documentation mini-bug

[Dennis Brown]

On Jul 9, 2005, at 10:29 AM, Derek Bump wrote:

> Mark Wieder wrote:
>
>> Excuse me? ALL your customers have to do is bitch somewhere on a
>> listserv and their complaints magically get taken care of? You don't
>> use any bugtracking tools to track and prioritize your work? You  
>> don't
>> have any idea how often certain features have been suggested or the
>> severity level of bugs? Oh, sorry, from some of your posts I almost
>> had you mistaken for a real developer. My bad.
>>
>
> I happen to agree with Jon.  I have noticed that people are more  
> likely to complain publicly about a product than contacting it's  
> manufacturer and informing them of their trouble.
>
>
> Example #1:  My friend swears up and down that Ford trucks are the  
> best and Chevy trucks are the worst.  He owned 1 Chevy truck, then  
> 2 Fords, and did he contact Chevy to tell them about the problems  
> that his truck had...nope.
>
> Example #2:  An ex-girlfriend of mine detests the Applebees  
> restaurant because she got a chicken sandwich and it wasn't cooked  
> all the way. Now she tells everyone how bad Applebees is.  Did she  
> talk to the manager or write the company to let them know there was  
> a problem...nope.
>
> Example #3:  90% of the people I know in the computer world are  
> unsatisfied with Microsoft Windows (All Versions).  Have they ever  
> written a letter or email to let Microsoft know about the bugs that  
> they experienced...nope. (In most cases they would either switch to  
> a Mac or just live with it hoping that Microsoft would read their  
> minds.)
>
>
> I too have received complaints about my software, as well as bug  
> reports, but in the end the best way I've been able to see what  
> people want is to read the reviews that people post about my  
> program.  Whether it be on CNET.com or some random bulletin board.   
> And you know what...I've seen more public posts than emails or  
> letters combined.
>
>
> Derek Bump
> Dreamscape Software

There are two sides to this.  How many times has someone complained  
of a bug on this list only to find (with the help of the good folks  
here) that it was programmer error?  Does Rev have a person with no  
other responsibilities than monitoring every message and following  
all the threads for days or weeks to their logical conclusion to see  
if it was in fact something "they" need to add to the bug list?

The point is that there is a good system in place for the independent  
members of this list to discuss their problems, find a logical cause  
and do something about it --fix the program, fix the misconception,  
make a formal bug report in due time after reflecting on the  
situation and performing tests, and at times even providing patches  
to the IDE.

The bug report is the conclusion of a collaborative process that  
helps RunRev understand how to produce the bug on different machines  
and how severe it is (no workarounds).  We are helping ourselves by  
following this process, because we are helping RunRev focus their  
resources on fixing the severe problems instead of scattering their  
resources on trying to track all the conversations on this list -- 
then monitoring the bug reports to see if a valid one was not  
generated within x days.

We know that RunRev does have technical people "monitoring" this  
list, and they do take action before the bug reports are filed when  
something causes a big stir on the list.  So they are not just doing  
nothing until a bug report is filed.  But we must also take  
responsibility for our threads.  The person who reports the problem  
in a thread, should make a BZ entry when it has been determined that  
it really is a bug, or ask one of the other confirmers to do it if  
they don't feel able to do it.

We are not just idle gossipers and malcontents, we are users with a  
vested interest in seeing bugs fixed and new features added that make  
our lives easier.

Dennis