[tdf-discuss] How developers scare end-users away from filing bugs

I noticed a problem in a 3.5 RC 1, I was able to reproduce it every time 
I tried, and I decided to follow the nice end-user friendly links during 
the bug hunt. It felt really good as a non-developer to contribute in 
this very small way. I found the form for filing a big report helpful, 
although I have filed bug reports galore during my days as a Beta 
tester, year after year, for a database management title.

So I filled in the sections of the bug report with the pertinent 
information. IMO there is next to no room in my report for 
misunderstanding as to what I am talking about and how to reproduce it.

A developer tests it on a different platform, cannot reproduce, and 
basically spanks me by suggesting:

- that I should have added screenshots (how would you take a screenshot 
of an Undo that does not work right?!),

- I should have clicked some link he provided and read detailed 
instructions on how to submit my report (the link he tells me I should 
have read does not exist on the nice friendly page at 
https://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/bug/)

- that I should include my " LibO localization (UI language, Locale 
setting)" which the form for the report did not ask me for

- should include my "Libo settings that might be related to your 
problems" AND WHAT THE HELL DOES THAT MEAN thinks the end-user




All in all this is very discouraging. I had high hopes when I heard 
about the bug hunt and saw the well-done page for the general public to 
submit bugs, that maybe this time around I've found an OS project where 
my contribution, however tiny, would go smoothly and be satisfactory. I 
do not understand what was unclear about my report but since it was 
apparently completely insufficient and unintelligible, should I spare my 
valuable time from submitting any more?

This kind of treatment (see below) is classic for developers who never 
get out of their cubby to say hi to an end user and have a beer and get 
any sense of who it is they are even writing software for. My bug report 
is very clear, IMO. I did mention the keystroke for the problematic 
operation. I did describe the "Current Behavior" and the "Expected 
Behavior" as per the form that was presented for me to fill in. There is 
no way to take a screenshot of it, I'd have to make a movie. Most of 
this: " OS (Version, Distribution, Language)" was included in my user 
agent string, and nothing additional such as language was asked for in 
the form. So now my bug report is marked NEEDSINFO and I'm expected to 
supply all this info that I either already did supply or that is 
impossible to supply or that I have to start studying documentation to 
even know what the requested info is (" LibO localization") (sorry I'm a 
dumb American. I download. I install. I use. I have no clue about 
"localization" or where to begin to look for " Libo settings that might 
be related to your problems")

To sum up, I think I did a pretty damned good job as a non-developer in 
my bug report. I think it is clear. I also believe that instead of 
marking it "NEEDSINFO" this developer should have left it as Unconfirmed 
and asked someone on a Mac to confirm. I will not be going back to 
interact with this developer. And I seriously doubt I'll be filing 
another bug report. Sorry to say. Very regretfully.

Sorry to be so steamed. Thank you for reading.

kazar

==============================

(bug     45247)

Ilyse Kazar 2012-01-25 14:46:07 PST

Problem description:

Steps to reproduce:
1. Open a spreadsheet that has data in some cells. I have tested with .csv and .ods
2. Click on a populated cell, start typing a few letters (i.e., to replace what was there
3. Press Undo (Cmd-Z) to undo your edit (i.e., in hopes of restoring the original contents of the 
cell). Press Undo again. Maybe again.

Current behavior: The Undo starts suggesting possible content matches from other cells. No matter 
how many times you press undo the original contents of the
cell will not reappear. It appears that the auto-complete logic is somehow trumping the Undo logic.

Expected behavior: Undo should restore what was in a cell before typing.

Platform (if different from the browser):

Browser: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; rv:9.0.1) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/9.0.1

Comment 1 <https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=45247#c1> Rainer 
Bielefeld 2012-01-25 21:25:16 PST

NOT reproducible with "LibreOffice 3.5.0 RC2 German UI/Locale [Build-ID: 
e371a95-bf68a13-5a1aa2b-d3c1ae9-b938258] on German WIN7 Home Premium (64bit)

@Ilyse Kazar:
May I ask you to read  hints on<http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/BugReport>?
Then please:
- Attach a sample document (not only screenshot)
- Attach screenshots with comments if you believe that that might explain the
  problem better than a text comment. Best way is to insert your screenshots
  into a DRAW document and to add comments that explain what you want to show
- Contribute a step by step instruction containing every key press and every
  mouse click how to reproduce your problem (and if possible how to created a
  sample document from the scratch)
- add information
  -- what EXACTLY is unexpected
  -- and WHY do you believe it's unexpected (cite Help or Documentation!)
  -- concerning your PC
  -- concerning your OS (Version, Distribution, Language)
  -- concerning your LibO localization (UI language, Locale setting)
  –- Libo settings that might be related to your problems
  -- how you launch LibO and how you opened the sample document
  –- If you can contribute an OOo Issue that might be useful
  -- everything else crossing your mind after you read linked texts



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