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More users = More support requests<br>
<br>
I think that getting more Thunderbird users, improving the initial
usability of Thunderbird for the average dunsel computer user, and
getting publicity is great.<br>
<br>
Do not forget support, though. No matter how good you make a
program, there will always be people who need help with it.
Thunderbird is by no means foolproof, and people get turned off by
it all the time because of problems with it.<br>
<br>
Don't just assume that "someone will take care of it", when it comes
to support. The bulk of support requests are answered by people
like me who have an interest, but who don't know everything there is
to know about Thunderbird. We cannot answer every question.<br>
<br>
I say again that we need an escalation process for support
requests. By "we", I mean the people who answer most of those
support requests. When I don't know how to help, or get stumped,
all I can hope is that maybe one of the others will try. But in
some cases, we just don't know. I've lost count of the number of
times that I've resorted to telling someone to uninstall, reinstall,
create new profile, etc, because I can't think of anything better.
Sometimes those steps are necessary, but as a fall-back for "I don't
know", it is terrible.<br>
<br>
Today there are a couple of support requests that I've decided to
not even touch, because I just don't know. I'm going to be doing
this more often now. Not even trying to answer some requests.<br>
<br>
Like one where Symantec has said there is a virus, but the user
doesn't know how to find that message in his hundreds of e-mails in
the Inbox, so he can delete it. If you tell Symantec/Norton to deal
with it, you lose the entire Inbox.<br>
<br>
Another is that an e-mail has an invitation to put in their
calendar, and somehow the user has messed it up so they cannot see
it.<br>
<br>
Then there was the one a few days ago that I banged my head on for
awhile and could find no solution for, so I reached out to an expert
here for help with it. I was given suggestions I could not use
(because debugging is beyond me), and told they would look at it in
a "few days". Rather than leave the user hanging, I told them to
find another way to do what they want.<br>
<br>
Without better support, and more of it, Thunderbird is going to get
the reputation of being a "take it or leave it" option. Actually,
it already has that reputation, from what I can tell. I try not to
read what the general populace says about Thunderbird much. It's
depressing.<br>
<br>
You want a good subject for PR? How about people who care enough
about their project that they quickly and efficiently provide
consistent, excellent, and useful support?<br>
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