It's easy to get started helping out users on the forum: just browse the thread list for people looking for help. If you want to talk about giving support, or if you have suggestions or feedback, you can use the Contributors forum.

While that's really all you need to know, there are many things you can do to be able to provide more and better answers. Below are some tips to make you more effective.

Table des matières

• Finding questions
• Finding answers
• Doing investigation
• Posting replies
• Following up

Finding questions

As mentioned above, use the thread list to find users in need. Pay special attention to threads that have no replies or where the last poster wasn't another contributor (contributors have names marked in green). If you're on Mac or Linux, watch out for users on the same OS; they may have questions that Windows users wouldn't be able to answer.

Finding answers

Rather than trying to figure out the user's problem by yourself every time, first search to see if it's come up before. Try to use the Knowledge Base articles before anything else. These articles have been quality reviewed and have info for all supported systems. Remember, you're not only helping the person who's asking the question, you're helping people who read the thread in the future.

To link to an article in the Knowledge Base, put the article's name in double parentheses. ((Safe Mode)) becomes Safe Mode.

If the Knowledge Base doesn't have your answers, you can use any other source you want. Some good ones:

• Forum threads
• mozillaZine Knowledge Base
• mozillaZine Forums

To link to a URL, put the URL in single square brackets, with a pipe separating the URL from the text. [http://www.getfirefox.com|Download Firefox] becomes Download Firefox.

If you find yourself using external resources, consider adding their information to an existing article, writing a new article, or requesting that the article be written. Because this site is the first line of Firefox support and a Knowledge Base search is the first thing most users will do, having the info in a Knowledge Base article will let the user find the info more easily by themselves.

Doing investigation

If you can't find previous cases of the issue happening, here are some tips on figuring out the problem yourself.

• Consider the user's OS and Firefox version.
• Take a look at the user's extensions and plugins. In particular, watch for the Active X plugin (which causes all sorts of problems) and duplicate instances of other plugins.
• Try to isolate the cause of the problem.
  • Does the problem happen on your computer? This is useful for determining whether it's a problem with the user's set up or with Firefox or a web site in general.
  • Does the problem happen in IE as well? If so, it's a problem on the system, not Firefox.
  • Does the problem happen when security software is temporarily disabled?
  • Does the problem happen in Safe Mode?
  • Does the problem happen in a new profile?

Again, if you find out the solution, consider adding it to the Knowledge Base.

Posting replies

• Be nice. It's not your job to defend yourself, others, or even Firefox or Mozilla. Users may just be venting because their problems are frustrating. The best thing to do is to help the user get his or her answer. If you feel that a post has crossed the line, report it to a moderator.
• Make a judgment on a user's experience based on their posts. For example, not all users know how to get to about:config. When in doubt, err on the side of explaining more.
• Look at what OS the user is using and cater your reply to that. For example, Linux users won't have a C:\Program Files and Mac users may not be able to right-click.

Following up

The answers you give may not be correct, or the user may have some follow up questions for you. In either case, it's useful to both you and the user that your conversation continues. Consider checking "Send me an e-mail when someone replies" on threads you post in so you know about any replies. You may also find the list of threads you posted in useful.