A Reply to Shamax. Introducing: Bugtracker Etiquette (Main Topic)

[bilbous]

Reply to Shamax in re:

blibous, I deleted your PM without reading it. You should've known that new posters can't send new PMs or even replies, so if I know I don't have a chance to reply, I won't read what you said. If you have something to say to me, say it in public in a relevant topic or don't say it at all. No hard feelings at all and thanks.

gees only three more posts and you could have replied. My PM might have been to the wrong person anyway. I assumed Shamax here is the same as Shamax on the bugtracker, pardon me if I am wrong. It was about this bug.

I was trying to politely make suggestions about the bugtracker but since you felt it necessary to delete it unread, as you say, let me be more blunt. Lemurs not getting 1 point of 4 magic ways is not a critical bug worthy of a priority level of 5. By insisting that it is of utmost importance and has to remain exactly as you set it is rather counter-productive. It will not make it get fixed any faster and it may well be ignored. In the character creation tool it clearly states that racial benefits/disadvantages or to be implemented later. I probably should not have confirmed your bug as I do not know if, as you say, the 4 points used to be allocated, I just know they are not now.

End of Message

Main Topic:

What is the proper way for a non-coder to set the options of a new bug? As far as I can tell nearly anything a player who isn't running from cvs reports belongs to one of the client sub-options. Is it appropriate to set the priority and severity to arbitrary values or should we defer to the people who actually handle the bug reports?

I tend to leave most of the options set to default and usually leave other's bug reports alone unless I think I have something valuable to add. I got my fingers burned the only time I tried changing someone else's bug options to what I felt was more appropriate, I won't soon do that again. I probably should have left it to the bug maintainer.

Does anyone have any advice for me?

[Zan]

Personally I do it the same way, I leave it on default and let someone who is involved in the development itself determine how urgent a bugreport might be. The only thing I do in the bug tracker is leave messages that are helpful and create new reports when there aren't any yet. I definitely don't go changing the reports of others, heck I won't even change my own after my initial posting. The only parameter I sometimes use is the "wishlist" one if my report is more a small suggestion of changing the current mechanics than an actual bug.

I'm here to test, report bugs and give useful information. Not to decide how things are done and in what priority they are fixed.

[Lanarel]

I know some guidelines for using the bugtracker are being made. Until then, and while anyone can change the whole report (including priorities), this is how I would use it:

Most importantly, without guidelines, no-one can blame you for making a mistake. Being corrected does not mean you are misusing the BT. When you are corrected, especially by someone who seems to know what he (or she) is doing, do not argue and change things immediately back though.

About where to file a bug: I think most bugs will be under client. It is really difficult to know whether something is handled on client or server side if you do not know the code, so if you are not sure put it under client. It also has more descriptive categories there (like magic, which I personally think is often a server side scripting problem ).
More important is to state which version and if relevant OS, you are using.

In general, people checking the bug tracker regularly (like me) sort bugs on date or id, so new changes are seen on top. Not on priority. So setting a new bug with high priority does nothing for it being noticed. A too high priority will just be changed more quickly. Sorting on priority does make sense to see which older bugs should get some attention, especially with a coming release. For that reason, I did lower priority on several bugs a while ago. Critical bugs are now those that crash client or server, can get you killed, or allow big exploits. Significant are those that do affect game play, but do not require the server to be shutdown for days and wipes done, if not fixed. SInce my changes were not corrected, I consider this a good way. Some priority 5 critical bugs will not be fixed soon (for example the sewer entrance problem), but they are there to be not forgotten, and can be avoided in game if you know about them.

My suggestion is to just keep defaults in the bug for priority and such, when you have no idea what to do. It will probably be changed anyway. WHen you do have an idea, just change it and see if it stays that way. When you are not corrected for several bugs, you will get an idea of how to file the reports.

The same goes for closing bugs. Do not do so until you have a very good idea why you are doing it. It is better to add a comment that a bug should be closed, and why.

Hope this helps, and please keep filing bugs.

Edit: Zan posted while I wrote, but it did not show when I pressed save . I think the way zan described is exactly what I mean

[ThomPhoenix]

You can easily change Component (Art bug, quest bug, item bug, etc), Version (Did you use the standard version or latest development version), Summary (Make a clear title) and URL (If you have a screenshot to show). The rest can easily be handled by the Bug Team once they notice it.