Alaveteli's request statuses

Current states

WhatDoTheyKnow has the following states:

waiting_response: Waiting for the public authority to reply

• The default initial state
• Can't transition here from internal_review

waiting_classification: Waiting for a classification of a response

• The default state after receiving a response

waiting_response_overdue: Waiting for a reply for too long

• Automatic, if today's date is after the request date + holidays + 20 days
• When a user updates / visits an item in this state, thank user and tell them how long they should have to wait
• Alert user by email when something becomes overdue

waiting_response_very_overdue: Waiting for a reply for a very long time

• Automatic, if today's date is after the request date + holidays + (60 days (for schools) or 40 days (everyone else))
• When a user updates / visits something in this state, suggest they might want to complain about it; show things they might want to do
• Alert user by email when this state happens

waiting_clarification: The public authority would like part of the request explained

• Prompt user to write followup
• if a user sends an outgoing message on a request in this state, automatically transitions to {{waiting_response}}
• three days after this state change occurs, send reminder to user to action it (assuming user isn't banned)
• Can't transition here from internal_review

gone_postal: The public authority would like to / has responded by post

• If selected, remind user that in most cases authority should respond by email, and encourage followup.
• Give most recent authority correspondence email address for user to request postal by private email.
• Encourage user to update thread with annotation at later date.

not_held: The public authority does not have the information requested

• Suggest user might want to try a different authority, or complain

rejected: The request was refused by the public authority

• Show page of possible next steps

successful: All of the information requested has been received

• Suggest they add annotations or make a donation

partially_successful: Some of the information requested has been received

• Suggest they make a donation; give ideas what to do next

internal_review: Waiting for the public authority to complete an internal review of their handling of the request

• Tell user they should expect a response within 20 days
• When sends email to authority, adds "Internal review of" to Subject
• Can be transitioned from the followup form

error_message: Received an error message, such as delivery failure.

• Thank user for reporting, and suggest they use a form to give new email address for authority if that was the problem
• Mark as needs admin attention

requires_admin: A strange reponse, required attention by the WhatDoTheyKnow team

• a user is confused and doesn't know what state to set, so an admin can intervene
• Redirect to form to ask for more information
• Mark as needs admin attention

user_withdrawn: The requester has abandoned this request for some reason

• Prompt user to write message to tell authority

awaiting_description (not really a state but a flag indication that there is no state)

MuckRock.com

US FOI site MuckRock.com uses the following states:

Draft Unfinished request

Processing The MuckRock team are currently reviewing the request to decide what to do with it.

This is necessary because a lot of requests have to be mailed or faxed or have signatures, etc. The system requires quite a lot of manual intervention. Over time the plan is to automate more, but this state will still be required at a minimum to indicate that MuckRock is the holdup, not the requester or the agency.

Awaiting Response Request sent, no reply received yet

Fix Required If the authority or a MuckRock admin thinks that user needs to clarify or otherwise "fix" the request

Payment Required In the US, an authority can ask a user to make a payment to cover the costs of the request

Rejected Request rejected

No responsive documents Information not held

Completed Successfully finished request

Partially Completed Finished request, partly successful

InformataZyrtare.org (Kosovo)

InformataZyrtare.org has the following states:

waiting_classification

• The default state after receiving a response

waiting_response: Waiting for the public authority to reply

• The default initial state
• Can't transition here from internal_review

waiting_response_overdue: Waiting for a reply for too long

• Automatic, if today's date is after the request date + holidays + 20 days
• When a user updates / visits an item in this state, thank user and tell them how long they should have to wait
• Alert user by email when something becomes overdue

waiting_clarification: The public authority would like part of the request explained

• Prompt user to write followup
• If a user sends an outgoing message on a request in this state, automatically transitions to {{waiting_response}}
• Three days after this state change occurs, send reminder to user to action it (assuming user isn't banned)
• Can't transition here from internal_review

not_held: The public authority does not have the information requested

• Suggest user might want to try a different authority, or complain

rejected: The request was refused by the public authority

• Show page of possible next steps

successful: All of the information requested has been received

• Suggest they add annotations or make a donation

partially_successful: Some of the information requested has been received

• Suggest they make a donation; give ideas what to do next

error_message: Received an error message, such as delivery failure.

• Thank user for reporting, and suggest they use a form to give new email address for authority if that was the problem
• Mark as needs admin attention

requires_admin: A strange response, required attention by the WhatDoTheyKnow team

• A user is confused and doesn't know what state to set, so an admin can intervene
• Redirect to form to ask for more information
• Mark as needs admin attention

user_withdrawn: The requester has abandoned this request for some reason

deadline_extended

• If the Authority has requested deadline extension.

partial_rejected: TBD

• Only part of the request has being refused but the successful request to an information has not been attached

wrong_response

• Authority has replied but the response does not correspond to the request