At Microsoft Learn, we are committed to empowering you with the tools and resources you need to build technical skills and achieve your goals. Your input and suggestions are critical to us in meeting your skilling needs. On Microsoft Learn, you can find documentation, training, code samples, videos, credentials, and more, all in support of Microsoft’s expansive portfolio of products. Thousands of writers, advocates, architects, product managers, and engineers from across Microsoft and our community come together to create and maintain the content you find on Microsoft Learn. We rely on your feedback to keep the content accurate and up to date.
Some of the products we support are open source. Products like .NET, Azure PowerShell, PowerShell, and PowerToys have community members deeply involved in the direction of the products and contribute heavily to the docs supporting them. Simultaneously, we have a rapidly expanding content set across the rest of Microsoft’s product portfolio where it remains important for us to receive your actionable input.
To address both needs, we’re beginning the process of rolling out a new feedback system across Microsoft Learn.
First, we’ve introduced a simplified thumbs up / thumbs down form, where you can provide feedback and comments. Our writers and content contributors monitor your submissions and make updates to the content based on your responses. Using this form, you can submit your comments in languages other than English, and your submissions will remain anonymous. The form is a consistent experience; it’s available on every documentation article and training module on Microsoft Learn. This form will become your primary method for submitting feedback for many repositories across Microsoft Learn. Accordingly, we will close out and turn off GitHub Issues for many repositories in a rolling period throughout 2024. Please refer to the repo list at the bottom of the article for additional details.
Second, we will still accept Pull Requests for content. This means that even if GitHub Issues is turned off, if you see the pencil icon in the upper right corner of the article, you can send a Pull Request to our team.
1. Edit Pencil to submit Content Pull Request
2. Feedback control to access the thumbs up / thumbs down form
Third, we remain committed to open source. This means that most open-source products will continue to have open-source content repositories. In those repositories, you’ll continue to use GitHub Issues and Pull Requests like you do today, and we look forward to continuing to receive your suggestions. It’s important to note that even the open-source repositories will have the option of using the new form for submitting your responses, if you prefer to use it over GitHub Issues or a Pull Request. We have a few additional repositories with high engagement which will also remain on GitHub Issues; see the full repo list below.
Your feedback on our content is essential to keeping our content accurate and up to date. Thank you for your continued support of Microsoft Learn.
Repository List
Below is the list of repositories where GitHub Issues will remain available; all other repositories will have GitHub Issues turned off in a rolling period throughout 2024:
- Azure/azure-docs-sdk-dotnet
- Azure/azure-docs-sdk-java
- dotnet/AspNetCore.Docs
- dotnet/docs
- dotnet/docs-aspire
- dotnet/docs-desktop
- dotnet/docs-maui
- dotnet/entityframework.apidocs
- dotnet/entityframework.docs
- dotnet/maui-api-docs
- MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs-powershell
- MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs-sdk-node
- MicrosoftDocs/azure-docs-sdk-python
- MicrosoftDocs/microsoft-365-community
- MicrosoftDocs/PowerShell-Docs
- MicrosoftDocs/PowerShell-Docs-DSC
- MicrosoftDocs/PowerShell-Docs-Modules
- MicrosoftDocs/PowerShell-Docs-PSGet
- MicrosoftDocs/terminal
- MicrosoftDocs/Windows-Dev-Docs
- MicrosoftDocs/WSL
- Mono/SkiaSharp-API-docs
- OfficeDev/office-js-docs-pr
- OfficeDev/office-js-docs-reference
- OfficeDev/office-scripts-docs
- OfficeDev/office-scripts-docs-reference
- Xamarin/essentials
Frequently asked questions
Why are you making this change?
Previously, we had several different feedback systems across Microsoft Learn, and this is a step toward unifying the systems to better support everyone’s feedback. This includes improved routing for customer feedback to our support, product, and content teams. It also will be an improved experience for our global audience. Additionally, a top customer concern is privacy, and this new system allows for anonymous feedback. Finally, this change supports the variety of users who use Microsoft Learn, not all of whom use GitHub regularly.
Everyone is familiar with GitHub. Why would you do this?
Many of our end users for Microsoft Learn are not familiar with GitHub; they don’t even have an account. For those who are regular GitHub users, we will still accept Pull Requests across Microsoft Learn. And many repositories will stay on GitHub Issues (see full list above) in addition to having access to the new system.
GitHub already supports multiple languages and anonymity. How is this new system an improvement?
GitHub Issues is only available from the English language site for Microsoft Learn. The new feedback system is available across all of our localized sites, and the underlying tools for the feedback offer translation capabilities. On the subject of anonymity, GitHub profiles can be set to private, but they still contain links to the user’s bio and profile photo. Additionally, because many of our users do not have GitHub accounts, we want to support their feedback needs, too, without requiring them to create a GitHub account (anonymous or otherwise).
Why not support both GitHub Issues and the new feedback system?
Our team can support both GitHub Issues for the identified open-source repositories and the new feedback system, but we are not able to support GitHub Issues for all repositories on Microsoft Learn plus feedback coming in through the new system.
Will the feedback submitted through the new system still be publicly visible?
No, feedback submitted through the new system won’t be publicly visible, in support of customer privacy. You will still be able to see the Commit History for an article in a public repository, to see the history of changes for an article.
How will this system ensure feedback is routed in a timely manner?
The new system has integrations to our support team systems, for faster routing for support issues that might come through. It also will allow for improved classification, analysis, and routing to product and content teams working on Microsoft Learn.
Will the new feedback system support markdown?
We are continuing to evolve feedback capabilities as we’re going forward. We’ve received feedback about support for markdown, images, and the need for capabilities to support discussion and collaboration; this is valuable feedback for future feature development.
Will open-source products have open-source content repositories?
For the most part, yes. A couple of the open-source product teams have opted to have Pull Requests only (see the full list of repositories above).
How can I see the history of changes for an article?
Article history is still available in public repositories. Click on the pencil icon at the top of the article to open the repo. Then click on History to browse the edit history for an article.
Why are you switching from GitHub to the Microsoft Feedback Portal?
Our new feedback system is not based on, nor does it utilize the Microsoft Feedback Portal. The Feedback Portal is for product feedback. Our feedback system is for feedback on the content on the Microsoft Learn site. Your feedback is tied to the page you are on so that our authors can understand the context of your feedback.
What if I have feedback about a Microsoft product?
The new form contains links to where you can give feedback about Microsoft products. It also contains a link to the Microsoft Q&A site.
Editor’s note: This blog was updated to include FAQs about this change.
