A call to all users re: problem reporting

Hi All ( @Rainie @whimsycwd @Noah @Tone )

Doug the newbie here. I have noted than there are users who report a problem and provide no details of the application they were using, the settings, the filament type in the case of 3D printing , what they were doing at the time of the problem. Which results in many helpful users asking questions to get to the nub of the problem.

Can I ask fellow users who report a problem or request some advice to also include everything that they can about what they were doing and using at the time. It would help reduce Forum confusion and chatter and hopefully speed up a resolution to your request.

Keep having fun.

Doug

6 Likes

It will be much more helpful if users can provide detail information, I think it’s ok to ask for that.

I suggest to write a article about “How to ask questions correctly”, so that we can learn how to ask and you don’t need to say it again and again. :smiley:

Keep going~

Noah

2 Likes

@Noah

That is a very good idea. Anything that reduces the workload identifying the problem also leads to a faster resolution and happier users


Have a great week.

Doug

30 years of IT support and development has taught me that users will not give you the information you require. Here’s an example that I am currently dealing with: “the user gets an error when they request a report”. Which user? Which report? What’s the error? What system?

It is urgent for them to get it resolved (it was reported - and I use that word most incorrectly - yesterday) but they never give me even basic information so it isn’t getting worked on until they do.

Maybe I am just cynical :wink:

Harry.

1 Like

Hi @harry

Doug the newbie here, a retired IT guy
 started working in 1971 and I agree with you.

However, I became Doug the Dreaded in my support roles. I would tell people supply the information or go away. If you make the rules known and the information required, people will eventually comply.

As you know, we can waste a lot of time and resources trying to diagnose problems with only parts of the puzzle.

Have a great day

Doug

It’s difficult to make people change and let them do as suggested, but it will be worthy as a long term effort. Users will follow this when they realize it may help them solving problems faster, so I think it’s worth to try. :wink:

Noah

3 Likes

@Noah

Of course it will help, go for it. When new users start to see how others report problems in details, they will get the hint

Doug

Just copy the link above and use that every time someone reports a problem without enough information. Eventually they’ll learn. wink wink

1 Like

Yeah, the only people you’ll usually find that will give you most of the information you require are developers by trade whose duties include troubleshooting issues.

2 Likes

We should do what the OctoPrint forum does. They have installed in their forum a template that gets inserted into posts in the “Get help” section. It looks like this:

What is the problem?

What did you already try to solve it?

Additional information about your setup (OctoPrint version, OctoPi version, printer, firmware, octoprint.log, serial.log or output on terminal tab, 
)

We should do our own version of that. They are called “Topic Templates” and can be customized per each topic. @whimsycwd, are they enabled in this forum? Or does it require a discourse plug-in?

We should include in that template: “Have you searched the forum FIRST???”

Here’s an interesting feature too: Type Form example (Don’t know if you need a Discourse login for this??)

3 Likes