h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Now that the new version of Pliny is out, and we’ve tweaked through the last few bits to make sure that all that was working is still working, we’re changing the way that we do things a bit.

Rather than hoping people will stumble across bugs on h2g2, we’ve been putting together a team of volunteers who will go through each expected action on our new test system and make sure it works as it’s expected to.

Our new Testers Team will be working hard behind the scenes to make sure that what we bring to you is the best that we can, trying out new features as we build them and helping the rest of the volunteers come up with ideas to make h2g2 the site that we all want it to be!

Because we now have a dedicated team of bug hunters, we no longer need researchers to let us know of any bugs that they may find unless they believe that it is a serious security issue. If you do find one of those, please email us at [email protected], otherwise relax in the knowledge that we’re almost certainly on the case!

We’d like to take this opportunity though to thank everyone who has reported bugs, and that’s not just us saying it, we really are grateful. Without the help that you’ve all done over the last couple of years, the site wouldn’t be as stable as it is to be enjoyed by the hundreds of thousands of people who visit it each week.

We’ll be going through the bug report threads to build up our new trouble ticket system, closing the threads that have been resolved, and letting you know where we’ve got to.

Pastey

>>>Because we now have a dedicated team of bug hunters, we no longer need researchers to let us know of any bugs that they may find unless they believe that it is a serious security issue. <<<

Sorry Pasty but that's just plain silly!

Unless you can guarantee that no bugs are going to get through to the working server and that your testers are going to have the time and resources to fully test every bit of code and every possible combination of key touches then sooner or later normal users are going to stumble across bugs.

The message you're sending to those users by saying you don't want further bug reports is "we don't care about your problems, we know best and stuff you!"

Even if you only run it informally, you need system for ordinary users to report bugs.

We have a list of several hundred issues that we plan to work through already.
At the moment, almost all issues we receive are already known, and usually they are on the cosmetic end of seriousness. Which there are also plans for dealing with.

Any serious bugs are welcome at [email protected] but for the moment we'd like to focus on what we already have to work with.

Thanks

(bug-logger extraordinaire )

Sorry if it comes across that way Whisky, it's not what we mean.

If you, or anyone, stumbles across a bug then we do still want to know about it, but we no longer need researchers to actively go looking for them. And as such we no longer need the specific feedback pages. We're going to be changing these soon too to give better instructions on how to report things once we've got our new system up and running.

Over the last two years we've had hundreds of bugs, niggles, tweaks and issues with design reported, and over the last few months leading up to the launch of this new system there has been no new issues raised. What has been raised is all stuff that we know about and is logged, but has got lost in amongst all the other stuff.

So, we're closing down those pages, cleaning them up, and introducing a new system. We've got an off-site trouble ticket system that we're using where any new issues will be logged with a level of importance, and any of the coding team (yes, we're getting more than just me) will be able to pick them up and deal with them.

An open forum on a public facing site is not the best place to do this, if anything it raises the likely hood of people trying to hack the site simply because we're showing them where the bugs are.

morning

Good Morning

We care a lot about h2g2 and how it works. The Core Team and other volunteers put in so many hours per day you'd be gobsmacked if you only knew! - But we now need to look at an efficient way of catching and fixing bugs. Recently, the bugs reported have been duplicates of earlier reports, and this takes time to check the logs and therefore takes time away from actual fixing. I hope this makes sense!

However, I should just like to reassure anyone that if they have a personal difficulty in using the site, we have a dedicated service in our hardworking Gurus. If you have an unresolved problem, and cannot access something then please contact them. They are here to help you and also work 'round the clock' to bring you the best possible user experience.

(and now I need to concentrate on updating the Front Page - we've got some really interesting new Entries on their way to you as soon as I can line them all up)

They all want a medal

I think what Pastey's saying is that bug-hunting on h2g2 is now like shooting fish in a barrel

Oh Icy... must you make it look that the system is poor? Sure, there are issues, but it's not that bad.

Oh, and can I report a bug that the winkeye smiley doesn't appear to be showing?

Nope. That's a personal issue - I am very blind to irony and sarcasm at the moment. Sorry about that.

Ah, that's ok then.

Oh, I don't use the winkeye smiley for sarcasm, just for humour.

Sarcasm works far better without smileys.

Not that this is sarcasm, just because it doesn't have a smiley - it's actually straight.

Damnit. I've been using the smiley wrong, all these years
Hmmm... has anyone ever actually shot fish, in a barrel?

Like shooting bablefish in a barrel of pan galactic gargle blasters...

Or just shooting the gargle blasters

As a quick foot note


I've allways had personal difficultys in using this site, it's what I like about it

They're not difficulties, just 'features'.

Ok Pastey, your second post (Post 4) actually makes sense, no problems with that...

But for gawds sake, get someone to proofread your announcements...

Announcing you're changing the site's bug reporting system is NOT the same as making a blanket generalisation of the fact you do not want people to bother reporting bugs.

Look at your first post again and put yourself in the place of a new user who has just joined the site and this is the first announcement they've read... I'd hope you'll be pretty horrified!

We are actually looking for more volunteers to help us with things like this Whisky

What, the announcements?

Announcements, sub-editing, communications, promotions, and any and all php or css/html developers are always welcome