Yes that would be a solution too. But I think it increases the barrier to action and participation of the members of the group. I don't use that much Twitter so I would probably miss on the request for help.

I think the automatic bot style is the way to go. The importance is not the "really thought out message" that someone can send, while rather the low latency, the immediacy of the reply to those that need it. So timing is more important. At least this is what I felt from the positive comments you showed off in your blog post. :)