I'd like us to focus on troubleshooting articles over the next month or so. More than half of our top twenty troubleshooting articles have a helpfulness rating of less than fifty percent. The top ten failing troubleshooting articles have an average helpfulness (weighted for popularity) of 36.95%.
I think with some re-thinking of troubleshooting processes and re-writing we can increase the weighted average helpfulness of these articles to over 50%.
I propose that we:
Look at what improvements we can make to these articles (re-write, add screencasts, emphasize the most popular solution).
Possibly write new articles that supersede the old articles. For example, maybe something like a "Factory Reset" (new profile and clean install) to replace Firefox is Slow, Basic troubleshooting, Fx takes a long time to start up, most of Firefox Crashes.
We wouldn't actually get rid of those articles. We'd just measure the new article(s) in their place for the purpose of the test.
Before we run off and start changing things, let's talk about big picture issues here. Then we can decide on a course/courses of action. For example, this whole category of articles is called "troubleshooting" and I'm not convinced that most people are actually interested in troubleshooting a problem and then applying a surgical fix. I think many people would, given the option, use a more general fix if it mean they could skip troubleshooting the problem.
Here are the top 10 failing troubleshooting articles:
I'd like us to focus on troubleshooting articles over the next month or so. More than half of our top twenty troubleshooting articles have a helpfulness rating of less than fifty percent. The top ten failing troubleshooting articles have an average helpfulness (weighted for popularity) of 36.95%.
I think with some re-thinking of troubleshooting processes and re-writing we can increase the weighted average helpfulness of these articles to over 50%.
I propose that we:
* Look at what improvements we can make to these articles (re-write, add screencasts, emphasize the most popular solution).
* Possibly write new articles that supersede the old articles. For example, maybe something like a "Factory Reset" (new profile and clean install) to replace Firefox is Slow, Basic troubleshooting, Fx takes a long time to start up, most of Firefox Crashes.
** We wouldn't actually get rid of those articles. We'd just measure the new article(s) in their place for the purpose of the test.
Before we run off and start changing things, let's talk about big picture issues here. Then we can decide on a course/courses of action. For example, this whole category of articles is called "troubleshooting" and I'm not convinced that most people are actually interested in troubleshooting a problem and then applying a surgical fix. I think many people would, given the option, use a more general fix if it mean they could skip troubleshooting the problem.
Here are the top 10 failing troubleshooting articles:
#[[Firefox Crashes]]
#<del>[[Error loading websites]]</del> [[Error loading web sites]]
#[[Basic Troubleshooting]]
#[[Troubleshooting Extensions and Themes]]
#[[Firefox hangs]]
#[[Troubleshooting plugins]]
#[[Firefox will not start]]
#[[Lost Bookmarks]]
#[[Username and password not remembered]]
#[[Firefox cannot load websites but other programs can]]
Reference: [https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?hl=en_US&hl=en_US&key=tLKViYR46zJExPVru7jonow&authkey=CK7nvSU#gid=0 Helpfulness of top troubleshooting articles]
FYI, in addition to doing things like trying to improve documentation I'm working on eliminating the need for some of these things. We currently have a [https://wiki.mozilla.org/Support/Firefox_Features/Clean_up_user_profile feature designed to automatically create a new profile and migrate your data] that we hope to get into Firefox (nightlies) this summer.
BT-stepi-template (i amongst the template numbers)
Specific steps
The more time-consuming troubleshooting step is about extensions and can't be shortened.
According to me, some of these articles should be a declination of the [[Basic Troubleshooting]] article with unrelated steps removed and specific ones added, if required (see [/forums/knowledge-base-articles/705107#post-36966 my post about Firefox crashes]). [[Basic Troubleshooting]] should use templates. For these changed articles, it'd give:
* BT-step''i''-template (''i'' amongst the template numbers)
* Specific steps
The more time-consuming troubleshooting step is about extensions and can't be shortened.
When checking the old discussion threads on these articles, I noticed a revision by djst to the Websites don't load - troubleshoot and fix error messages article that has been pending review since Mar 18, 2011 so that might be a good place to start.
When checking the old discussion threads on these articles, I noticed a revision by '''djst''' to the [[Error loading web sites]] article that has been pending review since Mar 18, 2011 so that might be a good place to start.
'''@Michael''' I've added a new topic to each of the top ten failing articles' discussion forums about improving helpfulness, linking back to this thread.
What led me to do that, I have an update pending to [[Firefox crashes when you open it]] but (according to scoobidiver) that article can't be updated until [[Firefox crashes]] is updated for helpfulness, at which point, [[Firefox crashes when you open it]] should be obsolete (I don't know if that's so ... scoobidiver's reference for that was his own post [https://support.mozilla.com/forums/knowledge-base-articles/705107#post-36966 here]).
Revisions to [[Username and password not remembered]] were approved on Jul 26, 2011 which might improve the helpfulness of that article. Related thread: [/en-US/kb/Username%20and%20password%20not%20remembered/discuss/1659]
An update to [[Firefox cannot load websites but other programs can]] is pending review but the revision may not make this article any more helpful. See the discussion thread here: [/en-US/kb/Firefox%20cannot%20load%20websites%20but%20other%20programs%20can/discuss/1663]
The main thing I want to try with this goal is to create a new article that short circuits the various troubleshooting procedures and just fixes Firefox.
Have people create a new profile, remove the Firefox install directory and reinstall Firefox. I'll do three different versions of this — one where you don't save anything, one where you just save your bookmarks, and one where you use sync to save bookmarks, history and passwords.
The article will be mainly video based because the instructions are complicated and I'll be doing three different versions of them.
I'll included a high level version of the steps (e.g. "Set up Firefox Sync") with links to the articles that contain the details of those steps.
The main thing I want to try with this goal is to create a new article that short circuits the various troubleshooting procedures and just fixes Firefox.
I'm going to draft [[How do I fix Firefox?]] and we can discuss it further there but the basic idea is this:
Have people create a new profile, remove the Firefox install directory and reinstall Firefox. I'll do three different versions of this — one where you don't save anything, one where you just save your bookmarks, and one where you use sync to save bookmarks, history and passwords.
*The article will be mainly video based because the instructions are complicated and I'll be doing three different versions of them.
*I'll included a high level version of the steps (e.g. "Set up Firefox Sync") with links to the articles that contain the details of those steps.
The article will be mainly video based because the instructions are complicated and I'll be doing three different versions of them.
I wonder if others have problems with videos, they are unwatchable for me, I do not even get the audio track properly.
''Verdi [[#post-41358|said]]''<blockquote>
*The article will be mainly video based because the instructions are complicated and I'll be doing three different versions of them.
</blockquote>
I wonder if others have [/forums/contributors/707301#post-41390 problems] with videos, they are unwatchable for me, I do not even get the audio track properly.
So on the top failing article may I mention that; by definition the KB article deals with Firefox Crashes and
the top crashers are no signature crashes.
No wonder the article is rated as not helpful, it has no advice about no signature crashes.
The top crashes are then dismissed by some of us as - It's impossible to investigate. - Anyway, that's not a SUMO problem.
It is very definitely a problem to a user who is getting crashes with no crash signature; and then no advice form SUMO. The situation is not abnormal, it is the situation of the top ranked crashes. In my opinion it may not be a sumo problem, but it certainly should be considered as something SUMO should address, and should be mentioned in the KB article.
''Verdi [[#post-40782|said]]''
<blockquote>
I'd like us to focus on troubleshooting articles over the next month or so. ...
Here are the top 10 failing troubleshooting articles:
#[[Firefox Crashes]] ...
</blockquote>
So on the top failing article may I mention that; by definition the KB article deals with<br/> '''Firefox Crashes''' and
*the '''top crashers''' are ''no signature crashes''.
*No wonder the article is rated as not helpful, <br/> it has no advice about ''no signature crashes''.
The top crashes are then dismissed by [/forums/contributors/707282#post-41394 some] of us as <br/> - ''It's impossible to investigate. '' <br/> - ''Anyway, that's not a SUMO problem. ''
It is very definitely a problem to a user who is getting crashes with no crash signature; and then no advice form SUMO. The situation is not abnormal, it is the situation of the top ranked crashes. In my opinion it may not be a sumo problem, but it certainly should be considered as something SUMO should address, and should be mentioned in the KB article.
Continued discussion about the new [[How do I fix Firefox?]] article that Michael drafted should move to its own thread. See [/forums/knowledge-base-articles/707326] [Draft] How do I fix Firefox?
