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 Tips on using the Help Request Form August 11, 2006 2:35 AM

I don't know if there is a worse time to run into strangness than when you are looking for help! When you are new to a community it is may be even harder because you have yet to learn the specific jargon in common use.

I have struggled thru the Help form and have tried to help others with it. I think we need a specific place for sharing the secrets of getting technical help at c2c.

Peace, Hope and Help
Teilflock
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 August 11, 2006 3:01 AM

First, I guess we should start by pointing out the places to find useful information.

Obviously, this whole group is here for the purpose of helping folks new to some or all of the features at c2c. There are several threads which cover specific issues of known trouble. Perhaps at some point we can post links to all of them in one thread?

Another group where a great deal of information is discussed and shared, is the "Care2 Feedback and Suggestions" group. Unfortunately, some of that great info is buried amongst some useless stuff, but with patience, you can sift out some real gems of info. Particularly, the pinned threads highlight some of the newer features and bug fixes.
http://www.care2.com/c2c/group/feedback

Now if you have a knack for reading manuals, there is vast amounts of info in the Help Files. These are generally accessed thru the link near the top right of every page, which is simply the word Help. Unfortunately, I noticed today that some of those links go to specific help pages concerning that one feature, and lack a link to the help form. I have reported this and hope they will fix it soon. However, from this group's page, you should have no problem getting to the real Help Pages. Links to help on specific features are listed down the right of the page.
I do strongly urge you to read the specific help files on a feature you are want to use. If nothing else it will familiarize you with some jargon and help you ask more specific questions when you come back here.

Peace, Hope and Help
Teilflock
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The Help Request Form August 11, 2006 3:40 PM

There are some odd things about the Help form that can throw a person off, so I just want to point that out for now.

Getting there:
From the Help Files pages you can access the Form thru either 'Report Website Errors' or General Care2 Help Files'. The latter requires that you make another click; on the link 'Help Request Form'. A form will open and will probably display your Name and Email addy.

The Form:
Once you click on a topic in the Your Main Concern area it expands to show Your Specific Issues area with 3-10 more topics.

This is the tricky part to be aware of. After some of the secondary choices [Specific Issues] are made, the 'I still need help' button doesn't appear until after you have clicked a link that opens up a new window they hope will provide your answer. Then you have to go back to the Help window and the 'I still need help' button is down at the bottom. Clicking that opens a white space to type in, and below that is, finally, the 'Submit' button. The more specific info you provide such as urls for the pages where you experienced problems, the easier it will be for c2c support to find an answer for you.

Keep in mind, as you wonder at the round about route, that some of the common issues have been reported hundreds of times to the support centre. Even after solutions have been published, some people continue to report the problem rather than taking the time to learn the new method or whatever. This is a huge site with very complex communication and other features. Just imagine trying to sift thru the flood of repetative reports to find the new significant issues.

There can be other issues as well, such as a browser or firewall not allowing the 'radio' buttons to the left of each topic in the 'Main Concern' area to be accessed, thereby preventing you from making any selection. I ran into that at a Poll page somewhere. A real pain.

Please feel free to come and ask me to clarify anything I've tried to say here, or what ever. There is always the chance that because of various software or computer differences a particular page may look differently to each of us, so it takes some extra work to understand the layout etc, not to mention language issues, which none of us are immune to.

Peace, Hope and Communication
Teilflock
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 August 22, 2006 12:00 PM

There seems to be a common misconception that reporting an error many times will get you a faster response. While in general, a problem that is reported from several sources will help the tech team learn the extent of an issue, several reports from one person will not likely improve matters.

I believe it is very important to report a single problem only once through the Help Request form. As long as you get a support Ticket #, your issue is in the que for attention. It is not uncommon for it to take a week before someone at support can write to you to tell you that the issue has been isolated and has been passed on to the engineers for a solution. Remember that personnel there is limited, and they must do a series of diagnostic tests to reproduce and isolate an error [if an error can not be reproduced, it is very difficult to determine what has caused the problem].

Sometimes when they contact you it is with specific information they hope will help you, or links to where such info can be found.

If you feel that it has been an unreasonably long time with no response, you can use 'Reply' to nudge them. You need to use the email they sent to give you your Ticket #. Make sure that the Ticket # is in the subject line, and that all past messages remain in the body of the email for reference. It is most helpful if you supply the techs with as much info as you can. The url of the page you accessed the problem area from can also sometimes be useful. Sometimes they need to know what operating system and browser you use.

I know your problem is urgent, and it is difficult to wait for a solution. However, there are probably a thousand other people also in various stages of waiting for solutions to their urgent issues. Everything can not happen all at once. Some common issues have been found to be so widespread as to warrent an upgrade to replace the feature, rather than applying bandaids upon bandaids and eating up tech team energy. Thus, some issues will not be addressed individually, but will be resolved in a system wide solution. An example of this is the topic tracking system, which has proved so problematic it is being entirely replaced.

I hope you find this info useful.

Peace, Hope and Patience
Teilflock
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anonymous  August 22, 2006 12:42 PM

Thank you once again Teilflock. I shall wait a week and then reply back asking for status.

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An example September 01, 2006 9:11 PM

To illustrate, I'll use an example of having an issue with Personal Messaging [or your friends list].

On the Help Request Form:
Your Main Concern; select 'Care2 Connect'
- a list of 10 more selections appears

Your Specific Issue; select 'Friends and Messaging'
'Froggie Says:' and three links appear.
- View your Friends; Sends you to the page where you may view your Friends, Pending Friends and Friends of friends, as well as an Invite Friends feature [I'm assuming at one time it was difficult to find this page].
- Networking Messages; here a workaround for a known bug is provided. The link simply sends you to your Personal Messaging system
- Compose a Network Message; this link simply opens your Personal Messaging [PM] system.

Here's the kicker - none of these links are provided for the purpose of reporting your tech issue! They are intended more to handle known issues and reduce repetative Help Requests for solved issues [I think].

If you go to PM thru either link, that system should work fine, except that since it is impossible to have C2Tech on your friends list there is no way to send them a PM [that I know of]!

Now notice that for each link you clicked, a new window opened. The original Help Form window is still open.
*A note about browser settings: if your browser is set to force new windows to open in the same window, you may need to use your 'back' button of your browser to navigate back to the Help Form page.

Return to the Help Form page, and you will see a new button "I still need help" At the bottom of the form. Click that and a white box appears where you provide details of the issue, including urls of all pages involved, [and possibly your browser type and operating system of your computer] etc.

Finaly, click the Submit Form button [there are no preview or cancel buttons].


Peace, Hope and Help!
Teilflock
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 September 30, 2006 12:16 PM

Millions of  [ send green star]  [ accepted]
 
You replied before I asked.... ha October 07, 2006 3:31 PM

Thanks Teilflock for your generous contribution.  I will go on the scavenger hunt looking for these corners and tabs now and report back soon.

This looks like the answer to the question I just posted anew today.

Carol
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I'm Glad to Help! November 21, 2006 2:53 PM


Please note that since I wrote the example above, that page has been changed. The info and links are different, but the procedure is the same. You must click a link, then return to the window displaying the Form to click 'I still need Help'.

Peace, Hope and Direction
Teilflock

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 March 06, 2008 4:12 PM


Now all the pages in the form ask 'do you still need help? Yes or No"

Much clearer!



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One Help Ticket vs 10 help tickets? March 06, 2008 4:24 PM


Sending lots of Help Request Tickets for one issue is part of the reason it takes so long for the techs to actually help anyone.

Look at it this way. 10 people have issues they need help with. They each send 10 Help Requests. Now the techs have to review 100 new Help Tickets to find the same 10 people with the same 10 issues. Now imagine the time wasted if 1000's of members use this approach!

Not only do the techs have to review each Help Ticket, but they have to look for patterns or groups of people with the same issue - to see if it is a wide-spread problem, or a unique issue. Then the techs have to investigate the issue, try to isolate it, and duplicate the problem. Once they have been able to do this, they are able to send the issue to the engineers with as a defined Bug, and request a fix. Or sometimes, it is something that the techs are able to address themselves.

As you can see, if you would like to see issues addressed in a timely fashion, it is best to send one Help Ticket per issue, with the most detailed information you can provide. Often, when Support does not respond within a week, it is because your issue is one of the wide-spread issues. Be assured that your specific info has been added to the database concerning that issue, and will help the engineers reach a solution!

If you are fairly certain that your issue is not common, or you discover new info, you can update your Help Ticket. Do this by opening the original Auto-message that assigned your Ticket #, and using Reply to send the new information or ask for an update on your issue.

Your Help Request Form should include:
  • the most appropriate specific issue available in the list of categories to choose from - try to only use the 'um, something else' option as a last resort
  • the Url of the page you encountered the issue
  • any Error messages
  • the sequences of events: Where were you, what were you doing, what button or link you used, what you expected to happen, where it took you, or what the reaction was.
  • What steps have you take to try to resolve the issue. e.g. for group email, have you contacted your email provider and/or ISP to find out if you are over your data quota, or if they have blocked an addressed; have you checked your junk and bulk mail folders; have you added all the Care2 addresses to your Safe list
  • what browser and OS and versions you are using, and what mail client if applicable.
  • anything else you think may be helpful.

The techs require concrete information to work with, rather than vague statements like 'it didn't work'. We play a very important role in finding, identifying and resolving bugs, whether it is in a program, gizmo, or website.

Please, pass this information on to others who are in need of help with technical issues.


Peace, Teil

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