[Adium-devl] Support requests on trac

[Colin Barrett]

First, pending tickets are automatically closed by trac-robot. If  
that's broken we should fix it.

There's a big difference between the two. You don't need to write  
several paragraphs. In fact, you don't even have to write more than  
you originally did in the ticket. Just ask the user to attach the  
debug log. No matter how many rules we write or how clear that process  
is, we will get people filing bugs that don't include the necessary  
information. It is our responsibility to walk them through the  
process, not theirs to learn it. Some folks might believe otherwise  
but that is the reality of good customer service, like it or not.

Remember, it is far easier for a user to just not do anything if they  
are having a problem. They made an effort to come to us because they  
want help, and we should respect them and the time they have taken to  
write a report, however flawed that report might be.

You and everyone else on trac does a bang up job most of the time,  
this is just a rough edge we need to iron out.

-Colin

On Sep 13, 2008, at 8:41 AM, Jordan Schelew wrote:

> I don't see how that example is rude - it's simply to the point. It
> has a link to a page that tells people how to give us exactly what we
> need. When I'm going through 50 tickets at a time I don't see how it's
> helpful for me to phrase a two paragraph reply every single time, I
> then am only able to get through half (or less) the number of tickets
> that we would normally get through, and then the submitters of the
> tickets that don't get replies don't get helped at all, AND we lose
> out on those reports because nobody noticed them (happens to about 70%
> of submitted tickets unless Robby or I get to them).
>
> I also don't see how closing a ticket is really *that* much different
> from putting it to pending when considering real bug reports from
> people who are actually able to help by providing information...
>
> When closed:
>  1. The user comments it with new info
>  2. I am then required to re-open it and milestone it.
>
> When pending is used and put in needs feedback from users:
>  1. The ticket doesn't close
>  2. It stays in needs feedback from users until someone has the time
> to go through that milestone (which, based on the tickets currently in
> there, isn't that often). OR someone sees the change and milestones it
> appropriately
>
> Either way it works out... In fact in the first case (when the ticket
> is closed) we often get people submitting a new report that has all
> the information required in a well laid-out manner (which I'd rather
> see than replies of 'tried that - no go' which isn't helpful at all).
>
> Now there were a couple tickets from a week or two ago wherein my
> replies were indeed rude - that was unprofessional of me and not
> helpful to anybody. I believe Colin pointed that out in a reply and
> apologized to the user for it - thanks for doing what I should have
> done  Colin.
>
> Jordan
>
>
>
> On 13-Sep-08, at 12:24 PM, Colin Barrett wrote:
>
>> I've recently started watching all ticket changes and I've noticed
>> something that upsets me. People are closing legitimate bugs from
>> polite (and not so polite) filers as invalid. Here's an example, but
>> I've seen dozens of others from several people.
>>
>> http://trac.adiumx.com/ticket/11045
>>
>> We have a pending flag. We should be using it to ask the user to
>> attach the debug log. I know trac is supposed to be for tickets,  
>> but a
>> lot of people come to it for support as well, and it sucks that they
>> don't get the same level of polite help that they get on feedback at .
>>
>> -Colin
>>
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>
>
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