Thunderbird/Support/GetSatisfaction/README

In a hurry? It's as easy as 1. 2. 3. !

1. While we will do our best to help you with your problem, please remember that Thunderbird is an open source project. This means that - in addition to being able to provide Thunderbird free of charge - many of our activities (particularly support, documentation and customization) are mostly volunteer efforts. Given that we don't have the resources of a commercial software company, we rely on our users and our community to help each other via open channels e.g. http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging and this wiki. We do not provide paid support or support via telephone or email. Support is only provided online at http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging & other places on the internet, NOT through this wiki.
2. Read How to make Get Satisfaction work for you in full
3. Start a new Thunderbird support topic by filling in the Standard Thunderbird problem description info into the form at: http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging/topics/new

This is a DRAFT guide to the Get Satisfaction website as used by Mozilla Messaging for Thunderbird support. It is the first of a series of community-authored wiki pages on community support for Thunderbird using Get Satisfaction (there are numerous channels of support for Thunderbird on the internet, most notably the mozillaZine forums but the Mozilla Messaging team is focusing on Get Satisfaction). Please help by improving the contents of this page or giving suggestions in IRC at #gsfn on irc.mozilla.org

About Get Satisfaction

Mozilla has a new out-sourcing partnership with a third-party service provider, Get Satisfaction, for technical support on Thunderbird and all messaging-related software. Please remember that they are not a part of Mozilla, and Mozilla is not responsible for their service, policies or web site. This is a new departure from previous Mozilla policies.

How to make Get Satisfaction work for you

1. Cookies and JavaScript - Before you can access the Get Satisfaction site, you will be required to allow Get Satisfaction access to writing cookies to your system and giving Get Satisfaction the right to run JavaScript on your system. Otherwise you will not be able to have any support from Mozilla for Thunderbird.
2. Search first - Before creating a new support topic, search first to see if your question has already been asked and/or answered. You can do this at http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging/searches If a similar question has been answered but your internet or mail provider is different then please start a new topic
3. Give your topic a meaningful title - If you create a new topic, give it a descriptive title. For example, use "Can't send email on ACME Mail Provider SMTP server" instead of "help!! can't send emails!" When community members scan hundreds of support topics or when a search engine indexes topics, which title do you think is more helpful?
4. Provide lots of details about your problem - Standard Thunderbird problem description info: 1. list your anti-virus or firewall software and what version, your ISP (e.g. earthlink, comcast), mail service provider (e.g. gmail, hotmail, comcast, etc) 2. email protocol (POP or IMAP) 3. Without telling us your e-mail address or account name, what are your server settings, including server name, port number, and choice for "Secure Connection" for: Tools->Account Settings->*account name*>Server Settings ? Tools->Account Settings->Outgoing Server (SMTP) (at the bottom of the list of accounts on the left)>*server*>Edit ? 4. operating system (Windows XP/Vista, Mac OS X, Linux, etc), Thunderbird version (e.g. 2.0.0.23) 5. add-ons/extensions you have installed 6. what you did (a detailed, succinct numbered list NOT long descriptive paragraphs COPY this example and modify as needed), what happened (including exact error messages) and what you expected. The more information you can provide, the better the community can help you.
5. Use short meaningful tags - The best tags are 1-3 words. These are most useful for indexing and grouping similar topics (such as "cannot send email", "cannot receive email"). Tags like "help", "email", "Thunderbird", "My Thunderbird has fallen and I can't get up", etc. are not useful. More info on our GS Tagging page

How to support others in the Thunderbird community

1. Answer questions - When you get help with a problem, share that information with others. Search for topics related to your problem and reply to them. This is especially useful with problems specific to mail providers. For example, if you solve a problem with Comcast, search for "Comcast" in other support requests and share your information.
2. Tag topics - Adding tags to topics helps other find answers by improving search engine results and by grouping related topics. For example, if a topic on the subject of email filters has a good answer, and you tag that topic and related open topics with the tag "configure filters", it will help people find the topic with the answer. 1-3 word tags are best, for example "cannot send email", "cannot receive email", etc. Please do NOT add tags like "email", "help", "Thunderbird" which are not helpful because they don't add troubleshooting information. See the GS tagging convention wiki page for more information.
3. Bookmark or subscribe to a tag - You can subscribe to tags via RSS, or you can bookmark a tag and check back later to view activity. Then, when someone asks a question in your area of expertise, you will be alerted and can provide the answer. As an example, the feed for the tag "cannot send email" is: http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging/tags/cannot_send_email.rss. Alternatively, you could bookmark http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging/tags/cannot_send_email.

Other Ways to help the Thunderbird Community

1. Spread Thunderbird - Join Spread Thunderbird and be a part of the Spread Thunderbird online community driven marketing team.
2. Complete list of ways to get involved including QA (testing software), donations, submitting crash data, write an add-on, contribute documentation, etc.