Support needs to be more user friendly

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I feel that requesting for tech support, reporting bugs and so on can be more user friendly. The opening instruction basically threatens customers that they’ll be banned if they don’t post as directed. This creates a first negative impression and I would almost say intimidation. I understand that a lack of information can be frustrating for support and I understand the need for uniformity and request of specific information so that support may better assist in resolving a problem. But the current format needs improvement.

Perhaps a better way to help both the customer and support is to create a format that guides the customer to answer all the questions that support needs. My though is when someone clicks on the help link in the browser menu, a pop-up appears with questions and box to write the answers. A lot of web sited do this. Once the form is filled out and the user clicks “Submit” If info is missing it guides the user back to the box that needs to be filled out. Once all the required info is entered and submitted, all the information is automatically exported to the forum. It also automatically includes the browser info and the stats of the computer it is operating on. By guiding user to answer each question and automatically include browser and computer info, it makes it easier for the user and help tech support by getting the information they need in the format they want without having to threaten customer if its not done right.

Brave is my favorite browser. I left Explorer because I felt they didn’t protect my privacy and I left Firefox because they became politically biased but I also feel it’s better than Explorer and Firefox.

Thanks for taking the time to hear me out.

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cc @Mattches from Support team. :slightly_smiling_face:

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@Daram,
Thanks for the feedback! We really do appreciate that and I honestly like the way you’re thinking about it. There’s a few things you have to consider though:

  1. The template you see in the editor when going to make a reply is pretty boiler plate stuff and we’ve actually been extremely lenient on it. I’m not sure if you’d noticed but previously, the template in the editor was much, much longer and harder to read.

This is a stripped down and simplified version that makes all parts of the process clear - including the “banning” part. It states very clearly that “one line posts will be closed immediately” and “repeated posting in this way is grounds for banning”.

I’m sure you and anyone else can see why answering topics with bodies that say “Brave keeps crashing.” would quickly grow old. This is why posts like this will get closed - although we still tend to request they fill out the template before closing. Then, only if the same user is posting in this way repeatedly do they get banned.
To say,

isn’t exactly fair, is it? In fact, I haven’t had to ban a single person for that reason yet. The goal is to get as much information as possible from the user - whether it completely follows the template to the letter or not.

But if “you” (royal “you”) aren’t willing to tell me things like the details of the issue and what version of the product you’re requesting support for up front, why should our team spend 10 back-and-fourth messages prying that information from you when there’s 20 other unanswered requests by users who did?

We also have the templates available in the Resources section to be viewed any time and a comprehensive explanation for each bit of required information on our Help Center.

  1. You mentioned having a format that “guides” the user,

You’re referring to a request form, probably something that looks like this:

image
image1266×924 23.8 KB

(Note: I just pulled this form from the internet randomly as an example)

Now image that each of those boxes were one of the sections in the template that we spoke about above. Except that every single field is required and if you leave one out, you can submit. Do you think this would be more or less frustrating for users? Also, where do we host it - our Help Center?

Maybe, but now people have to go to two different places to get support for Brave. I suppose the support request form could send a ticket to email support but…that’s not very collaborative, is it? Collaboration between Brave team and its users is paramount and it doesn’t do much good to solve an issue for one person where nobody else gets to see it.

It could, but you’d have to give us permission to gather information from/on your machine. Is that okay? If it is for you, what if it’s not for others? Brave would block it anyway with FPP on :wink:
So instead, why not just have exactly that, but in text instead? Located directly in the editor and will allow you to submit without filling out every single field (lenient, remember?).

  1. (Main point) Users aren’t being threatened by anyone or anything. If you walk into a store that states “No shirt, no shoes, no service” and go in without a shirt on, they’ll probably say “Hey, you need a shirt on bro.”. If you go into that same store the next day, still without a shirt, they’ll probably say, again “Hey man! You were in here yesterday, you need a shirt!”. How long do you think until the shirtless guy gets kicked out of the store?

Just like “wear a shirt in this public space”, we ask that you “please provide detailed information about the issue you’re having” - these rules are straight forward and easy for anyone to follow. Don’t understand it? No problem, that’s why we have the support docs mentioned above to help explain it to you. Still don’t understand? The “About/Guidelines” page for every single category has a message stating to DM me directly if there is confusion about anything.

Given all of the above, if you’re still giving a report that doesn’t provide reasonable information then that’s on you. All the tools are there you just need to use them.

Bonus: I’m not going to implement a system wherein data about your machine is gathered. But it would be nice to see info like that at a glance - would probably help other users who are trying to assist as well. What about adding a (optional) section on the user profile/user cards here on Community that displays a bit of info if you’re willing to provide it? Things like:

  • Preferred/Default OS
  • Current Brave Version/Build
  • Technical Skills “level” (this would be carefully worded but basically asking how “tech savvy” the user is. If this level is “high”, maybe some hand holding can be skipped. If it’s “low”, it could signal to us to extend our hands to be held.)
  • Preferred/Secondary browsers

Could live there and potentially prove useful if that’s something you (and other users) think might help.
Also,

  • Shortening and narrowing focus of the template (as described above)
  • Rolling out Brave Help Center
  • Reorganizing categories to make more sense
  • Bubbling Brave Core requests to the top as we depreciate Muon

:point_up: I hope you can see that we have made many efforts to make requesting Support easier, and there’s a lot more on its way. Again, I appreciate the feedback and hope you understand a little better why things are the way they are (for now).

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Hi Mattches

Thank you for the detailed reply. It was very informative. I think users don’t often see the other side of the support issue. I have a better understanding of the challenges of a open source platform needs to be handled collaboratively.

Also, I want to be clear that I didn’t have any issues with you asking for more detailed information and I understand your frustrations when people don’t provide enough. It’s just the “banning” comment rubbed me a bit the wrong way. If you never had to ban anyone then perhaps the comment isn’t necessary.

Anyway, my goal was to give you my first impression and offer a solution from my perspective. If you find it useful and helpful great, if not, no worries.

Thanks again for the info. Brave will continue to be my default browser.

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