Brad

You need to make your FAQs a more prominent link on the front page. I finished the article on LiveJournal. You can find it here "LiveJournal: An Online Interactive Journal." (http://netconference.about.com/library/weekly/aa053100a.htm)
Thank you so much for answering my questions so quickly last night.

Might want to change in the article... his name is Brad FitzPATRICK. Not FitzGERALD. ;)

Ok I fixed it - It has to be that 4:00 a.m. post time. I have to quit writing these late night articles :)

Wow, fast fix ... thanks!

One thing that helps us a bit is that people who write to our support@ address immediately receive an auto-response which cites the most frequently asked questions (and their answers ;-).

I don't like that solution for a couple of reasons --- mainly because IF it does answer their question, I still have to reply. I like to know if things are resolved or not before I stop corresponding with the person, and I also don't want to work too hard if they've figured it out.

I have a better idea coming soon..... check it:

* users fill out support requests, and mark them public (default) or private. Private only LJ "staff" can answer. Public anybody can answer.

* Now, the whole community (registered users only, probably) or the LJ staff can answer questions. This puts support requests from the "asked" to "answered" states. In the answer, there's a link that the users can click if the answer answered their question, and if so, the support request is in the "resolved" state. If not, they can click another link to put it back in the "asked" state.

* Then, if people don't change their states, things that are "answered" (but not necessarily resolved) will be set to "closed" after a period of 7 or 14 days.

Plus, I'll take all the cool parts out of FreeVote's web-based help desk system that let you do stuff like answer with FAQ questions, pass amonst admin groups, etc...

Brad, why not setup a support board in freevote/livejournal similar to those of ebay. So experience users can help guide the beginners. And at some time, we will drop by and give some advice. :-)

Exactly.... that's kinda what I was describing.

Great... then we should do it fast

Try getting to the following pages from the opening page *without* typing in a URL:
- Upload a Picture
(it isn't immediately obvious that it is in "personal information")
- Edit an existing style
(the only path I could figure out involved going through five other pages.)

Also, the overall look could be glitzed a bit. :)

we knew it'd happen sooner or later....:::sigh:::

Sorry for cluttering your mailbox and now this. And thanks for the reply even though you're very busy.