Dear Bug Hunters,
during the last days I read several multiple postings of one bug (I also did that). To ease up screening the forum for reported bugs for Lee I have the following suggestion:
If you recognize your bug has been already reported please change your topic to …[Already Reported] so Lee knows that he does not need to read that entire thread.
Best regards,
Markus
@Lee or forum admins: If you like that you might make the post sticky or something like that.
Just a thought to consider;
If you recognize your bug has already been reported post your additional information in THAT thread instead of starting a new one. This will make it easier for everyone with the same problem to find the answer as they would only need to look in one thread, not multiple threads to see which one Lee answered. It also means that you would only need to subscribe to one thread to see all the information and answers instead of subscribing to each thread for notices.
Why not make it easier on everyone?
My suggestion is only ment in case you recognize it’s already reported AFTER opening a new thread to prevent Lee reading the same thing twice or more.
Did I get you right?: You think in addition to “marking the thread” all additional Information should be posted within the original thread, right (and of course it should be linked)?
If you agree, we can add that to my initial post to have it in one “compact” place.
Best Regards,
Markus
Yeah, this. And in every beta I’ve done, keeping prose as short as possible is good, as are bullet points and/or lists of steps. Those can be scanned quicker than paragraphs, especially if the person in question is short on sleep, caffeine, or both.
The problem is figuring out if the bug you’re reporting has already been reported or not.
Before I post a bug, I glance through the recent topics to see if any of them seem to be my bug and if I don’t see anything, then I post it. But there are too many messages to go through everything thoroughly before posting a new bug.
It would be nice if there were something that had the list of known bugs so that the bug hunters could look through it and see if they’re duplicating something as well as the status of the bug.
Actually, I think your main problem is single posters who never realize it’s already been reported, and don’t even check for responses. I would suggest that Forum Moderators be the one’s changing the titles on those kinds of posts. I know there are only a few of you. (I’d be glad to volunteer to help)
I’ve modded forums before, and I also used to take posts and merge them. As in, this bug is already posted, I am going to merge this new thread reporting the same bug right into it and get rid of the clutter on the main board. Mind you it was a different forum system and I’m not even sure if that suggestion is applicable here.
I guess the downside to a completely public beta is that some testers just don’t care enough to take the time to make sure their bug isn’t already reported. Whether it be by visually searching the forums, or by actually using the search function.
Yes, I notice this a lot, too. Someone downloads the beta, finds a problem, creates an account, and posts about it, without ever bothering to even read any of the topic titles. It means a lot of repeated information over and over again.
Some people have mentioned a topic that contains a list of known issues. That might help alleviate some of it, if anyone had the time to go make one.
Agreed - its been a problem. A lot of those threads need to be locked down with a link to the original. That way the user is able to follow the discussion, but we aren’t having 3 different threads on the exact same topic.
I would help moderate too, but first we need to either have a sticky or just encourage folks to look first. Of course, if it is something that has fallen of the first page or two that is fine, but the rest of us can certainly help out by posting a link to the orig and say, hey repost over here and follow that one.
Helps somewhat, but agree it that doesn’t solve the just plain not looking issue.
Thank you for taking the time and having the good sense to discuss this issue.
There’s discussions underway internally to progress this.
I think the idea of a list of all known bugs is a good idea. I will work on getting this into a succinct publishable state and leave it in the announcement section.
Lee
The only problem with adding posts to a current thread is that a lot of the time you won’t get feedback.
Especially if the thread already has ‘Reqeusted sample’ or something else in the title. There is a good chance the thread will make it’s way off the first page and then most likely be ignored.