Skip to content

Categories:

Call for volunteers for Thunderbird Community Support

We Can Do It! - photo by Matthew Shelley
Since Thunderbird 3.0 shipped last week, our community support traffic has increased dramatically. We have roughly three times the number of support topics as well as 15 times the amount of traffic. Needless to say we need help!

Do you use Thunderbird? Always wanted to contribute to a open source project but don’t know how? But you love explaining things and helping others? Then helping our community support  Thunderbird is a great way to start.

You don’t have to be a coder or be “technical”. Just somebody uses Thunderbird and wants to help other Thunderbird users.

Here’s how to start:

  1. Join Get Satisfaction (you can use your Facebook, Google, Twitter or Open ID login if you don’t want to create another login)
  2. Read our Get Satisfaction README which succinctly explains how to use it.
  3. Download and start using Thunderbird 3.0 if you aren’t already a Thunderbird 3.0 user (NB: if you are a Thunderbird 2.0 user and depend on  add-ons like Lightning, we recommend holding off on upgrading to 3.0 until those add-ons are available for 3.0. And of course it’s always worthwhile doing a backup)
  4. Use the dashboard at http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging/ to figure out where you can help
  5. Get in where you fit in :-) i.e. help where you can by replying to support topics, and by tagging,

Questions? Need help on using Get Satisfaction and providing Thunderbird community support? Email me: roland AT mozillamessaging.com or ask myself (I am generally on there M-F 10am.-5p.m Pacific) and the other folks on the IRC chat channel  #gsfn on irc.mozilla.org

Posted in Uncategorized.

Tagged with , , , .


Call for SuMoMo writers

K is for Knowledge - photo by desireedelgado

The Thunderbird 3.0 release is just around the proverbial corner. And we’d like to release the SUMO knowledge base for Mozilla Messaging, support.mozillamessaging.com, code-named “SuMoMo” (initially only Thunderbird of course since Raindrop is still in its early days) at about the same time as Thunderbird 3.0.

SuMoMo is currently in beta preview mode on our staging server and currently has the Firefox look and feel but we are in the process of theming it to look like the rest of the Mozilla Messaging web presence. Theming should complete in a few days.

The last thing to do before release is to add knowledge aka “content”, in English (of course you can contribute English plus other languages but for the first release we’d like to do English as the first priority). This is one of the easiest ways to contribute for people who are not software developers (other than helping out Ludo and the QA team).

No software development experience required! We just need people who are using Thunderbird and can write regardless of whether they are developers or not. SuMoMo is for users not developers. Developers have lots of other places for their documentation e.g. Mozilla Development Center, etc

Interested? Want to help?

Here’s how (don’t worry if you don’t know how to use Bugzilla email roland AT mozillamessaging.com or if you are IRC savvy ping me Monday-Friday 10-5p.m. Pacific on irc.mozilla.org, #maildev, my userid is rolandtanglao and I’ll get you up and running in no time):

  1. Download Thunderbird 3 (SuMoMo will only document Thunderbird 3 and higher) Release Candidate 1 or newer official pre-release build. As Thunderbird 3 is still in release candidate status at the moment, please do a backup and then try it out on a test email account.
  2. Join Bugzilla if you haven’t already
  3. Join SuMoMo if you haven’t already
  4. Pick a Bugzilla Bug from our list of Initial Thunderbird 3 content and assign it yourself so the community knows you are working on it
  5. Edit and create your article (full instructions are on our SuMoMo howto)
  6. Update the bug to let the community know you have finished

Posted in Uncategorized.

Tagged with , , , , , .


Get Satisfaction! 2.5 months in

Can't get no satisfaction! But if you try real hard you get what you need :-) !
After two and a half months on the job and in the process getting immersed in Mozilla Messaging’s initial implementation of Get Satisfaction for Thunderbird community support, it’s time for some reflection.

At Bryght and Raincity where we used Get Satisfaction sparingly, I had a vague sense of happiness with it but it’s only until you actually use something extensively  as I have, given the veritable “flood” of Thunderbird support, do you have a sense of how it really works and how it works well:

  • Get Satisfaction is a community support solution and was designed that way. Forums which we tried to use at Bryght, are not. Forums are more akin to town hall meetings and town hall meetings are great but not for support.
  • Modern technology makes a difference. Some examples: Get Satisfaction has tags which are a great, great way to track support requests as well as for the community to self categorize support requests. It also has full RSS and email notifications. And a full REST API (which I am using currently on a personal basis for metrics gathering but that will be used more by the Mozilla Messaging web presence in the future)

Of course nothing is perfect, I (and others) have lots of suggestions (e.g. APIs for Last Employee and comments) for improvement some of which I have filed with Get Satisfaction in Get Satisfaction of course and more to be documented soon.

Posted in Uncategorized.

Tagged with , , , .


Get Satisfaction Day: Thursday Sep 17, 2009 with special Mozilla Service Week real life event

Special Bonus Event for those in Vancouver:

110x32_red.png

Since it’s Mozilla Service Week, we are going to have a live, in real life event from 2-5:30p.m. at Agentic at 611 Alexander Street in Vancouver’s historical Gastown district for those who are in the Metro Vancouver area in BC, Canada. C’mon down, love to meet you!

Full details about the real life event:

Normal Get Satisfaction Event

We’re holding our third Get Satisfaction (GS) day on Thursday September 17th for people interested in helping Thunderbird users on GS. I and other Thunderbird community support folks will be available to answer questions on Get Satisfaction including: in general how to use Get Satisfaction, and specifically questions on tagging, merging and just generally chat about support on GS via two IRC channels:

If you’re interested, come on by anytime between 9:30AM to 5PM PDT this Thursday September  17, 2009!

For more information, head over to the September 17th Get Satisfaction day page on the Mozilla wiki!

Posted in Uncategorized.

Tagged with , , , , .


Results from Get Satisfaction Day September 3 - next September 17, 2009

Our second Get Satisfaction Day on September 3, 2009 was again small on #gsfn at irc.mozilla.org. But from small acorns mighty acorns grow :-) ! Next day will be Thursday September 17, 2009 from 9:30a.m. Pacific to 5p.m. Pacific and will feature a Mozilla Service Week special event.

September 3, 2009 highlights:

Thanks to everyone who participated and see you on Thursday September 17, 2009 from 9:30a.m. Pacific to 5p.m. Pacific!

Posted in Uncategorized.

Tagged with , , .


Get Satisfaction Day: Learn how to help users, Thursday September 3, 2009

We’re holding our second Get Satisfaction (GS) day on Thursday September 3rd for people interested in helping Thunderbird users on GS. I and other Thunderbird community support folks will be available to answer questions on Get Satisfaction including: in general how to use Get Satisfaction, and specifically questions on tagging, merging and just generally chat about support on GS via two IRC channels:

If you’re interested, come on by anytime between 9:30AM to 5PM PDT this Thursday September  3, 2009!

For more information, head over to the September 3rd Get Satisfaction day page on the Mozilla wiki!

Posted in Uncategorized.

Tagged with , , .


Results from Get Satisfaction Day August 20 - next September 3, 2009

Our first Get Satisfaction Day on August 20, 2009 started small on #gsfn at irc.mozilla.org. But from small acorns mighty acorns grow :-) ! Next day will be Thursday September 3, 2009 from 9:30a.m. Pacific to 5p.m. Pacific. August 20, 2009 highlights:

  • Major contributors outside Mozilla Messaging staff: TMZ, Tom,WSMwk, Tanner
  • Got some great feedback about making documenting Get Satisfaction: screenshots and videos for newbies and short numbered lists for online veterans and perhaps using #thunderbird as well as #gsfn in the future
  • Solved two Get Satisfaction issues with input from contributors

Thanks to everyone who participated and see you on Thursday September 3, 2009 from 9:30a.m. Pacific to 5p.m. Pacific!

Posted in Uncategorized.

Tagged with , , .


Get Satisfaction Day: Learn how to help users, Thursday August 20, 2009

[UPDATE: Tom (thanks!) had a great idea, for those who are new to IRC and/or don't want to install an IRC client, you can us this web client: http://www.mibbit.com/chat/?server=irc.mozilla.org&channel=%23gsfn]

We’re holding a Get Satisfaction (GS) day on Thursday August 20th for people interested in helping Thunderbird users on GS. I will be available to answer questions on Get Satisfaction including: in general how to use Get Satisfaction, and specifically questions on tagging, merging and just generally chat about support on GS via IRC chat #gsfn on #irc://irc.mozilla.org. If you’re interested, come on by anytime between 9:30AM to 5PM PDT this Thursday August 20, 2009!

For more information, head over to the August 20th Get Satisfaction day page on the Mozilla wiki!

Posted in Uncategorized.

Tagged with , , .


Hello Mozilla Messaging!

I am committed to excellence and customer satisfaction and we are just starting so let's have fun!- 030620091716
Hello Mozilla Messaging World!

This past Monday July 20, 2009, I started as Mozilla Messaging’s “Technical Support Lead”.

Who am I? Here’s how David Ascher introduced me: “Roland has a long and varied history of involvement in online communities, open source (Drupal in particular), mobile computing, etc. He’s a very active blogger, and an obsessive picture-taker“.

My first task is to create a support plan to improve and evolve the community support for Messaging’s products (Thunderbird et al) and then of course to implement that plan and continually iterate it.

See you on the Internet!

Posted in Uncategorized.

Tagged with , .