Support/ForumUX/PRD

Goal of project

To improve the experience of contributors and users on the support forums to make finding what they're looking for easier. This is a collection of changes (hopefully most small and simple) that will streamline giving support and make the workings of the forums more transparent for users.

Priorities

• p1: Bugfixes/missing features that can't be worked around at all
• p2: Features that severely hamper posting/moderating/use with tedious workarounds
• p3: Features that hamper posting/moderating that have small workarounds
• p4: Good to have

Bugs

• (p) p1 Thread filters shouldn't break ordering with regards to older threads bug 498105
• p1 Allow more search options for contributors (not just solved threads) bug 501880 (Create advanced search pages)
• (p) p1 Make e-mails from support more useful to users (fix links and markup): bug 409904
• (p) p2 Allow different sortings for forum search results bug 438360
• (waiting on bug 498105) p2 Generally make getting back to your own posts easier bug 504751
• p2 Add status and icon for "invalid" = This question doesn't apply to Firefox. bug 501883
• p2 Log in on the page when replying to threads instead of having to navigate away to a separate login page bug 504716
• p2 Add ability to change thread statuses (for moderators) from a thread itself rather than from editing the firstpost or going to threadlist bug 413666
• p2 Add ability for moderators to remove solved status from threads (and posts) bug 506168
• p2 bug 444331 Make thread filters work as they should and make them more apparent, adding filter options for:
  • • Threads with no replies
    • Threads with last post not by a contributor/threads with a reply from original poster
    • Threads by the logged in contributor
• p3 Make the screenshot uploader for forum posts not suck bug 506164
  • • Tell which attachments are accepted
    • Show an error if the attachment isn't accepted
    • Allow preview of post without just wiping the attachment form
• (p) p3 Make "send an email when someone replies" the default and/or personally set-able via user preferences and/or remember last state. bug 504753
• p3 Add icons for "solution proposed" and "request for more info" (icons are used in the thread listing -- currently we have a lock, a check and a page) bug 506167
• p3 Add status and icon for when the original commenter replies. bug 506166
• p4 Make it easier for users to find their way back to their posted question by showing a post-submission page bug 505432
• p4 Improve quality of asked questions by providing better guidelines in the submission form bug 505425
• p4 Canned responses/content blocks for faster forum responses bug 416591
• p4 Pretty URLs on forums so it looks like: support.mozilla.com/en-US/forums/1/123456 rather than support.mozilla.com/tiki-view_forum.php?forumId=3&comments_parentId=123456&locale=en-US bug 416479
• p4 Allow spaces in linked URLs: bug 436106
• p4 Tagging for forum threads bug 505527

UI

We need some UI help for the following:

• Advanced search page(s) - UI that does not confuse user bug 501880
  • • Forum search
      • Fields needed:
        • Search terms
        • thread status (pick one or many)
        • post author
        • tags
        • created/last posted after date (or in the last XXX)
        • sort by (relevance, date of last post, date of original post)
    • Advanced KB search
      • Fields needed:
        • Search terms
        • language (dropdown)
        • category (Firefox 3, 3.5, Help, troubleshooting) should be able to select multiple
        • tags
    • We can merge forum and kb search on one page but they have different options so we need to be very clear on what they're searching for.
• Need help figuring out better UI for filtering forum threads. How to make it more visible but not clutter the interface. bug 444331
• Forum thread list should show more statuses. eg: [1]. bug 506167 bug 506166 bug 501883
  • • Icons for "solution proposed" and "request for more info" and "doesn't apply to Firefox" and "original commenter has replied" or alternate way of showing statuses
      • Icon is 16x16, shown on thread list: Existing icons are: [2][3][4][5][6] all icons also have a _new version with a little marker indicating that it's new: eg [7].
• Make it easier for users to find their way back to their posted question by showing a post-submission page bug 505432
  • • Should we do it as an independent page or put this info above the existing page? Potential information in mockup in bug, but could use help redesigning.
• Improve quality of asked questions by providing better guidelines in the submission form bug 505425
  • • Information we need/like to have:
      • Detailed and specific summary (for thread topic)
      • What version of Firefox (we detect this automatically but we need to give the option to type in case they're using a different browser)
      • Operating system (ditto)
      • And then lots of details including:
        • Steps they are taking to see this issue
        • What have they tried as far as fixing
        • URLs of problematic websites
        • Full text (not just a summary) of any error messages or warning messages.
        • If Firefox is crashing, the most recent 3-5 crashIds (we need to tell them how to get this)
        • What extensions are they using (we also need to tell them how to get this)
        • Security software they're using (Norton, McAfee) -- not necessary for most issues but if we can find a way to gently suggest that they include it, it'd be good.
• Need icons for the following actions: detach this post (to a new thread), move this thread (to a new forum) and lock this thread. bug 413666
  • • 16x16. Existing icons are shown to moderators in posts where they can make changes.