One of the biggest problems I’ve run into with managing Mailmangr support is keeping a handle on the bug reports, feature requests and inquiries that come in.  I’ve got them scattered between a todo list in Basecamp, my inbox, and an online ticketing system.  I know that there are a million help desk/bug tracker apps out there, but I have yet to find one that’s really easy and great to use from both sides.  I’m currently using Zendesk, but I’m really not nuts about it (it’s just the best I’ve found so far).  I’m going to build HelpMeApp to be exactly what I want it to be, and then if other people are interested in using it, cool.  If not, at least I’ll stop dropping the ball on Mailmanagr requests!

I want something that’s equally easy for people to submit requests to, as for employees that have to respond to and manage those requests.  I had considered building HelpMeApp as another Basecamp/Highrise API project, on the back-end to manage all of the data; but I think there might be too many constraints with that idea.  You need to be able to merge requests, for example, and there’s no easy way to merge messages in Basecamp — so I don’t think the model will work.  There will likely be pretty deep integration though, just because that’s the way I roll (being able to add requesters to Highrise, and keep a history of their requests for example).

I’ve got a couple of other ideas to kick things up a notch or two.  I’ve actually managed to roll a couple of ideas that I’ve had in the past into HelpMeApp, and I think they’re pretty complimentary.  I’m pretty excited about where it’s going.

The bug/feature request list on Mailmanagr is starting to decrease in length now, so I think the time is right.  Any thoughts out there, or “must have” features?  I’ve got a pretty good idea of what I’d like it to look like, but if you’ve got a “it would be really neat if”, I’m all ears.

I’m probably going to do a big of a “live blogging” of the progress, although it could be slow at times.  There’ll at least be the occasional update over at Industry Interactive about how things are going.

At one point, the reporter tosses out the stat of a “one in a million” neurological disorder.  That might seem like pretty good odds.  According to the US census bureau, the current population of the US is 304 million — so if everyone in the US got vaccinated, 304 of them would no longer be able to talk or walk normally.  Huh.  It would suck to be one of those 304 just because I wanted to avoid getting the flu.

I’m neither pro nor anti vaccines in general.  There’s no doubt that they’ve contributed to wiping out some absolutely horrifying diseases.  That said, I don’t know whether I’d be willing to gamble the inconvenience of a flu with a one in a million change of having a permanent, life-altering condition.  With our first son, we started out getting him vaccinated on the normal routine.  He had a horrible reaction to the first round though (high fever, listlessness), so we opted to hold off on the next few shots.  He’s all caught up now, as is our younger son, but we waited until they were over the age of 1 to finish it off.  I was talking with my Doctor about it at the time (a really great, practical guy), and he pointed out that we live in Canada where the chances of catching most of the diseases you’re being vaccinated against is pretty low.  He asked if we were planning to travel anywhere in the future (no), and said that we were probably fine.  He did say that there is that risk though (one in a million?)

I pretty much get the flu at some point or another every year.  I never have an easy time of it either.  Am I going to get a flu vaccination?  Nope.  There’s a couple of factors in play in that decision:

1. I work from home, and live on an island of about 1,000 people.  Sure, people come and go from the island every day, and I make trips over to the city on a somewhat regular schedule, but I think my risk of exposure is pretty minimal.  I doubt we’ll see H1N1 make an appearance on Mayne.
2. Coughing, sneezing, and flu symptoms suck, but personally I’m not likely to die from them.  I’m not likely to become permanently impaired from the flu.  I might have a couple of weeks of low productivity (sorry in advance clients, I appreciate your patience).
3. A significant portion of people that get the flu vaccine, end up with the flu.  The way a vaccine works is that it actually hits your immune system with a low dose of the virus being vaccinated against.  Your body then generates it’s own antibodies to deal with future exposures to that virus.  If you’re a bit under the weather, or if the vaccine dose is off a bit, you could end up with an all-out flu from the vaccine.

1. Life, kids, family: things are good.  Reilly’s really digging Kindergarten, Parker is really digging not having Reilly around all of the time (he does miss him though, I can tell).

   Rae started up Damage Control and has been kicking ass at that.  She’s pretty busy, and has found something really cool that she’s enjoying doing.

2. Work: Industry Interactive is doing well.  Work has been steady, lots of new clients, lots of local work, which has been cool.  Yeah, things have slowed down a bit, but nothing to get worried about.
3. Mailmanagr: steady growth and improvement.  New designs this year, new features being added all the time.  I’m pretty happy with the way it’s going, and the feedback I get indicates that a lot of other people are happy too.
4. Living here: still love it.  There’s the occasional challenge, but this place is amazing.  I can’t imagine raising my family anywhere else.

And that’s about it.