Closed Bug 853023 Opened 11 years ago Closed 7 years ago

Delete <!ENTITY sad.thanksMessageBottom "Or else.">

Categories

(Firefox for Android Graveyard :: General, defect)

Product:
Firefox for Android Graveyard
Component:
General
Platform:
ARM
Android
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

People

(Reporter: tdowner, Unassigned)

Details

Please remove from the feedback app.

Or Else.....
Matej originally wrote this copy, and I think we should get input from him before changing it (if we do).
Flags: needinfo?(Mnovak)
Thanks Margaret. Can I get some background on what the issue is? Maybe there's another solution.
Flags: needinfo?(Mnovak)
Having "Or else" after sad feedback is likely to either irritate users who are already upset with us, or convey the impression that we will get back to them, which we can't. Apparently it also has some localization issues
The localization issues we dealt with when it was introduced. Unless they were removed, there should be some notes explaining the meaning and intention of the line, but also stating that it can be translated without those words.

There will always be people who misinterpret things, but I think, if anything, this should give users a little smile while indicating that we take their feedback seriously.

I know things like this can be polarizing, but do we have any evidence that it's affecting the feedback negatively?
If this was a light joke after users gave happy feedback, I'd be all for it. However, this is for users leaving unhappy feedback, and they can be quite, well, passionate in their sad feedback. We shouldn't be irritating these users any more than necessary.

we won't get feedback about this from users since they have already submitted feedback, and don't have an easy way to return. But I can't imagine that this comment is going over well with most users who are frustrated with us, and then see a comment that, while it's light-hearted and funny in other situations (or in person), isn't exactly what they will want to read after we interrupt their browsing session and give them a chance to vent at us. 

Not trying to be picky, but this isn't really language that the User Advocacy team really feels is beneficial in feedback gathering.

Or, if there is another solution, we'd love to hear it :)
Actually, re-reading, we should probably change all the wording of the message.

<!ENTITY sad.thanksMessageTop      "We're always working to make &brandShortName; better. Rest assured that real people will look at your feedback and do their very best to resolve your issue.">

is conveying a false sense that we will be directly contacting users to resolve their specific problems, which we don't. Even if it's a bug in Firefox, a fix might not land for some time. While we are reading feedback, we can't do user support via input, and not everything reported to input will be fixed (It's not a real bug, not enough information, etc.) 

We used to receive negative feedback with the email solicitation in the crash reporter, we asked users for their emails but never emailed them. We just recently began to do so but before that we did receive plenty of complaints about that. Giving users a false hope that we will contact them and fix their problem "Or Else" is setting us up to look bad when we don't.
We're definitely having a difference of opinion here. I just don't understand how this may irritate users. We're emphasizing, in a playful way, how committed we are to solving problems that our users have. And nowhere are we even suggesting that we'll get back to them or that we'll fix the issue for sure, just reassuring them that someone will "look" at the feedback and "do their very best" — which, in some cases, may mean doing nothing about it. It's the fact that someone looks at it that's important.

Seeing as this is a matter of opinion, who ultimately owns this and has final say?
> <!ENTITY sad.thanksMessageTop      "We're always working to make
> &brandShortName; better. Rest assured that real people will look at your
> feedback and do their very best to resolve your issue.">

My cube neighbor and I agree that the "resolve *your* issue" verbiage could easily be misinterpreted. I would remove "your issue" and just say something like "Rest assured that real people read all feedback."

Also, the "Or else" is amusing, but it does seem inappropriately negative for a problem reporter dialog.
I don't know who owns this in the product, I do own feedback gathering for Mobile via input however.
Thanks for the additional thoughts. Based on all that, I've come up with another couple of options to consider for this. They both retain a bit of character, but hopefully aren't as misleading.

Rest assured that an actual real human looks at every piece of feedback. His name is Steve. (Just kidding. There are many of them. All working to make &brandShortName; better. All named Steve.)

Rest assured that actual real humans look at every piece of feedback. Just like actual real humans wrote this message. And different actual real humans built this tool for you to give us feedback. We have so many actual real humans, all working to make &brandShortName; better.

I'm also adding Madhava here for his thoughts since he was the person who originally asked me to help out with this.
You folks didn't ask, but I'll chime in anyway. 

I think these latest lines are great. They add an appropriate amount of human character and levity to the message, while driving home the idea that Firefox is made by people. This is something that's especially important to articulate in times like this where our users are frustrated with our product -- what better time to be human than now? People like us specifically because we are warm and fuzzy and honest. They like us because we admit it and poke fun at ourselves when we mess up (see our "Well this is embarrassing" line), and that same reasoning shows up here where we reassure our users with honesty and a little humor. This is a case where breaking the ice with a joke is much more effective in building trust than a flatly written confirmation reply.

Again I love them both, if I had to choose though I would go for the "Steve" option.
Hi all -

Of the new set - I like the first one ("Rest assured...").

To take this back to first principles for a second -- why do we do whimsy at all?

We should be sure that we're not simply trying to be funny.  The point is that we're trying to make the user feel like he or she is dealing with real humans at the other end (us) rather than dry utilitarian computer- or corporate-process-generated error messages.

There are a number of ways of doing that (lack of jargon; empathy for the user's problems, etc.), but one of the best tricks is the use of humour. Nothing makes a user feel like there's a person at the other end faster than than the use of humour or whimsy.

Some interesting related reading that cites some things in Firefox: http://uxmag.com/articles/the-evolution-of-fail-pets

I'd use that as the lens for deciding whether this message is appropriate -- does it make me feel more or less like my feedback is just going into a database, never to be seen again.

I think the first of the two really makes the point that we're really reading these by what it says, and then reinforces it by how it says it.
>They like us because we admit it and poke fun at ourselves when we mess up (see our "Well >this is embarrassing" line), and that same reasoning shows up here where we reassure our >users with honesty and a little humor.

I'm all for giving users a human image. But we need to remember the audience that we are reaching with this messaging. For example, if you look at https://input.mozilla.org/en-US/?platform=Android, 98% of the feedback we get for Android is Negative. The positive feedback likely is not coming from the Feedback solicitation app anyway. So nearly every single user who sees this message is already angry with us. Honestly, it's not that funny even for someone in a good mood, and for someone in a bad mood, it does one of two things:

1. It sets an unrealistic expectation that we will get back to them about their issue.
2. Seems to promise that we will read and fix evrey issue, when in reality we can't do that.

We should try to strike a balanace between friendly, yet honest, and funny, but untrue. Something along the lines of:

"Thank you for submitting feedback! We take all feedback seriously and use it to make Firefox better." 

Is true, happy (though it could maybe be improved to be a bit more different), and won't piss people off.
Tyler, what were your thoughts on Matej's alternate suggestions in comment 10?
Maybe not the Steve part (since none of us are named Steve ;) but that is definitely an improvement.
I think we should avoid having a debate about what each of us finds funny, but it sounds like we agree that injecting character and personality is something worth doing.

I wrote the options in comment 10 to be less misleading, so I'm glad they seem to be satisfying that, but I think we should also give people some credit that they won't take it too literally.
Resolving INCOMPLETE because the sad.thanksMessageBottom string no longer exists.
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 7 years ago
Resolution: --- → INCOMPLETE
Product: Firefox for Android → Firefox for Android Graveyard
You need to log in before you can comment on or make changes to this bug.