This blog started off as a two line entry about my pet hate for people starting bug reports off with “This isn’t a bug, but…”. However, as I ate my lunch I remembered some more irritating habits I’ve witnessed over my three million year tenure as a lowly programmer who has to deal with bug reports daily.
Ways to “bug” a developer in their bug tracker system.
Start a bug report with: “This isn’t a bug, but….” and then ramble on aimlessly about why you think feature X should be changed / added / removed. That’s the best way to get the developers attention.
Use an old outdated development release. Don’t update or read the fixed bugs, just re-post bugs long since fixed. Just to make sure they were fixed. After all, it’s easier for the development team to just clean up the bug tracker than it is to simply upgrade.
Ignore the bug report above yours which explains your bug perfectly and start another one anyway. The chances are it’ll get fixed sooner if it’s reported many times.
Read a bug with a reproducable error and add “Me too!” as your comment. It always helps to get a second, third, four hundredth opinion.
Ignore important details such as OS version, browser version or even software version in your bug report. Developers have special powers and don’t need such information.
Ignore any details what-so-ever on the bug, just post “It’s broken”. The developer is bound to know what’s broken so all they need is a nudge!
If you get told your reported bug has already been fixed or that it’s not actually a bug - continue to argue for as long as you can hold out. The developers only wrote the software so what the heck do they know!
There are many more examples, but I’ve just depressed myself. For the sake of programmers and project managers everywhere, don’t do it!
11 comments
Comments feed for this article
September 8, 2004 at 1:08 pm
Anonymous
Agreed!
September 8, 2004 at 3:59 pm
Franklin
LOL! But sadly enough it is very true
End users… *sigh* … I wish there were none
(j/k)
September 8, 2004 at 6:34 pm
Anonymous
me too!
September 8, 2004 at 9:49 pm
AiR-head
Yeah.. That’s horrible.
You should get a tag-board here, Matt.
September 9, 2004 at 12:45 am
Michael
Sad but true :(.
September 9, 2004 at 2:31 pm
jalmusic
Gee, I think that was me. Sorry Matt! Don’t take suggestions from anyone again!!!!
September 9, 2004 at 4:52 pm
Matt
Suggestions are great, I love suggestions. They make a product better. That’s why we have a whole forum where you can post your suggestions.
That’s where suggestions belong. In the suggestions forum. Not the bug reports forum.
September 9, 2004 at 5:51 pm
Outlaw
http://www.ipsbloggers.com/imgs/laugh.gif
Sad but true on bug reports.
September 9, 2004 at 7:31 pm
Anonymous
My personal favorites are vauge screenshots named “junk.jpg” with no obvious error, and the accompanying email which shines all the light. “Fix this, see attached screen shot”
And sometimes these come without the attachment, and other times the attachment is the wrong one.
The best part of the attachment is it is usually full size shot of the page, with no drawn circles or arrows pointing to the error, no noticible errors, and after 57 emails of prodding and getting back “look at the screen shot moron, it is common sense” you finally find out they are upset about a NON functionality bug know as the elusive and brash “TYPO”!!
Oh the ultimate joy of discovery!
September 9, 2004 at 7:33 pm
James Mathias
the above was me, for some reason it did not submit my details after previewing.
September 18, 2004 at 4:21 pm
Anonymous
lol!!! Im still laughing!
Matt, you REALLY should post this in the bug reports area. I mean, like a page where you have to actually read it before you post.