this is to click into your user profile page (click username in the topnav) and then on the right side near the top click the "Preferences" link.

Then on the Preferences page click "Notifications" tab.

Tons of different settings exist that can notify you in different circumstances. Some of them are on by default, like when someone does @someonesUsername that one is on by default and will get an email. Many are off by default.

Broadly speaking I think most people leave that one on so @someonesUsername is pretty reliable (predictably, we ask that you don't abuse it!). The site will also attempt some level of content analysis on the question and send notifications to people who seem to have answered questions like it. And in between don't forget to subscribe to the relevant tags because you can subscribe to tags that you're interested in. Likewise don't forget to tag your questions properly because there may be experts who have notifications turned on for those particular tags.

And finally, if your question concerns a particular app, add the tag for that app. Assuming the owner hasn't removed that tag from their subscriptions, the app-author will get notified. They might not be the ones who directly help you but keeping them in the loop is the wise move for sure.

View solution in original post

Damien_Dallimor
Ultra Champion

Ditto what woodcock and sideview already said. I get summoned alot via these means.

Otherwise :

alt text

acharlieh
Influencer

Why summon individuals when you can SUMMON BIGGER FISH!!!! (*splat *) http://www.darthsanddroids.net/episodes/0208.html

sideview
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

Ahoy hoy.

The best and fastest way to get an understanding of this is to click into your user profile page (click username in the topnav) and then on the right side near the top click the "Preferences" link.

Then on the Preferences page click "Notifications" tab.

Tons of different settings exist that can notify you in different circumstances. Some of them are on by default, like when someone does @someonesUsername that one is on by default and will get an email. Many are off by default.

Broadly speaking I think most people leave that one on so @someonesUsername is pretty reliable (predictably, we ask that you don't abuse it!). The site will also attempt some level of content analysis on the question and send notifications to people who seem to have answered questions like it. And in between don't forget to subscribe to the relevant tags because you can subscribe to tags that you're interested in. Likewise don't forget to tag your questions properly because there may be experts who have notifications turned on for those particular tags.

And finally, if your question concerns a particular app, add the tag for that app. Assuming the owner hasn't removed that tag from their subscriptions, the app-author will get notified. They might not be the ones who directly help you but keeping them in the loop is the wise move for sure.

jeffland
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

I noticed those settings as well, I just didn't think it would really be that easy and wanted to try it in some fail-safe situation 🙂

As mentioned in my comment to woodcock's answer, I was thinking of using this ability in special scenarios - when I believe I have an Idea in response to someone else's question and at the same time think that someone with further expertise on that subject would be very helpful to both answer the question and help me gain more in-depth knowledge.

0 Karma

ppablo
Retired

Awesome answer @sideview 🙂

@jeffland I've noticed that issue before with martin's username in the content of your post. I'll bring that up to the developers of the site. As for the FAQ, it will be undergoing some changes, so thanks for the feedback. Rather than posting on here, if you have a Splunk Answers site related question, feel free to contact me directly at ppablo at splunk dot com.

Happy Friday!

0 Karma

ppablo
Retired

Just an FYI, I just filed a bug for the partial @username summons issue.

Cheers to the weekend!

Patrick

0 Karma

jeffland
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

Great, thanks! It's good to know that this place is under somebody's watch and not left to itself, and even better that this someone cares - i.e. that it's you, @ppablo_splunk 🙂

ppablo
Retired

Hey @jeffland

Have you seen this issue appear lately? The developers of the site have not been able to reproduce the bug since. If you happen to come across another example, feel free to share the post as a comment here and I'll get it looked at. Thanks!

jeffland
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

Hi @ppablo_splunk, thanks for checking up on it. I haven't come across the issue since, and I even see it working in the question above, so I guess it's fixed both retroactively and for the future 🙂

ppablo
Retired

No problemo @jeffland 🙂

0 Karma

woodcock
Esteemed Legend

You don't really need to summon people (although they will get an email when you do this) because this site does an analysis on all newly posted questions and, if it is similar to a question that a user has answered before, an email will be automatically sent to those users asking them to provide an answer.

0 Karma

jeffland
SplunkTrust
SplunkTrust

I know about the automatic notification on topics you have successfully answered in the past. However, I was thinking of when there's a question I believe I have an idea for but I would like further assistance/a knowledgable opinion from someone else. I don't think this should be used in a question, rather in a comment or answer somewhere to get the attention of the "summoned" directly where they can (hopefully) help the most.

Also, I like to think that being summoned in person is more likely to get a reaction (provided it is not abused and those messages are ignored/disabled) compared to how easy it is to dismiss those anonymous, automatic notifications on new questions.

0 Karma
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