volunteer
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Hi,
I have some questions about being a volunteer for the forum.
I have read https://wordpress.com/support/wordpress-com-volunteers/ which does not seem to answer the questions I have.
Where do I find what plan a person has? Will, I ever need to do so? Seems like other volunteers are able to find what plan others have.
If a person has Cloudfare, GoDaddy, Bluehost, or any other hosting provider besides wordpress.com they need to ask in the .org forums is that correct? If a person has a site that is a self-hosted site that is not wordpress.com they need to ask in the .org forums? Correct?
If a person provides a link to their blog that is hosted on .com and they have an issue with it how do I troubleshoot the issue and help them find the answer to their questions?
If a person does not provide a link how do I help them the most?
What other tips should I know to be able to provide people with answers to their questions that I am able to answer for them?
The reason I am asking these questions is that I want to be able to give people accurate answers and to be helpful for them.
Thanks for your help.
The blog I need help with is: (visible only to logged in users)
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There are no easy answers to your questions. Volunteers have to realise some questions just need to be left for staff to respond to. Volunteers can only help where they can and often we have to use educated guesswork. We obviously don’t have access to other sites as staff do so don’t know which plan someone has (although many will be asking here because they have a free plan as paid plans usually direct users to other means of assistance).
If a site is hosted elsewhere and someone has a “wordpress” question then yes they need to be directed to the .org forums. It often helps to remind them that they’ll need to register an account there as it has no connection with wordpress.com accounts/passwords.
Many people create a new account/site just to post a question here about some other account/site they have mislaid/lost access to. All volunteers can do is ask for more details. Then even if we can’t assist further at least staff will have something to go on when they reach the thread.
Depending on how you reach these forums (perhaps staff could explain the details) depends if the “blog I need help with message displays”. It does for you here although it might not be the blog you need help with if you have more than one. The trouble is that many people with .org sites have accounts here for legitimate reasons like Gravatar and JetPack. They may have an empty wordpress.com site and an active site elsewhere.
If a person provides a link to their blog that is hosted on .com and they have an issue with it how do I troubleshoot the issue and help them find the answer to their questions?
You need to be familiar with the workings of WordPress.com as much as possible and only answer questions where you can add something. Always link to support documents that may help the OP (and read the docs yourself).
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Hi there,
Where do I find what plan a person has? Will, I ever need to do so? Seems like other volunteers are able to find what plan others have.
You don’t. That information is only visible to staff. At most other volunteers can make an educated guess based on features they see on the site. That comes with experience.
If a person has Cloudfare, GoDaddy, Bluehost, or any other hosting provider besides wordpress.com they need to ask in the .org forums is that correct? If a person has a site that is a self-hosted site that is not wordpress.com they need to ask in the .org forums? Correct?
Only if the issue is about the open source WordPress software. If the issue is with a specific plugin/theme, they need to contact support for that plugin/theme directly. If the problem is with their domain or hosting account, they need to contact their domain or hosting provider. If the site is connected to WordPress.com via the Jetpack plugin and they’re asking about a feature/service provided to them by WordPress.com via Jetpack, we might still be able to help them here.
If a person provides a link to their blog that is hosted on .com and they have an issue with it how do I troubleshoot the issue and help them find the answer to their questions?
Try to replicate the issue they’re having on a test site. Ask them questions to get more information in what they’ve provided is not enough to allow you to do that. Search the support documentation and previous forum threads for answers. And use WordPress.com – ultimately experience using WordPress.com is the most important aspect in getting good at helping others use it.
If a person does not provide a link how do I help them the most?
Ask them for a link to their site. It’s impossible to help anyone if you’re not able to understand/see what they need help with.
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Where do I find what an account a person is logged in as?
If someone says that they are unable to log in how do I find out what account they are logged in? I have seen volunteers be able to tell a person they are logged in with a username. -
If the issue is with a specific plugin/theme, they need to contact support for that plugin/theme directly.
Where is the information of how to tell a person how to contact theme or plugin support?
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In my email, I saw a reply from staff-mckluskey. I only see her reply in my email, not on this thread. Why is that?
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Where do I find what an account a person is logged in as?
Surely they’re logged in to the account they are using in this support forum? If you mean how do you find the account/username of the site they wish to reach then for example if I visit your site and click on a post title to open a post I see “written by ryan”. Mousing over that gives me you/the author/your username. (Although that may not work with every theme or for sites with multiple users).
Where is the information of how to tell a person how to contact theme or plugin support?
That is up to them not anyone at WordPress.com. If they’ve downloaded a theme/plugin from somewhere else for their .org site then they need to contact that company directly for further advice if they have problems with it. The .org forum also has many forums specific to popular themes.
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This is a reply from @themagicrobot Jul 11, 2020 11:27 am
#3526331REPLYPerhaps you could if you logged out of this account and logged back in to the correct account. Maybe
https://wordpress.com/forums/users/sharkmearman/
https://wordpress.com/support/account-recovery/This is an example of what I was asking about. Where do I find what account a person is logged into? How do you know what account a person is logged into?
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Is a site with Name Server: NS4.A2HOSTING.COM a wordpress.com site if not what kind of site is it?
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Hi there,
This is an example of what I was asking about. Where do I find what account a person is logged into? How do you know what account a person is logged into?
You can easily tell what account they’re logged in by looking at their username below their profile picture.
Is a site with Name Server: NS4.A2HOSTING.COM a wordpress.com site if not what kind of site is it?
No. That’s A2 Hosting‘s nameserver. WordPress.com nameservers are NS1.WORDPRESS.COM, NS2.WORDPRESS.COM, and NS3.WORDPRESS.COM.
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Perhaps you could if you logged out of this account and logged back in to the correct account.
How do I find out if a person has more than one account?
No. That’s A2 Hosting‘s nameserver. WordPress.com nameservers are NS1.WORDPRESS.COM, NS2.WORDPRESS.COM, and NS3.WORDPRESS.COM.
If a person has anything other than the NS1.WORDPREES.com nameservers does that person need to ask in the .org forum for help?
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Hi @ryrhino00,
If a person has anything other than the NS1.WORDPREES.com nameservers does that person need to ask in the .org forum for help?
Glad you’re asking. It gets tricky. I tried to cover the bases here:
Welcome to the official public support community for the sites, products, and services hosted by WordPress.com!
Most sites that are hosted here use our name servers now, but there are some cases that are harder to tell, and people do get confused sometimes. A tool like whoishostingthis.com may help you out.
But there are dozens of times where someone is asking about a WordPress.org site but they say “The site I need help with is ——.wordpress.com.”
And, the Calypso dashboard at WordPress.com is one of our products and services, and it can be used with self-hosted sites. So if someone is asking a question about that, we probably need to answer it. If someone is asking about Jetpack, or about at theme made by Automattic, technically they should be asking in the correct forum, but we usually do our best to help here before sending them on their way.
So when in doubt, just modlook. Always. We’ll be around. And, if it’s helpful, I can try to be more obvious about the tools I used.
How do I find out if a person has more than one account?
They can’t post here unless they are logged into an account, so generally if they say they can’t access their account, they’re referring to a different one. I’d recommend taking a look at how staff and the community handles those situations (we’ve tagged several here) & see that helps a bit:
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And, if it’s helpful, I can try to be more obvious about the tools I used.
Unsure what you mean about the tools you used. Please explain.
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@ryrhino00 so when you’re reviewing those replies I mentioned, it may seem like I just know the site isn’t hosted here.
I can mention something like checking it via whoishostingthis.com or a nameserver query if that would be clearer for you and other aspiring volunteers.
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Most sites that are hosted here use our name servers now, but there are some cases that are harder to tell, and people do get confused sometimes. A tool like whoishostingthis.com may help you out.
But there are dozens of times where someone is asking about a WordPress.org site but they say “The site I need help with is ——.wordpress.com.”
Most of the hosting that I have looked up so far don’t have wordpress.com nameservers.
They have Godaddy, Hostgator, and others. When I see those I should use a modlook or direct them to .org? That is the thing that I am not understanding when to send a person to the .org forum or use modlock.
If I understand right if a person has anything other than a wordpresss.com nameserver to use a modlock? Is that correct? I am not able to help those without a wordpress.com nameserver? Is that correct?
I am asking these questions again to make sure I understand.
Thanks.
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They have Godaddy, Hostgator, and others. When I see those I should use a modlook or direct them to .org? That is the thing that I am not understanding when to send a person to the .org forum or use modlock.
That depends on their question. If it’s related to Jetpack do not tell them to find help on .org forums. Some users with .org sites will ask how to move their sites to .com or will have other questions related to WordPress.com – there would be no point to send those elsewhere.
In general, if you’re not sure what to reply – don’t.If I understand right if a person has anything other than a wordpresss.com nameserver to use a modlock? Is that correct? I am not able to help those without a wordpress.com nameserver? Is that correct?
Yes, don’t
modlookthose threads as there is a great chance we won’t be able to help the user.As for my reply you mentioned earlier – I replied at the same time as @kokkieh so I removed my reply as it was not relevant anymore.
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Hi Ryan, just adding a couple of things to this discussion:
1. Even if the user gives the address of the site they need help with in their initial query, ask for it again if you reply. If their site address is anything other than a subdomain of .wordpress.com or .home.blog or any of the my.whatever.blog subdomains, do a WHOIS lookup to see if they are using WordPress.com nameservers. It doesn’t help the user if we point to information about how to do something on WordPress.com when their site is hosted somewhere else.
2. There is value in “tailgating” Staff and/or veteran volunteers to get a feel how they approach and answer user questions. This will help inform your own replies to users.
And echoing staff-mckluskey, it’s OK to leave a question for someone else if you’re not sure of your answer. These forums are a cooperative effort, after all.
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Only if the issue is about the open source WordPress software.
Which domains or name servers are open source WordPress software?
Thanks to all of you to help me learn.
Being able to try to answer people’s questions helps my mental health.
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Which domains or name servers are open source WordPress software?
Sorry, but that question doesn’t make sense :)
The open source WordPress software is just that: software, a piece of code that you install on a web server connected to the internet. It doesn’t have anything to do with domains or name servers.
A domain is a human-friendly name that lets a browser find a website located at a particular IP address, and name servers are what tells the browser where to find the right IP address for a particular domain.
Quite literally any domain can be used for either a WordPress.com or a WordPress.org site.
WordPress.com sites usually have WordPress.com name servers, so if you see name servers that are anything else the site is most likely using WordPress at another host. Not always, though, as a site can be pointed to us using an IP address instead of name servers.
That’s why name servers is just one thing you look at. Also check for the WordPress.com footer credit at the bottom, the WordPress.com follow button bottom-right of the screen, and the WordPress.com admin bar at the top. If the name servers don’t say WordPress.com and you don’t see any of those other things, then the site is most likely using the open source software at another host.
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If a person asks for a postal code am I able to tell them where to find it? If so where is it found?
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