Tuesday, February 3, 2009

An Outsourced FAQ

We would like to announce that we have outsourced our Frequently Asked Questions department to a nice lady who calls herself Eliza. Below is a small sample. We hope it is as informative for you as it is free for us. (Wait, can it be called outsourcing if you don't pay them?)

Frequently Asked Questions about the GNU Public Dictatorship:
  • I do not understand why I should want a Board of Dictators.
Why do you not understand why you should want a board of dictators?
  • Perhaps because the idea has never been explained to me
Why the uncertain tone?
  • I'm unsure of whether I should support the GNU Public Dictatorship
Does it please you to believe I am unsure of whether you should support the gnu public dictatorship?
  • as a matter of fact it does not
Please go on.

  • What does the GNU Public Dictatorship offer that I can't get from other government options?
Does that question interest you?
  • yes
You are sure?
  • of course
Please go on.
  • Why shouldn't I throw my support behind a Democracy?
Why do you say your support behind a democracy?
  • I didn't. I talked about throwing my support behind a democracy
Why do you say your support behind a democracy?
  • I don't
Why do you not?
  • because that doesn't make sense.
Do any other reasons not come to mind?
  • Well, perhaps because it is brilliant does not come to mind.
Why the uncertain tone?
  • I thought this was a Frequently Asked Questions where I got to ask the questions.
Can you elaborate on that?
  • This FAQ is worthless
Please go on.
  • No, I'm done.
You are being a bit negative.
  • I wouldn't have to be negative if you were reasonable
Do you wish that I was reasonable?
  • yes I do
You are sure?

At this point the logs show that our worker ended the conversation with Eliza. We know it's not perfect, but any FAQ is better than no FAQ, right? Also, at the GNU Public Dictatorship we are nothing if not concerned for the welfare of FAQ writers such as Eliza!

2 comments:

Jim said...

I've tried using Eliza to resolve questions about other subjects in the past; I feel that if there is any confusion it is because your worker failed to wait until Eliza told him "Earlier you mentioned worthless"

Tim said...

Jim,

Your comment prompted an internal review of policies and procedures, and we found that our worker was indeed impatient and did not wait for Eliza to mention something he had mentioned earlier. We had assumed that our workers would know to wait for Eliza, but we apparently overestimated the patience of our underlings. We have changed our policy and will now require our workers who interact with Eliza to wait until she brings up something they had mentioned earlier.