337865 - Make support page easy to use and bugzilla hard to find

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Websites :: other.mozilla.org, defect)

Description

[Majken Connor [:Kensie]]

Not just for the sake of cutting down on invalid bugs, but to actually get people where they need to be, the support pages need to be easier to find *and use* and bugzilla needs to be harder to find unless you've been to the support page.

Bugzilla's front page should also have a *highly* visible link to support and *clear* warnings that you don't receive user support from bugzilla filed bugs. Perhaps by having a support heavy front page for non-logged in users, and then a bugzilla heavy front page for logged in users.

Comment 1

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

Another point - because of the support links and so forth on the front page of Bugzilla, links to Bugzilla from elsewhere, unless they carry their own highly visible warnings, should link to the front page of Bugzilla and not to the enter bug page or the query page or so forth.

Comment 2

[Gérard Talbot]

Everywhere I go in any *.mozilla.org webpages, I can easily see in the page header 5 horizontal tabbed links clearly indicating 
"Products" "Support" "Store" "Developers" "About" . 
I'd say that the Support page is easy to find.

> support pages need to be easier to find *and use*
I don't understand what you refer to as easier to use; I am not sure as to why you are suggesting that support pages are not easy to use. Could you be more specific, concrete regarding what is not easy to use in the support pages? And how you would correct the problem you see... with specific expected results.

>Bugzilla's front page should also have a *highly* visible link to support 
> and *clear* warnings that you don't receive user support from bugzilla 
> filed bugs.
I kinda agree with you that possibly more focus should be made in the bugzilla front page on where (with adequate text links) to get support for a) Firefox, b)Thunderbird and c) other Mozilla software. Some kind of warning should indicate that bugzilla is a place to submit bug reports and to investigate, confirm, track and fix bugs, and not a place to get support, assistance for Mozilla software .. along with suitable links to support pages.

Concretely speaking, realistically speaking, can you define what text you would like to add (or change), where in the bugzilla front page, in what form? Can you do this in the form of actual results and expected results please? And can you confirm the URL that you seem to be referring to when speaking of the bugzilla front page.

Reporter, overall, can you be more specific, accurate in what needs to be fixed in/with this bug? As it stands, this bug can not be fixed as it is too general, abstract, not explicit enough.

Comment 3

[Majken Connor [:Kensie]]

Compare http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/support/ with http://www.mozilla.org/support and http://mozilla.org/firefox 

There's way too much going on on the .org pages, and I"m not sure why the .org page doesn't just link to the .com page.  Scanning the .org page doesn't give the eye somewhere obvious to go.  There's the area with the blue background, but the text is very close together, nothing stands out, compared with the higher font weight of the headings just below.

I'll also note that "Official online documentation" doesn't link to official documentation.

As for the other part, I have a bug with strings to improve bugzilla which need attention from justdave which puts a lot more attention in the signup for a bugzilla account on pointing out the support links.  Bug 369592

Comment 4

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

(In reply to comment #3)
> Compare http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/support/ with
> http://www.mozilla.org/support and http://mozilla.org/firefox 

I assume that link was meant to be <http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/>.  :-) 

> There's way too much going on on the .org pages,

I think you're tapping into bug 353478.

> and I"m not sure why the .org
> page doesn't just link to the .com page.

Currently, there are two reasons:
- there are other mozilla.org projects listed, than those at mozilla.com
- there's a bigger plan in the works [bug 345664]. Ideally, www.mozilla.org should not have a support section at all. Support goes on the product sites, not the project site. KaiRo has long-term plans for seamonkey-project.org, which should include support content. Caminobrowser.org has a support section. I don't know about Bezilla; but once there's a plan in place at bug 345664, www.mozilla.org/support/* can be removed completely. 

> I'll also note that "Official online documentation" doesn't link to official
> documentation.

Why do you say that? The content at www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/ is currently the official online documentation. That's why it was moved from texturizer.net to www.mozilla.org. That's why it was listed as official (CVS log indicates that rebron dubbed it official on the support page[1]), and no-one has challenged that view. If www.mozilla.com weren't set up to only allow check-ins from a select few, the content at www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/ would be on the www.mozilla.com website [bug 325102, bug 361779].

Check it out: <http://www.mozilla.com/support/firefox/options>
That's a .com URI, baby! :-)

[1]<http://bonsai-www.mozilla.org/cvsview2.cgi?diff_mode=context&whitespace_mode=show&file=index.html&branch=&root=/www&subdir=mozilla-org/html/support&command=DIFF_FRAMESET&rev1=1.40&rev2=1.41>

Comment 5

[Majken Connor [:Kensie]]

(In reply to comment #4)

> 

> > and I"m not sure why the .org
> > page doesn't just link to the .com page.
> 
> Currently, there are two reasons:
> - there are other mozilla.org projects listed, than those at mozilla.com

I didn't say it should redirect, I said link to.  The link to firefox support doesn't link back to the .com page, it has a bunch of different links.

 
> > I'll also note that "Official online documentation" doesn't link to official
> > documentation.
> 
> Why do you say that?

Because it doesn't.  It links to a search of the MZKB.  We don't have official support yet, hence sumo.

Comment 6

[Chris Ilias [:cilias]]

Is this fixed?

Comment 7

[Majken Connor [:Kensie]]

Is bugzilla harder to find than support?  We might still have some work in terms of other resources that link users to bugzilla, as well as within bugzilla itself (see comment #0 re: start page).

Suppose best thing is to spin off bugs for what hasn't been done yet.