Since the launch of our first project in 2007, the Zooniverse has grown and matured thanks to the tremendous contributions from our amazing community of volunteers around the world, as well as the Zooniverse web development teams and researchers based at the University of Oxford, the Adler Planetarium, the University of Minnesota, and many individual project research teams.  Together, these efforts have led to over 200 successful projects to date!

One of the features that makes the Zooniverse so special is that volunteers engage directly with researchers through each project’s “Talk” discussion forum. Not only have many breakthrough scientific discoveries been made through Talk (e.g., Boyajian’s Star), but equally important, it is the place where communities form. We love that this happens, and we strive to support an inclusive, nurturing community within the Zooniverse. Our fantastic Talk moderators play a central role in creating this supportive environment; helping to welcome and orient newcomers, answer questions, share insights, and focus the research team’s attention on questions and threads that particularly need their input.

Another way volunteers boost the quality of Zooniverse projects is through the direct feedback they provide on new projects before they launch. Over 50,000 volunteers have signed up to review projects during beta testing! The feedback these testers provide clarifies project tasks and goals, makes projects easy to use, and improves data quality. We take this feedback very seriously and important project refinements often emerge from this review process.  To sign-up as a beta test reviewer, visit your Zooniverse account email settings page.

In addition to engaging with the researchers through the project ‘Talk’ discussion forums and participating in the review process for new projects, we wanted to share additional ways to find information as well as share your ideas and feedback with us.

• For FAQs (e.g., how to unsubscribe from emails, reset your password, etc.):
  • Visit https://zooniverse.freshdesk.com/support/solutions for answers to common questions.
    
    
• If you notice a bug/problem:
  • Email contact@zooniverse.org.In your email, include the web browser and operating system you’re using (visit whatismybrowser.com if you’re unsure).Please understand that the Zooniverse team is small and busy. We read all emails and take your feedback very seriously, but unfortunately we cannot directly reply to all of the emails we receive.
    
    
• If you want to loop a Zooniverse team member into a Talk discussion when there is an issue that cannot be resolved by the project team:
  • Tag the Zooniverse team in your Talk post using “@support”.
    
    
• If you have a general question and/or comment that’s not specific to an individual Zooniverse project:
  • Post within the Zooniverse Global ‘Talk’ discussion forum (which has general threads like Troubleshooting, Mobile App, and Education). 
    
    
• If you notice a Security issue:
  • Email security@zooniverse.org, and follow the instructions on the Zooniverse security page.
    
    
• If you’re using the Project Builder Platform (zooniverse.org/lab) to build a new Zooniverse project and have a question:
  • Post in the Project Building Zooniverse Global‘ Talk’ discussion forum.

Thank you so much for your contributions to the Zooniverse community!

Laura
Zooniverse Co-PI, VP of Citizen Science at the Adler Planetarium