When will there be a sensible way to register as a new user of the Mozilla Support site?
Just wasted 20 minutes trying to find out how to register a user of this site. I assume some naive users will wander off and end up getting "help" from pcthreat.com or Enigma Software. Is this acceptable treatment of new users of Firefox?
Sure there are costs of letting new people register, like having them post in other people's threads. But this cost needs to be weighed against the cost of the current barrier to getting help here.
So when will naive users get help here easily?
All Replies (12)
The site has tried numerous different designs over the years, but generally speaking, it has evolved into having you enter a question and then register as the last step.
If you come into a thread through a search, at the bottom you see this:
You must log in to your account to reply to posts. Please start a new question, if you do not have an account yet.
What is unclear about that?
"What is unclear about that?" is one approach to dealing with naive users.
I suggest an approach that is more centred on the Mozilla users seeking help. So instead the questions are "Does the current set-up for registration work for those seeking help?", and "How many users seeking help do not suceed in their attempts to get help through Mozilla Support?". Is this metric available? Or are we designing the Mozilla Support interface using intuition?
To answer your question, "What is unclear about that?" I will point to https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/ It has a "SIGN-IN" link at the top that when clicked takes the user to a page that identifies itself as "Log In/Register | Mozilla Support". It would appear reasonable that registration will be available from that page.
And that page also says if you need support, ask a question.
If you would like to propose changes to the login system and question flow, in other words, if you do not actually have a support question, please post here: https://support.mozilla.org/forums/contributors
By asking a Question you get introduced to the knowledge Base which may answer the question you had fully or party before even posting.
You can click the "Volunteer for Mozilla Support" button on the https://support.mozilla.org page to go to the https://support.mozilla.org/get-involved page.
Thanks for the link to the contributors forum.
I have posted there on my experience and included suggestions.
I reject jscher2000's implication that this is not a support question. I found posts by a number of other naive support seekers who were blocked from getting support by the current registration proceedure. It was their questions, similar in content to my question, that eventually assisted me in getting access to Mozilla Support.
I also want to be able to refer others to Mozilla Support confident that they will be able to register easily.
jscher2000's wrote something like "What is unclear about that?" Does this question qualify as a support answer? I think not.
Anyway thanks for the info.
For a user looking to get help with their own thread, registering is very simple. You start a new question, and as a part of the Ask A Question flow (AAQ) you create an account. Simple.
If you want to create an account without asking a question, you have to do it via the community hub. It's not easy on purpose, as we want people asking questions without having to worry about creating accounts or remembering their old account.
This article is helpful. However, when I tried to "Ask a question", the screen did not change, so I never got to a screen that allowed me to enter a question or create an account.
Hi pblahman, the Ask a Question link is associated with this URL (your locale code my vary):
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/new
Does that page load for you? I there's a page where the link is broken, it's probably not possible at this point to remember what page it was, but if you do, let us know.
You see a blue " Volunteer for Mozilla Support" on this web page. If you click this link then you find various choices.
I agree with lodeen, the originator of this thread. Why doesn't Mozilla make a simple "Register" button available? It could be alongside the links to "Ask a question," so users could do it either way.
Some advanced users would also have found a Register button useful.
Retaining ONLY the "Ask a question" option is reminiscent of Microsoft (or any software behemoth) and its "you will be assimilated" attitude toward user support.
Separately, no one has answered the original question by describing Mozilla's user experience philosophy or logic behind this issue. Is it actually done in fear that too many users would "register" instead of finding their answer by asking a search engine?
Industriflow மூலமாக திருத்தப்பட்டது
Hi Industriflow, is there a Firefox question you need answered?