Thunderbird/Support/GetSatisfaction/README

In a hurry? It's as easy as 1. 2. 3. !

1. While we will do our best to help you with your problem, please remember that Thunderbird is a free and open source project. This means that - in addition to being able to provide Thunderbird free of charge - many of our activities (particularly support, documentation and customization) are mostly volunteer efforts. Given that we don't have the resources of a commercial software company, we rely on our users and our community to help each other via open channels, e.g. http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging and information articles on this wiki.
     We do not provide paid support or support via telephone or email, fax or live chat or via this wiki or any expectation of response time.
     Official support is only provided via web forum and support articles.
   There are also unofficial Thunderbird support forums on the internet.
2. Read How to make Get Satisfaction work for you in full
3. Start a new Thunderbird support topic by filling in the Standard Thunderbird problem description info into the form at: http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging/topics/new

About Get Satisfaction

Mozilla** uses a service at Get Satisfaction to provide support to Thunderbird users. The Get Satisfaction company does not answer questions about Thunderbird or other Mozilla products; Get Satisfaction merely runs the platform upon which Mozilla community contributors support the Thunderbird community (for other Mozilla products, please goto: http://support.mozilla.com).

   ** Mozilla does not provide paid support or support via telephone or email, fax or live chat for Thunderbird. Official Thunderbird support is only provided online at http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging & other unofficial places on the internet, NOT through this wiki.

How to make Get Satisfaction work for you

1. Cookies and JavaScript - For proper operation you must allow Get Satisfaction access to write cookies to your system and give Get Satisfaction the right to run JavaScript on your system. Otherwise you will be unable to receive any support for Thunderbird.
2. Search first - Before creating a new support topic, search first to see if your question has already been asked and/or answered. You can do this at http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging/searches If a similar question has been answered but your situation is not 100% the same, e.g. your internet provider, mail provider, Operating system, Thunderbird version or anti-virus or firewall is different then please start a new topic
3. Give your topic a meaningful title - If you create a new topic, give it a descriptive title. Suggested format: "X happens when I do Y and Z with mail provider A and Thunderbird version AA". For example: "Can't send email on ACME Mail Provider SMTP server with Thunderbird 3.0" instead of "help!! can't send emails!" When community members scan hundreds of support topics or when a search engine indexes topics, which title do you think is more helpful?
   • If you get an error message, include substantial parts of the exact text of the message in the topic title - this will help differentiate your issue from others.
4. Provide lots of details about your problem, but please don't write a book - Standard Thunderbird problem description info: 1. list your anti-virus or firewall software and what version, your ISP (e.g. earthlink, comcast), mail service provider (e.g. gmail, hotmail, comcast, etc) 2. email protocol (POP or IMAP) 3. Without telling us your e-mail address or account name, what are your server settings, including server name, port number, and choice for "Secure Connection" for: Tools->Account Settings->*account name*>Server Settings ? Tools->Account Settings->Outgoing Server (SMTP) (at the bottom of the list of accounts on the left)>*server*>Edit ? 4. operating system (Windows XP/Vista, Mac OS X, Linux, etc), Thunderbird version (e.g. 2.0.0.23) 5. add-ons/extensions you have installed 6. what you did (a detailed, succinct numbered list NOT long descriptive paragraphs COPY this example and modify as needed), what happened (including exact error messages) and what you expected. The more information you can provide, the better the community can help you.
5. Use multiple, but short meaningful tags - The best tags are 1-3 words, with commas between tags. These are most useful for indexing and grouping similar topics (such as "cannot send email", "cannot receive email"). Tags like "help", "email", "Thunderbird", "My Thunderbird has fallen and I can't get up", etc. are not useful. Please use singular word forms, eg. crash instead of crashes. More info on our GS Tagging page.
6. If you are crashing, please post a crash report id using support instructions.

How to support others in the Thunderbird community

1. Answer questions - When you get help with a problem, please share that information with others. Search for topics related to the problem others helped you with and reply to them. This is especially useful with problems specific to mail providers. For example, if you solve a problem with Comcast, search for "Comcast" in other support requests and share your information. (Check out our page of Boilerplate responses for some suggested text on how to reply).
2. Tag topics - Adding tags to topics helps other find answers by improving search engine results and by grouping related topics. For example, if a topic on the subject of email filters has a good answer, and you tag that topic and related open topics with the tag "configure filters", it will help people find the topic with the answer. 1-3 word tags are best, for example "cannot send email", "cannot receive email", etc. Please do NOT add tags like "email", "help", "Thunderbird" which are not helpful because they don't add troubleshooting information. See the GS tagging convention wiki page for more information.
3. Bookmark or subscribe to a tag - You can subscribe to tags via RSS, or you can bookmark a tag and check back later to view activity. Then, when someone asks a question in your area of expertise, you will be alerted and can provide the answer. As an example, the feed for the tag "cannot send email" is: http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging/tags/cannot_send_email.rss. Alternatively, you could bookmark http://getsatisfaction.com/mozilla_messaging/tags/cannot_send_email.

Other Ways to help the Thunderbird Community

1. Spread Thunderbird - Join Spread Thunderbird and be a part of the Spread Thunderbird online community driven marketing team.
2. Complete list of ways to get involved including QA (testing software), donations, submitting crash data, write an add-on, contribute documentation, etc.