Knowledge Base discussions

Consider a 2nd tier of KB articles, possibly as plain text, with simplified review

  • 9 Replies
  • Last reply by AliceWyman
  1. John99
    John99 3665 posts
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    Especially as we now have a rapid release cycle do we need a lighter faster method of generating some KB articles?

    Our KB articles are well written, comprehensive and accurate. We have every reason to be proud of them.

    However there is a flip-side to this

    • we have relatively few regular writers
    • I suspect some casual writers are put off by the markup and review process
    • this possibly also impacts on the localisation, it is another layer of complexity that needs to be mastered.

    We already have modified the criteria for allowing self review.

    I think a case can be made for having an even easier and simple method for creating some articles. The less popular ones could possibly be also self reviewed, and created as plain text articles, possibilities may be to create on a forum or section or on an etherpad.

    I am hoping for an opportunity to raise this as a discussion in the KB meeting (Preferably not on a Thursday - that tends to be a busy day for me, when I am not available.)

    Especially as we now have a rapid release cycle do we need a lighter faster method of generating some KB articles? Our KB articles are well written, comprehensive and accurate. We have every reason to be proud of them. However there is a flip-side to this * we have relatively few regular writers * I suspect some casual writers are put off by the markup and review process * this possibly also impacts on the localisation, it is another layer of complexity that needs to be mastered. We already have modified the criteria for allowing self review. I think a case can be made for having an even easier and simple method for creating some articles. The less popular ones could possibly be also self reviewed, and created as plain text articles, possibilities may be to create on a forum or section or on an etherpad. I am hoping for an opportunity to raise this as a discussion in the KB meeting (Preferably not on a Thursday - that tends to be a busy day for me, when I am not available.)

    Modified by John99 on

  2. Michael Verdi
    Michael Verdi 1755 posts
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    The plan around this has been to have the support forum use the same topic system as we're now using on KB articles. Then for example, if we have a brand new issue solved in the forum we can mark it as a "hot topic" and it will show up on the front page with the other hot topics. In fact one strategy could be (we've tried this in the past) to have a contributor ask a well worded question and then for another to solve it. Then we add the hot topics topic and we have a quick and easy stand in for a KB article.

    The plan around this has been to have the support forum use the same topic system as we're now using on KB articles. Then for example, if we have a brand new issue solved in the forum we can mark it as a "hot topic" and it will show up on the front page with the other hot topics. In fact one strategy could be (we've tried this in the past) to have a contributor ask a well worded question and then for another to solve it. Then we add the hot topics topic and we have a quick and easy stand in for a KB article.
  3. John99
    John99 3665 posts
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    Thanks for the reply Michael.

    Sounds good. Are there definite plans for this, and bugs filed if required ?

    Thanks for the reply Michael. Sounds good. Are there definite plans for this, and bugs filed if required ?
  4. Michael Verdi
    Michael Verdi 1755 posts
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    John99 said

    Thanks for the reply Michael. Sounds good. Are there definite plans for this, and bugs filed if required ?

    There are definite plans but no bugs yet. This, along with with other things needs to be defined and prioritized for the end of this year/early next year.

    ''John99 [[#post-48585|said]]'' <blockquote> Thanks for the reply Michael. Sounds good. Are there definite plans for this, and bugs filed if required ? </blockquote> There are definite plans but no bugs yet. This, along with with other things needs to be defined and prioritized for the end of this year/early next year.
  5. AliceWyman
    AliceWyman 6154 posts
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    In a related discussion,

    I wrote this:

    I think that there could be a number of advantages to trying out a 2-tier KB system that includes a user-to-user or "unofficial" branch and a main or "official" branch of the KB.

    • The user-to-user branch of the KB would be a place where top contributors have control over their own article content, writing style, and added images that would be uploadable to the Media Gallery. This would encourage additions to the KB.
    • Giving top contributors (as determined by the "Karma" system) their own space to write articles would be a nice perk.
    • Having article space on SUMO for user-to-user articles would also help people get their feet wet writing KB articles, since it would use the same markup, something that wouldn't be the case in a Mozilla blog
    • Firefox users could rate the helpfulness of the user-to-user article. We could then migrate the really helpful content over to the main KB.

    <snip>

    Alternate suggestions

    • "Firefox Support FAQ" forum: An alternate suggestion was made before (but nothing ever came of it) to create a (read-only?) Firefox Support FAQ" forum, where support forum contributors with moderator status could post frequently asked questions and solutions, similar Adobe's Flash Player FAQ forum, then optionally lock the thread. This would be accessible from the main /questions support forum support.mozilla.org home page, like it is at Adobe's Flash Player forum start page.
    • A User Tips section of Firefox Support, similar to Apple's User Tip Contributions as documented here.

    Verdi said

    The plan around this has been to have the support forum use the same topic system as we're now using on KB articles. Then for example, if we have a brand new issue solved in the forum we can mark it as a "hot topic" and it will show up on the front page with the other hot topics. In fact one strategy could be (we've tried this in the past) to have a contributor ask a well worded question and then for another to solve it. Then we add the hot topics topic and we have a quick and easy stand in for a KB article.

    A Firefox Support FAQ forum (similar to Adobe's Flash Player FAQ forum) that is easily accessible from the main support.mozilla.org home page could also be a ready source of new KB articles, assuming the 2nd tier of the KB proposal doesn't fly. A Firefox Support FAQ forum would include current popular forum questions in one list and you wouldn't need to browse topics to find popular questions that aren't "hot topics". Actually, there is no reason why both a support forum "topics" feature and a "Firefox Support FAQ" forum couldn't co-exist.

    Verdi said

    There are definite plans but no bugs yet. This, along with with other things needs to be defined and prioritized for the end of this year/early next year.

    A new system in which questions are marked as topics, including hot topics, is a good idea but it's just a proposal at this point.

    In the meantime, what about creating a new "Firefox Support FAQ" area of the current support forum, by creating a "FAQ" tag for the current forum, with a Firefox Support FAQ link on the support.mozilla.org home page? (Moderators really should be able to create tags, by the way, but they can't?). The individual posts could be marked with the "needsdoc" tag (assuming that no KB article exists). Only one forum post is currently in the https://support.mozilla.org/questions?tagged=needsdoc list but that's probably because that tag isn't well known. The "needsdoc" list could be added to the KB dashboard or elsewhere, where potential KB article writers would see it

    I really like how Apple allows top rated users to create their own tips in their User Tip Contributions area (documented here) but I'm as pessimistic about SUMO adopting this as I am about a 2-tier KB :-(

    In a related discussion, *https://support.mozilla.org/forums/contributors/708674 [Proposal] Give contributors their own space to write articles I wrote this: ----- I think that there could be a number of advantages to trying out a 2-tier KB system that includes a user-to-user or "unofficial" branch and a main or "official" branch of the KB. *The user-to-user branch of the KB would be a place where top contributors have control over their own article content, writing style, and added images that would be uploadable to the Media Gallery. This would encourage additions to the KB. *Giving top contributors (as determined by the "Karma" system) their own space to write articles would be a nice perk. *Having article space on SUMO for user-to-user articles would also help people get their feet wet writing KB articles, since it would use the same markup, something that wouldn't be the case in a Mozilla blog *Firefox users could rate the helpfulness of the user-to-user article. We could then migrate the really helpful content over to the main KB. <snip><br><br> <u>Alternate suggestions</u> *'''"Firefox Support FAQ" forum''': An alternate suggestion was made before (but nothing ever came of it) to create a (read-only?) Firefox Support FAQ" forum, where support forum contributors with moderator status could post frequently asked questions and solutions, similar Adobe's [http://forums.adobe.com/community/flashplayer/faq Flash Player FAQ] forum, then optionally lock the thread. This would be accessible from the main <s>[/questions] support forum</s> support.mozilla.org home page, like it is at Adobe's [http://forums.adobe.com/community/flashplayer Flash Player forum] start page. *A User Tips section of Firefox Support, similar to Apple's [https://discussions.apple.com/community/user_tips_library_documents User Tip Contributions] as documented [https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3441 here]. ----- ''Verdi [[#post-48580|said]]'' <blockquote> The plan around this has been to have the support forum use the same topic system as we're now using on KB articles. Then for example, if we have a brand new issue solved in the forum we can mark it as a "hot topic" and it will show up on the front page with the other hot topics. In fact one strategy could be (we've tried this in the past) to have a contributor ask a well worded question and then for another to solve it. Then we add the hot topics topic and we have a quick and easy stand in for a KB article. </blockquote> A '''Firefox Support FAQ''' forum (similar to Adobe's [http://forums.adobe.com/community/flashplayer/faq Flash Player FAQ] forum) that is easily accessible from the main support.mozilla.org home page could also be a ready source of new KB articles, assuming the 2nd tier of the KB proposal doesn't fly. A '''Firefox Support FAQ''' forum would include current popular forum questions in one list and you wouldn't need to browse topics to find popular questions that aren't "hot topics". Actually, there is no reason why both a support forum "topics" feature and a "Firefox Support FAQ" forum couldn't co-exist. ''Verdi [[#post-48611|said]]'' <blockquote> There are definite plans but no bugs yet. This, along with with other things needs to be defined and prioritized for the end of this year/early next year. </blockquote> A new system in which questions are marked as topics, including hot topics, is a good idea but it's just a proposal at this point. In the meantime, what about creating a new "Firefox Support FAQ" area of the current support forum, by creating a "FAQ" tag for the current forum, with a [https://support.mozilla.org/questions?tagged=FAQ Firefox Support FAQ] link on the support.mozilla.org home page? (Moderators really should be able to create tags, by the way, but they can't?). The individual posts could be marked with the "needsdoc" tag (assuming that no KB article exists). Only one forum post is currently in the https://support.mozilla.org/questions?tagged=needsdoc list but that's probably because that tag isn't well known. The "needsdoc" list could be added to the KB dashboard or elsewhere, where potential KB article writers would see it I really like how Apple allows top rated users to create their own tips in their [https://discussions.apple.com/community/user_tips_library_documents User Tip Contributions] area (documented [https://discussions.apple.com/docs/DOC-3441 here]) but I'm as pessimistic about SUMO adopting this as I am about a 2-tier KB :-(
  6. Michael Verdi
    Michael Verdi 1755 posts
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    AliceWyman said

    A new system in which questions are marked as topics, including hot topics, is a good idea but it's just a proposal at this point.

    It's more than a proposal, it's actually on our development roadmap for the first quarter of 2013. Bugs will be filed when we get closer to implementing it.

    ''AliceWyman [[#post-48998|said]]'' <blockquote> A new system in which questions are marked as topics, including hot topics, is a good idea but it's just a proposal at this point. </blockquote> [https://etherpad.mozilla.org/support-forum-goals-and-future It's more than a proposal], it's actually on our [https://trello.com/board/sumo-roadmap/4ffc0c84a12b8a3b521d25f7 development roadmap] for the first quarter of 2013. Bugs will be filed when we get closer to implementing it.
  7. Michael Verdi
    Michael Verdi 1755 posts
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    Here's the thread where we all discussed it - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors/708585

    Here's the thread where we all discussed it - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors/708585

    Modified by Michael Verdi on

  8. AliceWyman
    AliceWyman 6154 posts
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    Michael, I deleted my previous post as you were quoting it, since I didn't see the point in continuing the discussion.

    Thanks, I found the link to https://etherpad.mozilla.org/support-forum-goals-and-future in that thread. Unfortunately, the etherpad discussion isn't dated so it's hard to tell what might have been added since the contributor discussion took place.

    Verdi said

    Here's the thread where we all discussed it - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors/708585
    Michael, I deleted my previous post as you were quoting it, since I didn't see the point in continuing the discussion. Thanks, I found the link to https://etherpad.mozilla.org/support-forum-goals-and-future in that thread. Unfortunately, the etherpad discussion isn't dated so it's hard to tell what might have been added since the contributor discussion took place. ''Verdi [[#post-49009|said]]'' <blockquote> Here's the thread where we all discussed it - https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors/708585 </blockquote>

    Modified by AliceWyman on

  9. Michael Verdi
    Michael Verdi 1755 posts
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    AliceWyman said

    Unfortunately, the etherpad discussion isn't dated so it's hard to tell what might have been added since the contributor discussion took place.

    It looks like the end of August was the end of the discussion. This the etherpad from then https://etherpad.mozilla.org/ep/pad/view/support-forum-goals-and-future/rev.6964

    The next revisions start on September 5 with Madalina making some preliminary prioritization.

    ''AliceWyman [[#post-49010|said]]'' <blockquote> Unfortunately, the etherpad discussion isn't dated so it's hard to tell what might have been added since the contributor discussion took place. </blockquote> It looks like the end of August was the end of the discussion. This the etherpad from then https://etherpad.mozilla.org/ep/pad/view/support-forum-goals-and-future/rev.6964 The next revisions start on September 5 with Madalina making some preliminary prioritization.
  10. AliceWyman
    AliceWyman 6154 posts
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    Verdi said

    John99 said
    Thanks for the reply Michael. Sounds good. Are there definite plans for this, and bugs filed if required ?

    There are definite plans but no bugs yet. This, along with with other things needs to be defined and prioritized for the end of this year/early next year.

    X-Ref:

    ''Verdi [[#post-48611|said]]'' <blockquote> ''John99 [[#post-48585|said]]'' <blockquote> Thanks for the reply Michael. Sounds good. Are there definite plans for this, and bugs filed if required ? </blockquote> There are definite plans but no bugs yet. This, along with with other things needs to be defined and prioritized for the end of this year/early next year. </blockquote> X-Ref: *[https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=810945 Bug 810945] - Assign topics and products to questions during AAQ *https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/forums/contributors/708805