Voluntary Support

Using voluntary support on the Hostfurl forum

The following currently (as of December 2023) appears as a pinned topic in the ‘voluntary support’ category of Hostfurl Forum. It specifically refers to using that category (and sub categories) on that forum.

About the voluntary support category

Regular private customer support is provided separately by Hostfurl through account.hostfurl.com.au.

This category extends support on a voluntary basis. Regular customers can also participate.

However, support requests involving specific account details should never be posted here. Never post a password.

This category allows anyone, not just customers, to both seek voluntary support and to provide voluntary support.

It is also an alternative for those who may want to request support for Hostfurl Open-Source software, apart from using GitHub directly such as by raising an issue on GitHub.

The category should be searched before posting a new topic, to check if the problem has already been solved or if a new problem has already been raised. In fact, this is the main value of public voluntary support.

Hostfurl itself participates on a voluntary basis in this category. If no one replies, including Hostfurl, please do not take it personally. There can be many reasons (see below). Remember customers can also request support privately through account.hostfurl.com.au.

However, an additional advantage to searching on public support is that a wider range of support topics are acceptable on public support than with private customer support included in subscription, which is more focussed on immediate functionality and service standards.

Another advantage of public support is that it is inherently free. More extensive private support that goes beyond immediate functionality, if offered, will incur additional charges.

If you want support questions answered it helps immensely to be concise, complete and relevant. The best way to achieve this is to provide sufficient step by step information to repeat the problem you had and to precisely record what failed and what information was provided to you. Saying what you think causes the problem is rarely useful.

It is important to summarise your main point in as few words as possible at the start in a way that makes sense to someone who does not experience the same problem. Your topic heading is also important. The shorter the post, the better, as long as sufficient information is provided. You need to be able to catch someone’s interest very quickly. Don’t expect anyone to read a long rambling post.