Escalation Guidelines

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Note: This article contains obsolete content that no longer describes the current escalation process.

Escalations

Sometimes a question may need more attention and may take more time to answer. Escalations are put in place in order to help resolve these more difficult questions. Currently, there are two places for escalations: the Support Forum Contributors Forum and helping a user create a bug with as much information as possible.


When to escalate

  • If a question needs more attention and you notice more than one thread asking the same question
  • If a question getting alot of attention, and there is no solution in the knowledge base

If there are any questions about when to escalate, please PM an administrator.

Who can escalate

  • Anyone

How to escalate:

  1. Please Add the escalate tag to the question.
  2. Please make sure that there is enough information, including troubleshooting information and steps already suggested.
  3. Please add a message or a Common Response that lets the Question Owner know that it has been escalated and that there is a 72 hour period at most for a response. Response as follows:
Your issue seems a bit more complicated and requires more investigation. We're currently looking into it and we'll get back to you with more details ASAP. I have called for help and will do my best to respond with the next steps.If any other information occurs in the meantime, please do add it to this thread.

This is an example of a message contributors can use to reply to the thread before escalating their case, so the user is aware that we're looking into it.

How to participate in helping - Advanced Troubleshooting Contributors Unite!

To show all escalated questions, add ?tagged=escalate&escalated=1&show=all to the end of the forum URL. For example:

Where to find help:

  • In the Advanced Topic Support Forum Support Forum Contributors
  • IRC channel asked about the question #sumo, #firefox, #mobile, #thunderbird
  • You can private message the Help Desk team as well if need be. Please add a link to the question and add context to what might need more attention.
  • There is a pretty awesome knowledge base that is always being updated. Check out the help topics there. Or if you do not see anything suggest an article and start a discussion in the forum.
  • Has a bug been filed? (this is being elaborated on and would love to start a discussion on this too) #bugzilla can help to start, or these guidelines https://wiki.mozilla.org/Good_first_bug

FAQs

What if there is a forgotten question? Are they automatically escalated?

No it will not, we will do our best to answer questions as we can find the information to help.

Where can I find more information and help?

You can find more help in the Advanced Firefox discussion forum to talk about questions with other contributors, as well as many of the support channels on irc.

Collaboration and Private Messaging

Everyone will have a preference on how to be reached. Please keep this in mind. Currently there is Advanced Discussion forums, IRC channels, PMs and meetings where items can be discussed further if need be.

Follow up escalation

Questions that have already been escalated once, but have still not received a reply after 72 hour period, please get the attention of an administrator or a moderator. If they have received an answer and there is a follow up discussion, please encourage them to start a new question and lock the question.

You can find your old questions by:

  1. Go to https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions
  2. The current filters are:
    • Attention Needed
    • Responded
    • Done

You can use "My contributions" in order to find the questions that you have answered.

See if a bug has been filed? (this is being elaborated on and would love to start a discussion on this too) #bugzilla can help to start, or these guidelines https://wiki.mozilla.org/Good_first_bug

Moderating escalations, how do we do that?

If the question owner comes back and posts to the question, but there is no response from those who are watching the thread this is also considered an unanswered question.


Status of an escalation

Any escalated thread can be found the same way any other question in the forum can be found. Each of these filters can be defined as follows:

  • Attention Needed: these are questions that do not have an answer or have been escalated.
  • Responded: these are questions that have been responded to that do not have a solution.
  • Done: these are all of the historical questions that are locked by a moderator or marked as solved.


What if....

If its is an off-topic situation

  • Please see the link to the new off-topic guidelines.

If its an abuse situation

  • If it is a user, they can use the "Report Abuse" link at the right of any questions thread to get the attention of a modertor.
  • Please see the Community Particpation Guidelines for any situations that do not follow respect, professionalism or disruptive behavior in the community and their communication channel listed here: Community Participation Guidelines. They have a tiered consequence system that can help take the right action from Mozilla to keep the community respectful, safe and professional.

If its a language I do not know

  • Please reach out to the community representatives. Please see the link the l10n community leaders. they are indexed hereAvoid troubleshooting with Google Translate.

If its a bug and I can reproduce it, or need help reproducing it

  • Please see the How to Write a bug article [future contributor bug guidelines currently under discussion]


Please note how the tags work for these are they are added once in both scenarios. If after an escalation has been responded to and still does not have a solution, what are some guidelines for these situations:

IRC channel asked about the question, however this is not the offical support channel for these products. Each of these channels are accessible by anyone with an irc account. Please take note that these are just guidelines based on common knowledge of the current community.

  1. sumo is a channel for the contributors in the support forum
  2. firefox has some Firefox staff and contributors as well as #mobile, #thunderbird, #sumo, #aoa

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