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"Visible to" no longer defaults to "Everyone"

Answered


Posted Oct 09, 2018

A recent product update has caused all new Articles to default to Managers and agents instead of Everyone as before.

This means on every new article, we have to remember to change it to Everyone.

This is an unwanted change on a paid for account.


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35 comments

That`s exactly what we thought to that change. 

 

2


Hey there!

we moved the visibility permissions from section to article level. This also means that we had to take the more secure and restrictive path that will cover the most scenarios.

We also introduced bulk actions for changing visibility permissions, which makes it easier to mass update the Visible To from, say "Agents and managers" to "Everyone".

That being said, nothing is set in stone and we're looking to improve the new permissions system based on user feedback.

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How do I apply that bulk change? I couldn't find it. I can only apply the change to 30 articles at a time...

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I am glad there is a bulk feature, but the default is still an extra step that is not necessary 99% of the time for my team. I like it defaulting to Everyone (which is our majority case) and changing it if it is special. Not changing it if it is normal.

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Hey @Morgan,

having "Everyone" as the default user segment for everyone is probably not going to work - we'll just get complaints from the other half of the customer base :)

Instead, how about defaulting to the last used user segment? Then they would just need to change it the first time.

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@bodgan That would solve the problem I'm having.

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@Bogdan,

How would that work / function with several people adding articles at the same time across the same Help Center? Would it get confusing if the default kept changing? What if they hit save the same time? I would figure the latest "save", but would want to make sure that doesn't break anything else. Also, would it be across help centers or individual based? If it is individual based I could see that helping a lot more. We have a Help Center for our clients and one for our staff, we are constantly going back and forth on them and adding / modifying content. Also, would the default be based on addition permissions or just any generic "save" action?

This may be a little more complicated, but what about a way to set the default yourself (i.e. the admins) per Help Center? Then if one client needs it one way they can have it, and a different client could have it a different way - whatever fit their needs.

0


We also want the default visibility to go back to "Everyone".  What I'm finding now is that, out of habit, I create articles without looking at the visibility setting, and they are not being published so that our users can see them.  75% of our articles are for "everyone".  I have had to make sure I go in each day and look at the new articles created and see if any "Agents & Mangers" articles really should be set to "Everyone".  Thank you.

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This change has been a huge pain for my team. We have many people from different teams who write articles, who now all need to be consistently reminded that this needs to be changed with every new one they create. We're sending out release notes that no one can see. We're promoting articles in email campaigns that no one can access. We have to go through and change multiple checklists for our processes, but even with that the likelihood that we'll miss something is high. You've added an extra step to every single article we make. If you won't change it back to Everyone as the default across the board, please at least let each of your customers set what their default should be, because this is a huge waste of our energy to have to worry about. It is a really awful decision to make this change with no option to customize.

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Hey everybody and thanks for the feedback! During the research process it became obvious to us that there are two competing views on this: companies that want everything hidden by default and companies that want articles to be available to everyone.

We then decided to go with the more restricted default visibility.

Looks like we have to give a bit more flexibility on this, so right now we're looking at defaulting to the last used user segment.

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Having the same feeling here that I wish it could default to "Everyone".

 

Seems like this could be a really easy fix by adding an option in Guide Settings > Content Management titled "Set the default visibility for new Help Center articles".

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I'm with Elizabeth on this, it should be a configurable option under guide setting? 

This would allow a company to decide what they want as the default visibility for new articles, and not have to rely on a guess from zendesk

This would solve the problem of having to make a decision that would negatively impact half your userbase, and put the decision into our own hands. 

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@Bogdon if there were clearly two competing views, I can't fathom why both weren't considered for a solution before making such a universal change that results in so much additional work. It's a monumental oversight in my opinion. 

I also agree with comments from others that defaulting to the same restriction as the last article could be confusing as we have multiple people writing articles across different teams, and sometimes may segment who sees them if it's for a beta project or something. We really don't want this.

Why can't the default just be set at a either a Guide, Category, or Section level with the option to modify individual articles as needed?

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I also agree with Elizabeth; it should be a configurable option under the guide setting!

Forcing half of your customers to operate one way because the other half of your customers requested something is NOT the solution. Instead, providing your customers with options so that they can customize their environment to suit their needs is the way to go.

Thank you for your time.

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Please either make article visibility a configurable default setting or make it remember (in the browser) the last used visibility. This is very annoying to have to remember to flip it to Everyone every time.

 

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image avatar

Dan Cooper

Community Moderator

Most of the replies to this thread appear to be related to the need to post articles publicly by default.  I'm on the other side where we should minimize exposure to articles until they are ready to public consumption and I wanted to share an option that you can use today to help you setup some of this customization today if you are on certain plans.  

If you are using the Knowledge Capture app (Professional & Enterprise plans), you can create custom article templates that will allow you to set your default visibility for articles created with that template.  Creating a new article from within the app will populate these options automatically for you.

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image avatar

Grant Foster

Zendesk Luminary

Were there any updates on how this is going to be configured going forward? I'm on the side of letting us choose the default option. No reason it should be a setting that's forced.

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Just chiming in to add that my company would really like to be able to control the visibility default as well. 95% of our articles should be visible to everyone, and it's a pain to remind our writers to check that setting every time.

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Hey all,

we're looking at this as part of permissions improvements work in Q2.

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How about taking the approach of a file server. Have what is being created inherit from its parent. This kinda gives everyone what they want... If you always make your content available to everyone then inherently it will be. If, you usually control the visibility then it will inherit the control you have put on the Category or Section it lives in.

Personally, my help center is divided by a number of my large clients (each client has a Category) with some Categories available to everyone. So, by default, I would want any Articles or Sections I am working on to inherit the same permissions of its parent Section or Category it lives in.

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We also want the default visibility to go back to "Everyone".  We have several "agents" adding content to our site - and out of habit, we create articles without looking at the visibility setting.  This means the articles are being published so that our users can't see them, and we have to backtrack and change the visibility settings.  80% of our articles are for "Everyone".  Please give Agents control of the default visibility setting and save our small not-for-profit organisation's limited resources!  Thank you.

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Are there any news regarding this unwanted change?

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Bump

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Yes, let's please not overcomplicate this - provide a dropdown setting where we can choose what behavior we want and let's make everyone happy at the same time.

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Having a hard time to inform our users to set the permissions and "repairing" mistakes. It is too complicated for them and that leads to discussions about other solutions. Please help us to make Guide user-friendly

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I'm trying to find a setting where I can choose the default visibility for new articles.  Does this still not exist?  Having to switch it for every article, or even being forced to perform bulk actions to change this, is an annoying extra step that could be solved with a user preference.

1


As a new Helpdesk user, this surprised us as well. Having to change it for every article is not ideal for us, and as we decide whether to add on paid seats, this may be a dealbreaker. Has any further thought been given to making this a user preference?

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Is there a way to change the visibility to Everyone in 100 articles simultaneously? In three years it appeared I guess...

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This has been so frustrating this whole time since the change was made. I hate having to change it every time I make an article.

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Is there a way to bulk change the visibility settings of articles? The "Visible Setting" is not even a choice to add a column when looking at the list of articles, which means I need to click into each article to verify what visibility settings has been applied. 

 

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