Comments on: Improving Support http://ilias.ca/blog/2007/05/improving-support/ I still dream of Organon Thu, 02 Feb 2012 19:20:50 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: tqft http://ilias.ca/blog/2007/05/improving-support/comment-page-1/#comment-36292 tqft Mon, 14 May 2007 10:37:56 +0000 http://ilias.ca/blog/2007/05/improving-support/#comment-36292 " Search: I’ve mostly taken care of this on Firefox and Thunderbird Help sites, ... If I don’t find what I need, I go to the product site, and look for a search field for the online help documentation. If I don’t find what I need, I look for a support forum, and try find a search field for that. These functions already exists for Firefox, but need to be obvious/convenient. The term I like to use for it is “unmissable.” " Do we need a Firefox/Thunderbird Help search plugin to go with google, amazon, etc available in the top right hand corner? Maybe one that autmatically picks up version info to use where appropriate - querying the knowledge base or product site? ”
Search: I’ve mostly taken care of this on Firefox and Thunderbird Help sites, … If I don’t find what I need, I go to the product site, and look for a search field for the online help documentation. If I don’t find what I need, I look for a support forum, and try find a search field for that. These functions already exists for Firefox, but need to be obvious/convenient. The term I like to use for it is “unmissable.”
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Do we need a Firefox/Thunderbird Help search plugin to go with google, amazon, etc available in the top right hand corner? Maybe one that autmatically picks up version info to use where appropriate – querying the knowledge base or product site?

]]> By: Romi http://ilias.ca/blog/2007/05/improving-support/comment-page-1/#comment-35109 Romi Wed, 09 May 2007 11:20:04 +0000 http://ilias.ca/blog/2007/05/improving-support/#comment-35109 ..., there’s still no UI for backing up your Thunderbird profile, I think I've used MozBackup twice and it's a great tools to backup your Mozilla products profile. …, there’s still no UI for backing up your Thunderbird profile,

I think I’ve used MozBackup twice and it’s a great tools to backup your Mozilla products profile.

]]> By: tqft http://ilias.ca/blog/2007/05/improving-support/comment-page-1/#comment-34925 tqft Tue, 08 May 2007 20:58:56 +0000 http://ilias.ca/blog/2007/05/improving-support/#comment-34925 about:support(diagnostics) The Nightly Tester Tools Add-On already pulls most of this information so co-opting it should be easy. I have added this comment to the bug. about:support(diagnostics)

The Nightly Tester Tools Add-On already pulls most of this information so co-opting it should be easy. I have added this comment to the bug.

]]> By: pascalc http://ilias.ca/blog/2007/05/improving-support/comment-page-1/#comment-34784 pascalc Tue, 08 May 2007 12:19:18 +0000 http://ilias.ca/blog/2007/05/improving-support/#comment-34784 The certifying expert thing reminds me of something chris, like... http://mozillachampions.ufaq.org/members.html ? ;) The certifying expert thing reminds me of something chris, like… http://mozillachampions.ufaq.org/members.html ? ;)

]]> By: Paul Kim http://ilias.ca/blog/2007/05/improving-support/comment-page-1/#comment-34673 Paul Kim Tue, 08 May 2007 04:05:46 +0000 http://ilias.ca/blog/2007/05/improving-support/#comment-34673 This is *terrific* feedback. I'm going to share this with the team here at Mozilla that's moving the end user support effort forward from our end (Sam Sidler, Chris Hoffman JT Batson, Jay Patel), and ask them to make sure you're involved in a meaningful way. This is *terrific* feedback. I’m going to share this with the team here at Mozilla that’s moving the end user support effort forward from our end (Sam Sidler, Chris Hoffman JT Batson, Jay Patel), and ask them to make sure you’re involved in a meaningful way.

]]> By: Majken http://ilias.ca/blog/2007/05/improving-support/comment-page-1/#comment-34668 Majken Tue, 08 May 2007 03:55:20 +0000 http://ilias.ca/blog/2007/05/improving-support/#comment-34668 I wanted to comment on a few other parts, but didn't want to write an essay. I love your idea of certifying experts. I'm sure this won't just give users people they should be able to trust, but it will attract people into doing support. I know a lot of people that would take a lot of pride in being specially certified, especially if it came with a neat little card you could actually show people. Your last part, it is a support issue. We see problems users that the devs might not realize are upsetting people, or hitting as many people as they thought. I have a wonderful advantage, doing my support 6 feet away from mconnor's desk, and being able to throw stuff at him if he ignores me, but I don't believe anyone else has as good a way of letting the team know something is biting users hard. This advantage also disappears for me if I find something in TB rather than firefox (like prefs.js getting reset and account info being lost on reboot). There have been comments lately of the devs and QA wanting to know what's going on with users, calls for people to try and sort the hendrix data. Support providers would be incredibly effective at processing the hendrix data. We've helped enough people to know what "I have a red arrow at the bottom" and "my searches are gone" actually mean. So it looks like we have answers and no real place to share them, and they have questions, but no good way to get answers. We should definitely see about fixing that. I wanted to comment on a few other parts, but didn’t want to write an essay. I love your idea of certifying experts. I’m sure this won’t just give users people they should be able to trust, but it will attract people into doing support. I know a lot of people that would take a lot of pride in being specially certified, especially if it came with a neat little card you could actually show people.

Your last part, it is a support issue. We see problems users that the devs might not realize are upsetting people, or hitting as many people as they thought. I have a wonderful advantage, doing my support 6 feet away from mconnor’s desk, and being able to throw stuff at him if he ignores me, but I don’t believe anyone else has as good a way of letting the team know something is biting users hard. This advantage also disappears for me if I find something in TB rather than firefox (like prefs.js getting reset and account info being lost on reboot).

There have been comments lately of the devs and QA wanting to know what’s going on with users, calls for people to try and sort the hendrix data. Support providers would be incredibly effective at processing the hendrix data. We’ve helped enough people to know what “I have a red arrow at the bottom” and “my searches are gone” actually mean.

So it looks like we have answers and no real place to share them, and they have questions, but no good way to get answers. We should definitely see about fixing that.

]]> By: Majken http://ilias.ca/blog/2007/05/improving-support/comment-page-1/#comment-34661 Majken Tue, 08 May 2007 03:38:24 +0000 http://ilias.ca/blog/2007/05/improving-support/#comment-34661 I think the big part missing out of the "designating responsibility" part of all this, is coordination. A lot of us are doing a great job supporting whatever products we like to support, and in the form we like to give support, but getting people from all of these areas (IRC, newsgroups, forums) in one place to make sure every area has the most current knowledge has seemed impossible so far. This is the part that makes me most excited about official support. No matter where you like to give support, in theory everyone will be feeding back to the official source new problems and new fixes. I disagree with splitting people by application. For most basic user problems, the issue is in the profile and that doesn't change much between app. I've taken up doing Thunderbird support on IRC out of necessity and the only real stumbling block I've hit is not having the documentation to look up more complex issues, like what customizations are possible and which need an extension. The forums are great if I get my search terms right, but there is no catalog of all of mail's config entries like there is for Firefox (unless I've just completely missed it?). I've also known what to do right out of the box for some TB issues because they were so similar to Firefox issues that I already knew how to solve. Of course, when it comes to creating support module owners, yes, splitting people up makes sense, but when it comes down to people volunteering and fielding questions, I think you run the risk of creating more gaps in the coordination and that leads to less communication, and less sharing of knowledge. I think the big part missing out of the “designating responsibility” part of all this, is coordination. A lot of us are doing a great job supporting whatever products we like to support, and in the form we like to give support, but getting people from all of these areas (IRC, newsgroups, forums) in one place to make sure every area has the most current knowledge has seemed impossible so far. This is the part that makes me most excited about official support. No matter where you like to give support, in theory everyone will be feeding back to the official source new problems and new fixes.

I disagree with splitting people by application. For most basic user problems, the issue is in the profile and that doesn’t change much between app. I’ve taken up doing Thunderbird support on IRC out of necessity and the only real stumbling block I’ve hit is not having the documentation to look up more complex issues, like what customizations are possible and which need an extension. The forums are great if I get my search terms right, but there is no catalog of all of mail’s config entries like there is for Firefox (unless I’ve just completely missed it?). I’ve also known what to do right out of the box for some TB issues because they were so similar to Firefox issues that I already knew how to solve.

Of course, when it comes to creating support module owners, yes, splitting people up makes sense, but when it comes down to people volunteering and fielding questions, I think you run the risk of creating more gaps in the coordination and that leads to less communication, and less sharing of knowledge.

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