We currently CANNOT accept bugs via Discord

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Expand view Topic review: We currently CANNOT accept bugs via Discord

Re: We currently CANNOT accept bugs via Discord

by Rachael » Sun Jan 02, 2022 1:13 pm

That is a very good proposal and one that is definitely worth discussion and consideration.

Re: We currently CANNOT accept bugs via Discord

by Major Cooke » Sun Jan 02, 2022 1:12 pm

Interesting...

While I've posted an announcement reminding people that bug reports will go unaddressed in the server, it's tempting to ask for a rule (or well, more of a guideline) that says:

"Do not post bugs solely in the Discord server. We're not a 24/7 support team, and the issues reported may be lost. Please make sure you at least post it on the forums and/or the github issue tracker so these can be addressed in a timely manner."

Or something like that.

Re: The issue with reporting bugs via Discord

by Rachael » Sun Jan 02, 2022 1:06 pm

Major Cooke wrote:Now that Graf has put his foot down, I think it's time to make it a definite "Don't report bugs via Discord". Just my two cents.
No, this does not address the proposed solution that was originally put in the thread. Even though that solution looks less likely (and was already unlikely to begin with), Graf's statement does not explicitly cancel it out.

Actually, with the advent of Github and its API which happens to be a lot more flexible than phpBB's, such a Discord bot would be a lot more doable/viable. And such a bot would still help address the problem of issues getting lost - since tickets could be linked to Discord accounts via databases, where all responses to that ticket could be sent directly to the user.

Re: We currently CANNOT accept bugs via Discord

by Enjay » Sun Jan 02, 2022 12:56 pm

That kind of discussion also has the tendency to become quite toxic too because, to the people discussing it, it feels like the problem has been aired, but the "developers aren't doing anything about it" (because the developers don't know anything about it).

Re: We currently CANNOT accept bugs via Discord

by Graf Zahl » Sun Jan 02, 2022 11:29 am

What's worse than reporting bugs on Discord is discussing bugs but not notifying the developers. I can't be everywhere and just randomly stumbled over the discussion there.
What's the point of adding new features if people check them, find out that they don't work and still keep quiet? I could just save the time altogether and not develop the features in the first place then. The result would be the same.

Re: The issue with reporting bugs via Discord

by Major Cooke » Sun Jan 02, 2022 9:04 am

Rachael wrote:Is this better?

I don't want to set in stone "don't report bugs via Discord" - that is the rule, yes, but I detailed a possible out for that rule if the problems for doing so are addressed (by a bot).
Now that Graf has put his foot down, I think it's time to make it a definite "Don't report bugs via Discord". Just my two cents.

Re: We currently CANNOT accept bugs via Discord

by Graf Zahl » Sun Jan 02, 2022 2:35 am

Since it apparently happens routinely to discuss bugs and problems on Discord or other places where developers are not constantly present, let's repeat this again because it's starting to become a real problem:

If you do not report the bug either here or in the Github issue tracker, it is as good as making no report at all!
The discussions at Discord disappear into the ether far quicker than anybody needs to allocate some time to look into these issues.

And if this trend continues I might just calll it quits because it's frustrating to see people complain about bugs but providing no help whatsoever to get them addressed.
I'm sorry to be harsh but this is not an environment where it's fun to work in.

Re: We currently CANNOT accept bugs via Discord

by wildweasel » Sun Apr 26, 2020 2:50 pm

Also, one of my other Discord servers discovered that there is a limit to how many pinned messages you can have in a channel, so something with as many reports as we get on ZDoom Forums would hit that limit very quickly.

Re: We currently CANNOT accept bugs via Discord

by Rachael » Sat Apr 25, 2020 2:47 pm

Yeah that simply won't work for us partly for the reasons Cooke already illustrated.

The nature of our dev team serves the ideology well that everything should be in one place. It's much more organized and efficient that way.

There's another issue too, that requires us to use the forum instead: We tried a ticket tracker and what ended up happening was people would hit-and-run their reports - so they'd say something extremely vague like "renderer broken! renderer stopped working!" and then we'd never hear from them again - no vital details as to why, their hardware setups, what mods they are loading, or their settings. We're not mind readers. Yes, that happens on the forum too, but way less than it did on the tracker.

Re: We currently CANNOT accept bugs via Discord

by Major Cooke » Sat Apr 25, 2020 2:36 pm

No one will check them. Also the server's population will make it a complete hassle and just not worth it. Furthermore, Graf doesn't go there so it especially does no one any good.

Re: We currently CANNOT accept bugs via Discord

by printz » Sat Apr 25, 2020 2:22 pm

Rachael wrote: The reason why this is actively discouraged and why we direct people to the forum every time this happens is because of the ephemeral nature of what appears in Discord. To put it simply: It disappears, and is long forgotten about, before a dev has a chance to address it. And then we have to deal with the age-old complaint "but I reported it via Discord but you guys ignored me!" - no, we didn't ignore you, it was you who insisted on a medium where your message would scroll off and get forgotten.

That's not even counting the fact that the majority of GZDoom's devs do not use Discord at all.

Sure, you can scroll back, but then you're scrolling back through VERY long logs of conversations in order to get to what you want - and honestly, no dev is going to do that.
Isn't pinning Discord posts a solution? This is how I deal with it on Eternity; rather than telling people to keep their thoughts and move their reports to GitHub, I just pin their posts so I can revisit them later (usually months later).

Re: The issue with reporting bugs via Discord

by Xaser » Mon Dec 10, 2018 10:40 am

I think the title should straight-up say "Don't". "Maybe Later" still means "Not now" -- the title can be changed later if that bot ever happens.

Re: The issue with reporting bugs via Discord

by Major Cooke » Sun Dec 09, 2018 4:21 pm

Yep that's better.

Re: The issue with reporting bugs via Discord

by Rachael » Sun Dec 09, 2018 10:29 am

Is this better?

I don't want to set in stone "don't report bugs via Discord" - that is the rule, yes, but I detailed a possible out for that rule if the problems for doing so are addressed (by a bot).

Re: Reporting bugs via Discord

by Major Cooke » Sun Dec 09, 2018 10:25 am

I think it might help if this was titled "Do NOT report bugs via Discord!"

Those who take it at face value without reading it... might be encouraged to do the opposite. That's just my thoughts though. I know, we shouldn't be compensating or even need to consider that but... Let's just say my egotistical side's first reaction is "...was this inviting people to report on discord?" from the title alone.

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