Bugs

ben1

It is very difficult to report a bug. The bug reporting page seems to assert that all bugs are javascript errors. Criticisms of design / bugs in appearance are still bugs. I expect a text box where I can type in a description of a bug and submit it.

fbennett

If you have something in mind, you can report it here. You'd need to describe the issue, though.

ben1

In that case, your 'report a bug' page (I was on it earlier but I can't even find it now) should explain that the bug reporting procedure is to register for the forums, and make a post describing the issue. The 'report a bug' should also include a list of details that should be included in the bug report.

This page should include a link to the 'report a bug' page:
http://www.zotero.org/support/

fbennett

I should maybe add that I'm just a user like yourself, not a member of the core team.

ben1

Yep. Thats my point.

adamsmith

http://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_bugs
that page is quite clear on both "posting to the forums" and the types of details that are wanted/needed. It also says that "Not all problems will show up in the wizard".

I don't actually think bug reporting should be over-emphasized in the documentation: Most bugs are already known and/or reported and so it's not going to be helpful for people to report bugs when they haven't at least spend some time searching forums and documentation. This is not to say that bug-reports aren't helpful, but that encouraging unsophisticated bug reports probably isn't.

The support page links to this:
http://www.zotero.org/support/getting_help
which is a much better place to start for users with problems than the reporting bugs page. It also includes a note that login is required to post (though I agree with your other post that that isn't very clear or elegant - the site is currently being re-designed so that may improve)

ben1

Thanks for the comments, I agree with you.

IMO, people won't actually read text longer than about 2-3 lines.

adamsmith

fair enough - but a) Zotero is mostly for academics so that might not be true for its users and b) bug reports from those people will be useless in 99 out of 100 cases

dstillman

Yep. Thats my point.

What's your point? That another user responding to you within a few minutes is a problem? That's a feature, not a bug.

But developers still read every thread.

ben1

Sorry, that was rude and unclear. I did not know developers read every thread. I was just commenting that if there is no way to directly inform a developer of a bug, and if developers don't necessarily read every forum post, then things can slip through the gap. Its all good.