PowerCutsIN Moderators Guide

Where to find incoming reports?

 * Join the Discussion list for conversation or posting your queries. Google Group - http://groups.google.com/group/PowerCutsIN
 * Login to the Administrative Dashboard located here http://powercuts.in/admin
 * You should get your login user name and password from one of our moderators. Again send email to list for the same and one of the moderators should respond to you privately.
 * Web Reports are located under "Reports"->"Awaiting Approval"
 * SMS/Email/Twitter Reports are located under "Messages".

An ideal report

 * Title = Unplanned - 09:00 AM to 11:00 PM - New Mahalaxmi, Mumbai
 * (Please note how the TIME is written using : . Please strictly follow that)
 * Description = User reported a power cut via Twitter. Pincode: 456789
 * Time: 0900 AM 21 May 2011
 * Refine Location Name: New Mahalaxmi, Mumbai
 * Category: Unplanned

The "Title" field
The first thing you notice on the report edit screen would be the Title of the report. The objective of this report is to make it easy for site visitors to understand the report details with just looking at the Title. So even if users write something that doesn't make sense on the Title, the moderator's should edit and include details of the incident. For e.g. "Unplanned - 09:00 AM - New Mahalaxmi, Mumbai - Unplanned". It is very important to keep the title consistent so make sure. Other examples: "Unplanned - 09:00 AM - 12:00 PM - New Mahalaxmi, Mumbai" [The hyphen and spacing is important for us to process it]. Other examples can start from : Unplanned, Voltage, Comments etc depending on the category of the report.

The "Category" field
In each report please make sure the location of the reporter is clear, else we don't include that report at all and ignore it.
 * Unplanned - Unexpected or Unplanned power cuts.
 * Planned - Scheduled Load Shedding or power cuts that happens daily.
 * Voltage - Voltage fluctuations or low voltage problems.
 * Good News - Good News about Power Situation or some problem being solved.
 * Comments - Comments and Feedback on the Power Cut situation in your location.
 * Daily - Specifically marking some reports of cuts that happen daily.
 * Theft - People reporting power theft.

Start - Date and Time
Always click the "Modify Date" + sign under date/time settings. Sometimes it says "Today". Upon clicking the + sign the time at which the report was sent will be shown. Then proceed. When creating or editing a report from the dashboard, make sure the "Date and Time" is same as and when the power cut was reported to start. In case there is no time/date mentioned in the report/tweet, use the time of when the user posted the update or reported it.

End - Date and Time
We need to also record duration of the power cut and other incidents that we are tracking (if applicable). So there is a field added only in the moderator panel for an incident to record the "End Time". So if a user reports with #back. We update that particular incident with the back time. Or if the user already supplied the duration we record it.

Reporter Anonymity
We don't save any link to a person's tweet or his/her name in the mention(i.e. Title, Details, News Source etc). No personally identifiable information. Some people will report using the website and leave their email, thats OK, because that doesn't get published for the public to see.

The Location
Please dont ever include the PIN Code in the location details. Google Maps doesnt support search by Pin Code for India. In the "Map location search" option or "Refine Location name" field, make sure you have  format. Just like how location is written in the title above. There is no need to include "India" or the "State". You can not search on the map by Pincode. So you will need to look up the Pincodes information through http://pincode.net.in or http://pincode.in and then find its location details in the format  and put it there. We do keep a note of the Pincode but we put it in the "Description" section. Format below.

The description
If the title doesnt read too well for the user to understand the news report, we explain it in more words here. Then, it is important to note other details from the report in this area. Since we have already noted the "Time (Start/End)", Location (Refine Field Location" and Category, we have all the important data. In this field we save things like "Pincode" and "Comments" or anything else that the user reports. With Pincode make sure its in a seperate line (Press Enter) and in the following format "Pincode: 110027" (without the "). Or put the pincode in the title as well if space allows.

Verify and Approve
Please do not "Verify" any reports by default. We just "Approve" and "Publish" them. The only way to verify a report is if two different people report a power cut from the same location. But we don't do that either since the reports will show all reports from a location.

Deleting Messages

 * Delete all duplicate tweets.
 * Delete all RTs or Promotional Tweets.
 * Tweets that contain power cut report or back or comments etc reports, do not delete them. When creating a report just don't include the link to the user's tweet in any case before publishing the report.
 * Emails - Delete duplicates only. Leave the rest.
 * SMS - Delete duplicates only. Leave the rest. Also leave both START and STOP SMSs. Since by SMS people can report both in different SMSs but the report would be just ONE. We keep both SMSs in the system for archival/cross checking later.

Twitter Hashtag Reports

 * If getting spam from a particular automated twitter account, goto Dashboard->Messages->Reporters and "Search" for the Username and Mark it as "Delete+Spam". Good riddance.
 * If you use a Twitter client like Tweetdeck for your Desktop, you can add a "Search column" for the hashtag(s) that we use on PowerCuts.in site and skim through it to see if there are any "new" tweets. And once you identify new tweets you can just look at the site's dashboard for the user who reported it and "Create a Report" for that tweet. Might help save time in scanning through the dashboard.
 * You can also keep the website open which has the Twitter hashtag wall at the bottom, and once in a while just look at it to identify new reports.
 * When creating a report from a tweet, just above the "Title" you would see a +"ui_main.show_messages" upon clicking, it will show you all similar messages, that will help you decide better on creating a new report.

Frequently Asked Questions
What happens if the user has mentioned multiple power cut timings in a single report? What happens if I notice a report that just has #back or reports a power back time? What to do if user reports that a power cut happens daily?
 * We create multiple reports
 * Search for the last report that was created for this location and update its endtime.
 * Make sure the timing of the cut is mentioned, else follow up with the user and ask and then create a report under "Planned" category.