Improve the Knowledge Base

Revision Information
  • Revision id: 5835
  • Created:
  • Creator: Michael Verdi
  • Comment: 1st draft
  • Reviewed: Yes
  • Reviewed:
  • Reviewed by: Verdi
  • Is approved? Yes
  • Is current revision? No
  • Ready for localization: Yes
  • Readied for localization:
  • Readied for localization by: Verdi
Revision Source
Revision Content

Improving the Knowledge Base is the way to get the biggest bang for your effort. Our top articles help tens of thousands of people each week. The better we make the articles in the KB the faster people get help, the less they need one-on-one support, and the better their overall experience will be.

Ready to get started?

As a nonprofit, open-source project, we rely on volunteers to write the majority of the articles. You don't need special permission to work on them – this is a wiki that anyone can edit. All you need is an account. Once you done that the best way to get started is talk to us:

  • Email me, Michael, with any of your questions or just introduce yourself. I'd love to hear from you and help get you started.
  • Join us in the Knowledge Base articles forum. This is where we discuss changes to articles and ways to improve the knowledge base.
  • Talk to us in the #sumo IRC channel. This is where Firefox Help contributors help each other. I'm michaelverdi in there. If you don't have an irc client, connect via Mibbit.

How our wiki is different than others

  • Wiki markup
    • Although we use MediaWiki markup (like Wikipedia) for most things, our wiki is designed specifically for Firefox Help and uses some custom markup for displaying instructions. See our markup chart for a list and examples.
  • Review system
    • Because we want to be sure that Firefox users get correct and up-to-date information, edits to our articles have to reviewed and approved before they become live.
  • Translations
    • We have a system for translating the English articles in our Knowledge Base into other languages. Translations are tied to their English source article and localizers are notified when it changes. For more information, see How to contribute to article localization.

Making our support articles better

The most common thing we do in the glamorous world of Knowledge Base maintenance is try to improve the articles we already have. With nearly 300 of them there's always something that can be made better. Here are three main ways to improve an article:

  • Make articles easier to understand
    • Find a better way to explain something that is too complex or not very clear.
    • Add screenshots to help people understand what in the world the article is referring to. Most people probably don't know the difference between the location bar, search bar or any other bar unless it has a happy hour.
    • Add screencasts. This is the next best thing to actually grabbing the mouse out of someone's hand and doing it for them.
  • Keep articles up-to-date – Major updates to Firefox always bring new features, and changes to how existing ones work. It's always best when our instructions actually match how things work in the product.
  • Proof-read – Some of you have special powers to spot the mistakes that spell-check misses (how many have you noticed in this article so far?). We need your help.
    • Correct spelling, grammar and punctuation.
    • Fix issues with style and formatting. See the SUMO Style section for our guidelines.