Support Link instead of posting / searching forum

[Jared]

I spent my day setting up some nodes for another crypto project. When I came to an issue with something I started looking for their forum or support email but instead came across really in-depth support documentation that ended up answering all my questions and then some.

https://support.storj.io/hc/en-us

This is the site I’m referring to. I think it could help to have something like this setup for pNode and vNode operators, as well as app functionality/usage and anything else that users might need answers to. A page like this on our site would really help to prevent users from opening new posts about the same things or having to search through forum posts and replies trying to find answers to their questions.

As an added benefit, community members could write articles on different help topics and submit them to the team for review and submission on this support page. Thus taking some of the burdens off of the team and allowing them to focus on more important things.

[marko]

The forum-first design was what kept me away from Incognito for at least 6 months. It sounded like such an intriguing project but it’s hard to know what the real information is, who are trusted members. At the time I wanted when first joining, I wasn’t interested in participating in a community but more of a “what’s in it for me/does this interest me/is this what I’m looking for” approach we all have when visiting websites for the first time.

With the forum you have to know what all the badges mean (and most of them are silly/fun), you have to learn that the team has a sheild little symbol next to their name.

The app is intuitive…it’s great. If I hadn’t just decided to download the app and play with it, I wouldn’t have understood that incognito is even a launched and working project. The landing page is also a great addition.

Although I think it’s the perfect way to onboard users, I’m not sure who would write all the content. I think this is something that could qualify for a builder reward but I’m not sure. I like the idea but personally I don’t know any way to accomplish this…the team is already so busy.

[Jared]

I considered this as well. However, majority would be copy and paste. Taking articles and tutorials that are already written on here and organizing them on a support page. New articles could be brainstormed / written by the community and submitted to the devs. Then they could proof read and post what they feel is necessary. That way it saves devs precious time from tedious tasks (would also help to reduce amount of work support staff is required to do - which is usually repeating themselves).

[ning]

maybe we could expand this topic? and make it easier to find…

Before you post: Validator help quick guide

Welcome to the Validators Help section! For all your validator-related queries, use the search bar to find an answer. If there’s no answer to your question, feel free to make a post about it here. At the bottom of this post you’ll also find some popular tutorials. Relevant topics include: Nodes, Node virtuals, Node Pool, staking, selection, network issues, VPS, and more. This category is NOT for topics related to the app, bugs, failed transactions, PRV, or personal updates/thoughts. For quest…

we already have all the raw material to put together a decent community-driven picture of the real validator experience… the ‘make wiki’ option for TL3 allows them to make topics that TL2 and up can edit. so this ‘repository’ could be permissionless.

anyone would be able to create/select helpful tutorials, topics, experiences from actual validators, and TL2 + TL3 + mods can just add it to the main one.

i think it’ll be more authentic and helpful than an official FAQ - if we can organize it right.

[Jared]

It might help to have a support / tutorials button somewhere on the main page that links directly to that forum post. This would help to prevent support from repeating themselves. However I feel that link is lacking a lot of tutorials or answers someone might be looking for. Like app error codes or how to setup the app provide function for the first time, etc.

Make Wiki sounds great.
We might want to consider the layout / style to the link I referenced. It allows really fast selecting of the information you’re looking for. Regardless of the direction a centralized area for support can only help.

[ning]

@Jared

It might help to have a support / tutorials button somewhere on the main page that links directly to that forum post.

do you mean on incognito.org itself, or we.incognito.org?

i think we could prob make a banner with links to important topics on the forum. we do already have a ‘start here’ prompt on the main community banner - but it’s just to this topic, which is quite… large. and as you can see, we are restricted somewhat by discourse formatting, though there could be ways around that.

we tried to use pinned posts for each category for visibility… but i’m not sure how well that works tbh.

so it might be a good idea to have a banner addressing the 5 essential food groups - users, validators, builders, researchers, prv holders. 1 link each maybe, and each link could be a wiki topic. maybe we’ll try the wiki concept with validators first and see how it goes? we’d all have to be pretty vigilant and help each other though, as there are many moving parts and even the most well-intentioned may provide outdated or incorrect info, etc.

and on a somewhat related note - new app status messages are going out soon, which link to instructions on how to contact support, so we should see fewer lost souls.

[marko]

A wiki is a better idea! and the 5 essential food groups idea is a great way to start.

I agree, all the info is there–it’s just assembling from the eyes of someone new. Mostly people that are involved deeply in something already have a hard time seeing it through new eyes.

Would you be interested in doing this @Jared? I think it could qualify for some builder rewards too but @ning would be the one to ask that. I think the community votes on who receives the builder rewards but I’m not sure how the amounts are determined. It could be worht your time…maybe several hundred PRV? I don’t know.

This wiki or support page needs enough info on it to get people to download the app and get comfortable using it just once. Once a user is “in” the ecosystem they probably would feel comfortable joining the community.

[ning]

the main eligibility requirement for builder rewards is utility - so i don’t see why not. however, reward distribution might be tricky if we choose the wiki option - as multiple people would then be contributors… and then there is the matter of how to assign values to each contribution.

there is also the badge system - but then you might have people making less than helpful edits simply to get rewards.

let me know if you guys have any ideas. i definitely think it’s a valuable initiative.

tagging @aaron here, our resident introductory posts expert.

[Jared]

Let me throw together a mockup and get back to you @ning. But yes a support button on the homepage with an FAQ style layout with main sections like Node FAQ, App FAQ, Blockchain FAQ, etc.

Yes @marko I’d love to tackle the initiative. New users point of view is what I want to focus on. The on boarding process for new comers feels clunky and not organized with lots of searching to get a full understanding of everything.

Edit: there should also be an introduction to Incognito terminology. For example what is Provide, vNode vs pNode, NodeTree?, Etc.

[Jared]

I’m not sure a Wiki would be the best approach for onboarding new users. I believe a support link on the main site to an FAQ with sections would really help to organize everything. The main focus should be to get users on the forum with the hope they will become active members. One way the FAQ page could help with this is under every answer could be a button saying Read the Full Conversation and directly links that specific question and answer to the forum thread discussing it.

[Jared]

@marko @ning @aaron
Here are some mock-ups that I threw together. Hoping to show what I am referring to.

On the home page, there is either a Getting Started or Support / FAQ link prominently displayed. In addition to a community button.

After the new user clicks on whichever button style that is decided upon they are taken to the FAQ page (example below)

Let’s simulate a user clicking on “pNode | vNode | NodeTree FAQ”

A website flow like this would help to slowly introduce new site visitors into Incognito and provide a more managable breakdown instead of just throwing them into the deep end (which is the forum) and hoping they don’t get discouraged and leave due to feeling overwhelmed or confused.

@ning how do you like that easter egg?

[marko]

I love this! And concerning the builder rewards, I propose that @Jared be able to earn it. I believe we need someone someone dedicated to building this so that it can be simple, accurate, and accomplish the vision that I think Jared has.

We need a software or plugin of some kind and I can help research it later if needed. I don’t know if we want zendesk as it’s a paid solution and also designed to be more of a email support ticket flow (I believe–I could be wrong). Maybe wiki is good and I know it’s open source. Or maybe wordpress. If Jared wants or needs to solicit helpers for different topic areas, he can pay them as he sees fit. I didn’t mean for it to be a community effort to build—except perhaps after it’s completely finished. (Not sure)

Having one person take the lead on this is awesome and I think this will bring massive value to the ecosystem. We have a massive amount of visitors and I think this would convert more of them to be users. I’m excited!!

[Jared]

I’m not fully sure if it would actually meet builders reward status as it’s mostly just organizing content already around and organizing into a more bite-sized beginner-friendly format. I’ll just be happy if it gets implemented on the site. However, I’m not going to turn down any compensation of PRV for my time I don’t want to take any funds away from the builders rewards pool.

I’m glad to see others can see the need for a more streamlined approach when it comes to new members. Personally I was a bit confused at first how Incognito could encompass ALL cryptocurrency but I took the time to learn and understand the product because privacy and purpose built cryptocurrency are what I’m all about! I can’t see investing my time, money or resources into a project that doesn’t have a real world use case.

I’d like to highlight I really like the website and the team has done a good job on the design and layout (graphics are beautiful). Just trying to make productive and positive suggestions for improvement is all.

[marko]

Yes, I agree. Your idea isn’t a critique but just an improvement. Sometimes it takes fresh eyes to explain it from a newbie perspective. Incognito is such a massive and amazing project with so many aspects of it, that I find myself learning more everyday. However, I don’t need to know how the car works or how to build one to know how to drive one—or whatever that metaphor is.

[andrey]

Hey @Jared, I agree that structuring documentation, explanations, wiki, definitely should make the onboarding process for new users much easier.

As I understood your initial suggestion was to put effort into improving the main website, by adding those sections.

From the priority perspective, the trade-off for switching focus on building and maintaining it might be not reasonable. For example, to pause Node tree development or delay HD wallet or SDK and builders’ support.

From this point of view, the best option for the project if you could be an owner of this project, create a frame, and organize the community to contribute to it. To build by the community for the community

As Ning mentioned, if it brings benefits to the community, there are no reasons that do not include it into builder rewards.

To be sure that we are on the same page

• idea is good and worth to implement
• core team can’t dedicate resources to build it
• if you or other members would like to do it it will be considered as personal project (same as other products built by builders)
• That means you own it, host it, maintain and communicate with users

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Meet @ryankieranc he has a similar idea and maybe you guys could combine effort on it and build something really useful for the community)

[marko]

@Jared You should really check out chainwiki.dev

This is worthy of you taking the lead putting this all together, but also in a format that can be editable and able to be updated—I don’t know if just anyone can update or if there must be permissions set. I think you have to request it on github. That part was a little confusing.