Re:“Yes, I am human:” learnings from fast customer service v...
by davelittle on Friday January 21, 2011 @04:14AM
(#2126913)
As a hobby I volunteer as "support" for an MMO, too. I go into an open chat room and answer people's questions. I'm very obviously a human - every response is different, the answers fit the questions (because I'm typing them!), I abbreviate people's names, I share anecdotes etc...
Still people not only ask if I am a bot constantly, sometimes they just decide that I am. (Of course, they still believe me if I start talking to them directly and "prove" it, but in those cases I don't like to ruin the joke if I don't have to!)
The only robotic thing I do is type about 90wpm - and read fast enough to keep track of a quickly scrolling chat room. It's not superhuman, but I am "above average" compared to the casual participants. I can understand people being surprised at first.
But making the leap into assuming a fast typist is a bot - despite all the evidence to the contrary - well, sometimes there is no actual problem. Sometimes people are just ridiculous.
Still people not only ask if I am a bot constantly, sometimes they just decide that I am. (Of course, they still believe me if I start talking to them directly and "prove" it, but in those cases I don't like to ruin the joke if I don't have to!)
The only robotic thing I do is type about 90wpm - and read fast enough to keep track of a quickly scrolling chat room. It's not superhuman, but I am "above average" compared to the casual participants. I can understand people being surprised at first.
But making the leap into assuming a fast typist is a bot - despite all the evidence to the contrary - well, sometimes there is no actual problem. Sometimes people are just ridiculous.