Board Thread:Support Requests - Getting Technical/@comment-5079375-20121214142302/@comment-188432-20121214181033

You've already gone a lot of the way here by delivering a picture. Screenshots are so important when dealing with staff. They more or less prove the bug exists.

Now, of course, not every bug can be demonstrated with a screenshot. Sometimes the bug has something to do with a process. And that's where being able to reproduce the bug is important. But it can take some time to convince staff that it is replicable. I know one time I spent something like a week of multiple emails a day trying to demonstrate a bug. And there was plenty of good will on the part of Staff, but they just couldn't see it, mainly because my powers of communicating this particular bug were poor. But eventually we got there.

Another suggestion I made took about 6 months from the time I opened the case until it was finally implemented, and periodically I had to explain what needed to be changed and why.

And you you honestly never know what your bug report might lead to. I reported one thing recently about the way the mobile skin worked at w:c:tardis, and it led to the discovery of what the Mobile team called a pretty major exploit that needed to be closed. This exploit wasn't what I had written in for, but if I hadn't submitted the report, they wouldn't have found an entirely separate bug.

As long as you're being polite and trying you best to communicate a problem, you should never give up with Staff. Most of the time, they respond in 48 hours and resolve your issue. I've often gotten same day resolution — but that, of course, is not what they promise. (I can't even call same-day service exceptional, but it's not what you can reasonably expect.) On other occasions, it's taken longer for me to effectively communicate the problem, them to comprehend it, and then for the Engineering department to actually make the change.

Remember, we're Wikia's unpaid beta testers. They have a vested interest in having us catch their bugs. So don't be afraid to (politely) stay on the mound and keep pitchin' until you get a strike.