Revise "Technical Difficulties" email to remove feature history and improve clarity of action steps

[mrwweb]

As someone who supports websites for numerous people and organizations, I've found that the "Technical Difficulties" email with recovery link is confusing to many people. I've had multiple people wonder if it's spam and many others be generally confused by it.

I would suggest the following changes based on the feedback I have heard:

• Change the first line to clearly indicate there is a potential problem with the website and drop the reference to WordPress 5.2. This is not important information anymore.
• Move all technical information to the end of the email so as not to intimidate and confuse non-technical recipients
• Be clear that there may or may not be an active problem. I will note that probably half of the emails I see sent are for temporary errors during updates that seem to have no lasting impact on the site.
• Suggest people contact their website host -OR- developer (currently, only the host is mentioned)

I have included a copy of the email for easy reference at the end of this issue. I'd be happy to work up the patch for this once a few other folks weigh in to either confirm or amend the suggestions I have.

Howdy!

Since WordPress 5.2 there is a built-in feature that detects when a plugin or theme causes a fatal error on your site, and notifies you with this automated email.

In this case, WordPress caught an error with one of your plugins, Jetpack.

First, visit your website ({url}) and check for any visible issues. Next, visit the page where the error was caught ({error path}) and check for any visible issues.

Please contact your host for assistance with investigating this issue further.

If your site appears broken and you can't access your dashboard normally, WordPress now has a special "recovery mode". This lets you safely login to your dashboard and investigate further.

{recovery mode link}

To keep your site safe, this link will expire in 1 day. Don't worry about that, though: a new link will be emailed to you if the error occurs again after it expires.

When seeking help with this issue, you may be asked for some of the following information:
WordPress version
Current theme:
Current plugin:
PHP version

Error Details
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[johnbillion]

Agreed, the wording and arrangement of this email could do with improvement.

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 55001:

Site Health: Remove the WordPress 5.2 reference from the email sent on fatal errors.

The version reference was initially added to reduce confusion and make it clear that this is new WordPress functionality, with the website itself sending an automated notification of a fatal error, most likely in a plugin or theme.

Almost four years and several major releases later, it no longer adds any helpful information and can be removed.

Follow-up to [44973], [45181], [45268].

Props NekoJonez, jb510, peterwilsoncc, kebbet, mukesh27, mrwweb, johnbillion, SergeyBiryukov.
Fixes #57327. See #54961.

[farhansabirdynasign]

This seems to be fixed already: ​https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/commit/eb21dd95116262ba6856d29576bcd0cc0ae3a6ef

@adamsilverstein or @jorbin could you please help close this?

[jorbin]

@farhansabirdynasign While there was an update to remove the reference to 5.2, the other piece in the original ticket are still valid. Namely:

• Move all technical information to the end of the email so as not to intimidate and confuse non-technical recipients
• Be clear that there may or may not be an active problem. I will note that probably half of the emails I see sent are for temporary errors during updates that seem to have no lasting impact on the site.
• Suggest people contact their website host -OR- developer (currently, only the host is mentioned)

Addressing the following concerns with this updated email structure:

• Move all technical information to the end of the email so as not to intimidate and confuse non-technical recipients
• Be clear that there may or may not be an active problem. I will note that probably half of the emails I see sent are for temporary errors during updates that seem to have no lasting impact on the site.
• Suggest people contact their website host -OR- developer (currently, only the host is mentioned)

[farhansabirdynasign]

Here's a PR addressing the mentioned points: ​https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress-develop/pull/7381