karlcow
commented
10 years ago - [x] Done. 1st draft.
@calexity
hehe. So there is not one perfect way. These are some of the things that I would do to find the appropriate contact. There are a few things though.
Some tips on behaviors
- Be always tactful: People we are trying to join have their own set of constraints, bosses, economic choices, etc. "Your Web site sucks" will not lead anywhere, except NOT getting the site fixed.
- Be humble: We are no better, we also do mistakes in our own practices. We recommend things which might change one day because of the technical/economical circumstances.
- Let it go: Sometimes it just doesn't work. The person at the end of the other line will say "no" or worse not answering. It can be very frustrating. Accept it and move on.
- Be passionate: The passion is in being able to find the right contact in a company without harassing them, to be happy when something move forward. There is plenty to do.
- Share with consideration: Any actions someone's do is better when it's collectively recorded. Basically you did a specific action say in the comments of the bug. It helps everyone to know the status. And it helps to not make yourself a strong dependency. That said be careful to not disclose private information such as names and emails, when the contact didn't allow it. You may simply say: "I contacted someone at $COMPANY", "Someone from $COMPANY said that… blah"
Some tips on actions.
- Does the Web site has a twitter account? If the twitter account seems to engage with users such as replying to people asking question. It can be a good start for starting the contact. So basically you are not asking to fix, but you are asking who you should contact. If the twitter account is just broadcasting information. Move on.
- Does the Web site has a support email, or an issue tracker? You can try. There's no guarantee that your request will be addressed. And it's very rare that you get a human response right away. Most of the time the responses are automatic. If in return you get an ID and/or a URI. Put it in the bug/issue comments.
- Search for someone working there, a human. There are different techniques.
- Linkedin. One you can use with a bit of training is to use linkedin. It doesn't necessary work with all countries, but worth trying. You can start for example in your favorite search engine with:
Web developer $COMPANY_NAME site:linkedin.com. This will list names of people who are likely to work there, some of them in their profile will have contact information and often twitter accounts and/or personal Web sites. - twitter: With this information, you can try to reach them out, and ask them if they can help in putting us in contact with the right person. Or you can try to search on twitter itself. Some people put their company affiliation in twitter. Always check if the twitter account is alive. Some people haven't used their account for ages. They are unlikely to read it. Move on.
- slideshare: When you can't find the information about a developer, you might want to try to search something such as
$COMPANY_NAME site:slideshare.netor any appropriate keywords that will make you closer to a contact. Some companies have their developers going around at conferences speaking about issues with performances, etc. That said, be careful you might also find a lot of talks related to sales or marketing speeches, that will be a lot less interesting for contacting the right person. In the slides, there is often the contact information of the developer. - github, etc: Once again through search by individual person or by company names. Many developers have either company projects online and/or their personal projects. As usual be careful to not abuse or harass people with your requests.
- web designer: Sometimes when you can't reach a Web developer, you may try to reach Web designers who have also their own type of social networks such as dribbble.com. Usually they have contacts with Web developers and may be able to give an introduction. In some Web agencies, the Web designer will be a good entrance door, in some others, there is an open conflict in between Web developers and Web designers. Again, be tactful and don't make the life of the Web designer harder in his/her own company.
- Linkedin. One you can use with a bit of training is to use linkedin. It doesn't necessary work with all countries, but worth trying. You can start for example in your favorite search engine with:
- Corporate emails: This is more difficult, but may work time to time. When you know the person is working in a specific company (You have last and first name), but you have been unable to find any contacts at all through twitter and so on. You might want to find out through search engines and/or people working at this company how the email addresses have been created. You may find that the pattern is
firstname.lastname@company.example.orgorlastnameF@etc. You can try to send an email. The person will be probably surprised on how did you get the email address. So there is a risk to anger the person. Be gentle, explain, don't request. - whois: Some Web sites have their contact information in the whois of the Web site. It's becoming rarer and rarer, because people receive spams because of it.
- friend of a friend: This one is the fact that you are well connected in the industry. And it's why if you are a Mozilla contributor in a specific country, you are a very important asset for the work we are all trying to achieve. Local social networks in between companies is a lot denser. You will be able to know that the friend of this person is working in this company, and might be able to put you in contact with the right person.
calexity
miketaylr
tagawa
Once a bug is diagnosed, how do i find the person to report this to?
We could automate this via Twitter or LinkedIn. I'm sure @karlcow has some tricks of the trade to add here.