getting help / support link missing on qubes-os.org

[adrelanos]

A google search for qubesos getting help or qubesos support doesn't bring helpful results.

There used to be https://www.qubes-os.org/help but it doesn't exist anymore? Anyhow.

There is:

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Team

Report a Security Issue
Report a Bug
Press Inquiries
Business Inquiries
Mailing Lists
Join the Team

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But it's not enough. Nowadays many people don't know what mailing lists are for. This leads to users finding /team and e-mailing individual developers.

May I suggest a help and/or support link in the footer? And a new page Getting Help or so that explains how free (and or paid - if that exists?) support works? That page could then link to https://www.qubes-os.org/mailing-lists/.

Once that is done, I also suggest to link to that page from the top of https://www.qubes-os.org/team/.

[andrewdavidwong]

We've already been over this many times before: #2305, #2152, #1841, #1833.

I don't see that this report adds anything that has not already been discussed in these other issues. If you don't want people to email you, we can simply remove your email address from the Team page.

[adrelanos]

The main issue I am seeing is not unwanted e-mails. It is that there is no help / support page. Nowhere explained how support works. More on that in the last chapter of this comment.

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#2305 - I disagree it being related therefore.

#2152 - was about the Qubes team page, adding a button there. (With the primary goal of users finding support, and secondary goal of less unwanted e-mails.)

#1841 / #1833 - not about getting support specifically.

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What I am reporting here:

• people don't know what a mailing list is or what it is good for
• A google search for qubesos getting help or qubesos support doesn't bring helpful results.

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I suggest:

• on the Qubes team page: rename Join the mailing lists to Getting support. Reason: It's good to try to guess what the user think/want. "Joining a mailing list" is much less likely a goal. Much more common wish is to "get support".
• a page that explains how getting support for Qubes works
  • rename page https://www.qubes-os.org/mailing-lists/ to https://www.qubes-os.org/support
    • Reason: "Qubes support" and/or "Qubes help" and/or "Qubes forum" is probably a much more common google search term than "Qubes mailing list" by new users. (Since mailing lists are unpopular/uncommon nowadays.)
  • Modify https://www.qubes-os.org/mailing-lists/ to explain how support works.
    • Currently one gets lost at hello. Imagine someone asks how to get Qubes support, you link to https://www.qubes-os.org/mailing-lists/ and the first thing is "staying safe". Reaction: "What?" "Seems unrelated."
    • Mention the words forums, support, help so these get indexed by search engines (let's call it very lightweight SEO).
    • Briefly explain how support works.

[andrewdavidwong]

Ok, I agree.