If something is confusing, broken, or simply not where you expected it,
there are four different doors — and they are for different things.
1. The help centre
/help is where you are now. It is organised by topic, and
there is a search box at the top. Most questions are answered somewhere
in here, and it is the fastest route because there is nobody to wait for.
/help/faq has the short answers to the questions that come
up most.
2. Ernest, the assistant
Ernest is the little assistant you can open from any page. Ask it in
plain language and it will point you at the right screen or the right
article. See Meet Ernest, your
assistant.
3. A support ticket
For anything that needs a person, open a ticket at
/help/contact.
You do not need an account. If you are signed out, the form asks for
your name and email so we can reply.
You pick a topic — Account, Billing, Content, Technical, Abuse or
Other — then a subject and your message. When you send it, you get a
reference code. Keep it; it identifies your ticket.
We aim to reply within one business day.
Following your ticket
- Signed in: your tickets are listed at
/profile/tickets. Open one to read the replies
and answer in the same place. You also get an email, and a
notification, when we reply. - Signed out: everything happens by email. The email we send
contains a private link back to your ticket, so keep it.
What to put in it
The more of this you can give us, the faster it goes:
- What you were doing, step by step, up to the moment it went wrong.
- Where — the website, or the app on which device.
- Roughly when, with your time zone. This is the single most useful
line, because it lets us find the matching record. - A screenshot, if the screen showed anything unusual.
- The app version, from the about page, if you are in an app.
4. Feedback, and the tester checklist
Two lighter-weight doors, both from your profile.
- Send feedback — a short form for "this could be better" and
"I wish it did X". It goes straight to the team. It is deliberately
fire-and-forget: it does not create a ticket and you will not get
a reply through it, so use a ticket if you need an answer. - Tester checklist at
/profile/tester— a list
of things worth trying, refreshed with each release. If you enjoy
finding the rough edges, this is the place.
Reporting content rather than a problem
A story, cover or comment that breaks the rules is not a support ticket
— use the flag icon on the item itself. That routes it to the
moderation team with the right context attached. See
Reporting content.
Two things we will never ask you for
- Your password. Not in an email, not in a ticket, never.
- Payment details. We do not handle them by email or in a ticket.
If a message claiming to be from OutaStory asks for either, it is not
from us. Report it at /help/contact.