Support/ForumUX/PRD

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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
• (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 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
  • 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 Allow moderators to set threads as solved and highlight solutions
• 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)
• p3 Add status and icon for when the original commenter replies.
• 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

UI

We need some UI help for the following:

• Search page - UI that does not confuse user bug 501880
  • Forum + Knowledge Base search (different search options for each)
  • For forum, we want filtering by
    • Post status -- Combo box: solved, proposed, requesting more info, open (status = n or last reply is a user)
    • Number of replies. (no replies is most important)
    • Posted after: (original post date)
    • Posted by user
  • Forum sort results, by: relevance, last post date, original post date, # of replies
• Make getting back to your own posts easier bug 504751
  • Where would this link best be placed?
• Add status and icon for "invalid" = This question doesn't apply to Firefox. bug 501883
  • Need icon designed for "does not apply to firefox" / "invalid" status
  • Icon is 16x16
• bug 444331 Make thread filters work as they should and make them more apparent
  • Need help figuring out better UI for filtering. How to make it more visible but not clutter the interface.
• Design icons for "solution proposed" and "request for more info"
  • Icon is 16x16
• Design icon for when the original commenter replies.
  • Icon is 16x16
• 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?
• Improve quality of asked questions by providing better guidelines in the submission form bug 505425
  • Questions we'd like asked are in Support/ForumUX/PRD/New_Question_Form. Need input on how usable that form is.
• Need icons for the following actions: detach this post (to a new thread), move this post (to a new forum).
  • 16x16
• Need input on tagging UI (maybe?)