Thunderbird Knowledge Base

Prerequisites

Before you start:

Install the latest beta version of Thunderbird.
- You can either set up a new, "throwaway" email account to use with Thunderbird, or you can use one or more of your own accounts.
- If you use a real email account, keep in mind that you are using a beta version of Thunderbird which may have serious bugs. (The betas are usually pretty solid but there are no guarantees.) See the Knowledge Base for instructions on finding and backing up your Thunderbird profile (which will also back up your messages).

Set up a screen capture and annotation mechanism. Skitch (Mac) is a free desktop application. Alternatively, you can take screenshots using the operating system or pre-installed software (for example, Windows Vista and Windows 7 come with a screen capture utility) and then edit the screenshot using an online editor like Piknik or Pixlr.

Play around with creating a new article. Don't worry about making a mistake, and feel free to save it. It won't be visible on the site until approved by an editor.
- Look at other articles to learn from examples.
- Try to get a general sense of what material is already covered on the site, so you know when there might be existing material related to the topic you are writing about.
  - list of how-to articles
  - list of troubleshooting articles

Pick a topic from the Knowledge Base Articles forum. (Ask jenzed if you need help deciding on an article.) The thread titles usually include information about the status (for example "[DONE]" or "[In Progress]").
Add "[In Progress]" to the thread title.
Write the article.
The article will be put in the review queue and jenzed will get an email notification. If you'd like a review done right away, email her at jzickerman @ mozilla.com or ping her in IRC (described below).
When the article is approved and live, change "[In Progress]" to the thread title to "[DONE]".

Title: self-explanatory
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Category: either "Troubleshooting" or "How to"
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Relevant to: leave "Thunderbird" checked
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Search result summary: one or two sentences that will be displayed in the search results
Content: the content of the article

The Thunderbird team hangs out in Internet Relay Chat (IRC). There are many IRC clients available. Popular free clients include Chatzilla (all platforms, runs as a Firefox add-on) and Colloquy (Mac).
- Connection: server = irc.mozilla.org, channels = vancouver, maildev, tb-support-crew; look for jenzed or rolandtanglao.
- Don't feel obligated to join IRC - it's not necessary