Thunderbird/Support/GetSatisfaction/TaggingConventions

What is a tag?

A tag is a keyword or a keyword phrase used to identify what a Get Satisfaction support topic is about. It's great for search engine optimization and quickly finding other support topics of interest that have the same tag. e.g. say you wanted to find tag x, then you would go to: http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging/tags/x e.g. if x = "Cannot send email" then the tag URL would be http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging/tags/cannot_send_email (Get Satisfaction replaces spaces in tags with underscores)

How to Tag

In the right sidebar of a Get Satisfaction topic (example topic), click "Add a Tag". Tags are separated by commas and can have spaces e.g. cannot send email, cannot receive email, gmail, hotmail, etc.

Goals and Guidelines

• intuitive
• organic "pave the cowpath" i.e. use the tags that people are already using
• consider shorter tags without spaces, to assure compatibility with future support forum systems
• DO NOT use software code names, ex. Thunderbird or Mozilla module names unless the topic is specifically about them
• DO NOT use Tags like "help", "email", "Thunderbird", "My Thunderbird has fallen and I can't get up", etc. They are too generic to be useful. Instead select the Product "Thunderbird" and from the product the support community will know it's about Thunderbird and email and help is required.
• DO use names from Thunderbird UI e.g. "message filters", and names commonly used by users e.g. "filters"
• try to not use more than 3 words, tags longer than 3 words are hard to use and remember
• DO use multiple tags if that make sense e.g. "Thunderbird 3 Beta 4" and "cannot send email"

Tagging Conventions

• use terse/root word form, rather than variations - singular forms NOT plural, i.e. use "crash" NOT "crashes", unless the UI has the plural form // "crash" rather than "crashing"
• closeme if topic needs to be closed (since GS doesn't have a close topic feature) - consider closing or archiving the topic if no longer relevant using GS archive and/or modifying topic subject so it's as specific as possible ... users tend to "pile on" to generic topics unfortunately
• add_to_KB if topic content needs to be added to the SuMoMo knowledge base; remove this tag when done and add documented_on_KB.
• faq if the topic is a FAQ
• canonical to highlight a preferred topic for a problem, especially if you need to keep other reports of the same problem open for diagnosis purposes
• helpwanted to flag a topic for triagers to crowdsource, and remove it when not needed:
  • helpwanted-BUCKET where BUCKET is a category/type of problem, for example: helpwanted-imap, helpwanted-crash, helpwanted-Mac

• Tag with the name of the Thunderbird feature concerned, for instance:
  • "account setup", "accounts" for setting up account problem
  • "address book" - for address book issue
  • Filelink. Also add a tag about the protocol, for instance, UbuntuOne, Yousendit,...
  • chat. Also add a tag about the protocol, for instance, IRC, Facebook,...
  • The Web Search The Web.
  • "email import" - email import issue. Please aslo add the name of the original application (ie Outlook, ...). Tag with email client for import and send/receive issues e.g. "hotmail", "outlook express"
  • "filters", "message filters" how to set up filters, question on filters

• if the topic is one of the following common issues/faq areas then tag it
  • "cannot receive email" - when you can't receive emails
  • "cannot send email" - when you can't send emails
  • compact - for folder compact issues
    • compactask - disabling ask fails, or user has trouble with the UI (eg http://gsfn.us/t/31mr2 )
    • compactcrash - compact caused crash
    • compactfail - folder failed to compact
    • compactlost - compact causes dataloss
    • compactwhy/compactwhat - user doesn't understand compact. what is it?
  • data recovery - for issue related to recovering/restoring data in the profile
  • "dataloss" - for emails deleted
  • "default browser" - for making Firefox the default browser
  • "default email client" - for making Thunderbird the default email client
  • disk_space - want to free and minimize disk space
  • "firefox does not launch" - firefox doesn't launch when clicked on from Thunderbird
  • "line breaks" - line break issue
  • "master password" - problem with Tb's master password
  • "news groups" - usenet issue
  • not_responding - when windows title bar has "(Not Responding)" aka Mac beach ball (vs unresponsive script, which is something different)
  • "password" - problems with Thunderbird passwords in general
  • "phantom messages" - messages not being marked as read or not displayed
  • unresponsive_script - unresponsive script dialog/error shown
  • "upgrade" - upgrade problems, perhaps have tags for TB2 to TB3 e.g. "TB2 to TB3 upgrade"
  • system recovery - for window system recovery
  • operating system - if operating system tag whatever makes sense, e.g. "Windows Vista", "Windows XP", "Windows 7", "Linux" for generic linux stuff otherwise specific variant e.g. "Ubuntu"
  • Thunderbird version, e.g. "Thunderbird 10", "Thunderbird 14" for Thunderbird 3.0 final, "Thunderbird 15 Beta 3", "Thunderbird 2.0.0.23"
  • tag with bug number e.g. "bug 541892" if there's a bug in bugzilla referenced
  • mail provider e.g. "Comcast", "gmail"

• where it makes sense use the bugzilla keywords: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/describekeywords.cgi
• if the topic is user experience related then tag it with the appropriate ux-keyword i.e. one or more of "ux-feedback", "ux-implementation-level", "ux-jargon", "ux-discovery", etc (full ux keyword list in a spreadsheet with explanations, bugzilla implementation, blog post, thunderbird context)

• locale issues:
  • pending-<locale> - boiler plate has been posted in topic, and we are waiting for reporter to indicate (via tags closeme-<locale> or helpme-<locale>) whether further help is needed
  • closeme-<locale> - e.g. closeme-nl for dutch indicating the user has gone to the localized support forum e.g. geckozone for french language folks and the topic is no longer needed
  • helpme-<locale> - e.g. helpme-es indicating the user is choosing to stay in getsatisfaction and needs help in that particular locale's language, e.g. Spanish for "es"