You may enjoy the website at connect dot mozilla dot org, a place for conversations on concepts. However, I will give my comments on your topic. As a volunteer at SUMO, the good stuff is that - the posts can be scrolled through to find those where I can contribute, as each usually contains sufficient wording to give a rough idea on the depth of the issue. A single subject line doesn't work, as many have difficulty explaining problems, even in a paragraph or three. - the layout lets me see how many have responded and by whom. That helps me see whether the topic is getting sufficient attention or whether I could contribute. - the format is also excellent for volunteers, as I can log in and see the status of problems and start contributing. a mailing list is like a moving train, where one must continue to stay up. This lets me pick when I'm up to helping without a nagging mailing list that never ends. - and you don't have to join a subset: just respond to a question. that's all it takes. No registration required.

So, to me, a volunteer with just a few month's experience, this is an excellent format. Obviously, it isn't to you. Thanks for sharing.

I probably would get even less work done if new questions were flowing into my email all day... I guess everyone has a different way of juggling all the demands.

To find not-yet-answered Thunderbird questions, you can use this link:

https://support.mozilla.org/questions/thunderbird?filter=new

It's probably possible for an intermediate site to scrape that page, or even complete threads, and forward the list as a digest. Of course, you would still need to submit your reply through the forms on this site and not directly by email. Would anyone sign up for that?

Thanks to both of you for your replies, which at least indicate that the SUMO system works for you -- though I don't think anyone said that it works as efficiently (in terms of ease of posting questions, or exposing questions to the most eyes, or getting the most responses, or getting fast answers) as the old mailing lists, let alone better. [Please correct me if I misinterpreted in that regard.]

But my purpose here is not really to critique the SUMO system, just to make it work more effectively. I most want to find a way to maximize the eyes that see each question, and possibly each post (as in a mailing list), so that questions could be answered faster.[1] A secondary objective is simply to make posting easier (which probably is something of a critique of the SUMO system).[2]

An example of that major concern is a question I posted yesterday, titled "Thunderbird menu keys", in which I asked about where TB stores its drop-down and context menu structures, so that I could edit and add hot keys -- a quick, straightforward question, which probably has a quick, straightforward answer. In ~36 hours, the question has been viewed once (and has no reply). This just seems a strangely weak support system for something as critical and popular as TB.

Again, thank you both for your replies. David, I don't know about the other venue you suggested, as Mozilla Connect seems to be about product suggestions (and frankly, I'm not clever enough to offer any); I just want the support system to work as well as possible. Best regards.

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[1] The Debian and LibreOffice lists are vibrant examples, as the Mozilla lists used to be. There are questions that I can answer quickly, and plenty that I ignore because I don't have a quick answer or someone else has it covered better; in all cases I usually learn something.

I also participate in web-based forums where email brings a daily digest of postings, each with a title and a line or so of text linking to the full question in the forum. That also works - maybe not as well, because of a delay for the digest - but at least they expose questions to many eyes, which improves the speed and depth of answers. As web-based forums, they also have an advantage over mailing lists in the use of attachments, as well as in narrative flow (since email users are often ignorant of RFC-1855 and its recommendations for threading etiquette).

[2] One of the advantages of posting within a mail client (like TB) is that everybody does it, maybe dozens of times every day, so there's no mystery about how to format the message to make it convey what you want to convey, either in HTML (if the list allows) or plain text. SUMO's markup (or markdown?) system is not only very limited (bold, italic, link, ordered list, unordered list), but awkward to use, gives no indication of how it will look when submitted -- and then is no longer available to you if you want to try to edit the question after submission, when you finally get to see how it mangles the intended presentation (as I did above). It's an unhelpful reinvention of the wheel.

... To find not-yet-answered Thunderbird questions, you can use this link: https://support.mozilla.org/questions/thunderbird?filter=new

You know, I should have followed your link before making my last reply, as it actually makes my main point succinctly: "25 questions in the last 24 hours have no reply." -- and others beyond 24 hours have no reply, and maybe no views. That just seems terribly sad.

It's probably possible for an intermediate site to scrape that page, or even complete threads, and forward the list as a digest. Of course, you would still need to submit your reply through the forms on this site and not directly by email. Would anyone sign up for that?

Yes. Many forums I follow work from a digest linking to pages with question threads. (That said, those forums are also more polished for posting, which may also invite more participation.)

Thanks for your reply. You have always been helpful.

> You may enjoy the website at Connect dot mozilla dot org, a place for conversations on concepts.

However, Connect is not a place for users to ask for support.

> You know, I should have followed your link before making my last reply, as it actually makes my main point succinctly: "25 questions in the last 24 hours have no reply."

As you know, volunteers provide support here. The statistics for 24 hours may not be great. But 48-72 hours are much better.

> With last year's shift to the SUMO website forums, the number of eyes seeing problems dropped precipitously, because people must make a special effort to come to the website to view questions, rather than simply seeing them in the course of answering mail.

I can provide some perspective of all the Mozilla and Thunderbird supplied communications venues, having helped managed or monitor them. While it is true that the mailing lists (which were also gatewayed may have had more eyes, they also had way, way less posting volume of questions compared to SUMO. And therefore SUMO has historically answered more users questions.

That said, you are correct that monitoring and answering issues in SUMO is a pain and inefficient without a product or subject watch function, an RSS feed or email feed. As a result, until a year ago my preferred method of contributing was using advanced search. But that interface was removed a year ago in favor of https://kitsune.readthedocs.io/en/latest/advanced-search.html, as noted at https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/kitsune-release-notes-2021-05-04/79726

This discussion should occur in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors/ I will attempt to move this discussion to that forum.

Wayne, thank you - it's a relief that you understand my concern in such detail - and your years administering the Mozilla/TB lists do make you the perfect person for this question. I must admit I was surprised to hear this --

... While it is true that the mailing lists (which were also gatewayed may have had more eyes, they also had way, way less posting volume of questions compared to SUMO. And therefore SUMO has historically answered more users questions.

-- but I think I see the point about the volume of questions. There were never anything like, say, 25 questions per day on the TB list -- though such questions as were posted received more expeditious treatment. Now that you mention it, I was surprised to see so many questions. The moral, I think, is simply that there are a lot of TB users who probably never use a mailing list. (Ironic: avoiding mail to get info about a mail user agent?)

I never would have suspected that, probably because I've been using mail since DARPAnet days, so the medium seems most natural and efficient. (But then I was also surprised to see news fall into disuse, so what do I know? Just old, I guess ...)

That said, you are correct that monitoring and answering issues in SUMO is a pain and inefficient without a product or subject watch function, an RSS feed or email feed. As a result, until a year ago my preferred method of contributing was using advanced search. But that interface was removed a year ago in favor of https://kitsune.readthedocs.io/en/latest/advanced-search.html, as noted at https://discourse.mozilla.org/t/kitsune-release-notes-2021-05-04/79726

Interesting. I was not familiar with Kitsune (clever name for a Firefox cousin) as the name for this SuMo system. Still requires enough intentionality that I'm sure there will never be as many eyes on questions as if they went to some kind of email or RSS feed. [Over 72 hours later, my question, titled "Thunderbird menu keys", has all of 5 views, no replies.]

This discussion should occur in https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors/ I will attempt to move this discussion to that forum.

That is good to know [my opening question in this thread]. With that, shall I mark this "solved" for this forum?