Bug Reporting Template Is Broken

Conan Exiles General Discussion Feedback
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This is beyond ridiculous.

Not that I expect that all users wanting to make a bug report will necessarily read this post but I hope it serves to also inform about why their posts are not working.

@Community the bug report template does not auto generate as intended - it is BROKEN. This is the same for PC, PS and XBOX. This is why largely, bug reports are incomplete. It has been pointed out multiple times in comments in threads. Hell, even some of the bug report posts themselves read “I don’t understand why my info didn’t copy”; it is common enough that I have noticed it. I believe there was a thread made awhile back about this but has been ignored?

It is understandable based on the beginning of the instruction post that it is being tested out. But since September 2022? Especially being that this is the official way to report bugs. All of your social media, website, forum, etc.,… tell players to come here and use this method.

Additionally, I would assume based on the pinned post for reporting bugs from back in 2019 is still used in favour of the required “new” method. Sometimes the old method IS posted.

The official method to report bugs is not user friendly and very unclear as to what is required.

Most of us can replicate the issue and here are the steps:

  1. Access bug report section for PC/PS/XBOX to create a new topic

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  2. Click on new topic and see the instructions to ensure you’re using the template

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  3. Can’t click on the link so have to copy/paste the link into the browser or access the thread if you’ve done your own due diligence and realize it is there.
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  4. Read the information at the top of the post and especially this part:
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    Very important! But what does it mean when the following step is right there for you:

  5. Fill out template fields and logically click “create new report” (this is the broken part!)

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  6. See that none of the information has copied over into your original post template or in the new post it generates.

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  7. If you’re experienced enough in the forums or have understood what the copy and paste instructions mean, you realize the button is broken and copy the text over from the NEW Bug Report Template into the old or new topic template.

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A user can reasonably assume that the bug report template that was intended to copy over might be missing because it is within the code. So you get multiple bug report posts with the title of the issue and the following:

"The information you filled out should now be listed below. :point_down:
Please copy this info and paste it into a new report. Thank you!"

While yes, it does state “Please copy this info and paste it into a new report. Thank you!”, most would be understandably confused by this and probably closed a tab or lost access to the info they originally input. Being that the first line states “The information you filled out should now be listed below. :point_down:”. It is conflicting information!

Either fix it or remove the button, please. If you remove the button make it clearer that the information has to be copy and pasted into a post template.

This morning once again reading the forums and I see closed threads asking to use the bug report template. It’s frankly insulting. Considering the exercise in futility and the time of your players to actually come to the forums as directed and make a report to inform your staff of a bug discovered. While a patient player might take the direction to use the template “properly” (if they figure it out) and attempt again, I see that many do not make a second effort as these comments and closing of threads are dismissive.

I completely understand that the template is required for various reasons not limited to streamlining of the information into your databases. Incomplete bug reports do not help you help us. But you HAVE to make it user friendly.

It has been months and months of the same, I don’t even remember a time that the auto generate button actually worked! So much wasted time and effort on both ends that could be addressed with a fix or removal of a broken element and clearer instructions.

PC Bug Report Template

PlayStaytion Bug Report Template

Xbox Bug Report Template

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Thank you for this thread. It’s really disheartening to see how many valid bug reports go apparently without reaction because the reporter has not filled the appropriate form.

I had been wondering if I’m just too dumb and don’t know how to use that form properly. (In reality, me being too dumb for something isn’t often the explanation, but anyone can suffer from low self-esteem on occasion.)

So yeah, if Funcom requires us to use that form, it had better be accessible enough for people to use it.

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Good catch @Kikigirl, and more importantly, thankyou for pointing it out. And you are right on point here. Sadly, I am not holding my breath that it will be adjusted. Why?

I do apologise if this is derailing but here is yet another reason why so many reports are filed incorrectly, at least for Playstation. Some 4 weeks ago now I generate a report informing that the Bug Report Template in now unpinned. And prior even to that I pointed it out to a CM in a feedback thread. If the template is buried months down the list, how the heck are new members supposed be aware that I) it exists, and II) that they should be using it…!?

This becomes all the more infuriating when one considers how easy this could be remedied.

Got that right.

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I just couldn’t stay silent any longer hoping that it would be addressed on their end. It is an everyday thing, including this morning of course!

It’s not just failing to use the form, they probably have!

The users are people from everywhere, all with different comprehension levels, ages, time to devote, devices, understanding of technology and many speak only 1 language that is not English or are barely ESL.

Accessible :heavy_check_mark: is definitely the word!

Very appreciative of your words and I am happy it has helped you :slight_smile:

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Ya, after that one this morning I tested it, then dropped a brick on some ones desk. Doubt it will do any good.

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My friend, I just don’t understand. It’s so simple and could have been addressed and made both the staff and our contributions here so much easier a long time ago.

But I believe your report did make a difference, at least since yesterday the PS template post is pinned :slight_smile:

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We don’t have to use HTML as a medium. It just works super nice. I’m looking into XMLRPC to see if any further work could be done, like a C# app doing the low-hanging fruit client-side scripting. If I could plagiarize WordPress and Discourse, this would be copy-paste-done. I did run across a few experimental plug-in ideas.

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Ah yes…the old irony of bug reporting the bug report.

But seriously, one of the best way customers can see how continuous improvement is part of the company culture is by see how much is into the customer feedback sections. CI culture demands constant feedback and encourages it.

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This is why in our conversations on something similar I mentioned that it would make so much more sense to have bug reports submitted through a streamlined service such as Zendesk.

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I have to agree, the current bug-reporting system is really unclear. I would go so far as to suggest it is not fit for purpose. I have reported a lot of bugs over the years (and always included all required information). I have used the current reporting system once, and that took three attempts to actually get the bug reported correctly.

I was reporting something relatively unimportant, and spend too much time on these forums anyway, so I was willing to take the time and go back to try again until I figured it out (I’ve also spent 20 years making my living as an editor/proofreader primarily for texts written by people for whom English is a second language - so I’m good at interpreting meaning, even when something has just been run through google translate) - but I can only imagine how frustrating it must be for people who don’t have the time, or are reporting a bug that they actually care about.

The result is clear and inevitable - fewer bugs are successfully reported, so the game falls into an ever worse state (even without the continuous addition of new (old) bugs).

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“Here we go…”

This WP XMLRPC doc site is where I paused awhile ago. It seems positive for this thread. I suggest not ignoring this one, as it could shim a solution with javascript.

Good day

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I work with people with disabilities. It has helped me learn to pay attention to what is accessible and what isn’t. The bug reporting template actually is a pretty good help, as it guides you through the process so as to include all the relevant information people would often neglect to report. I’d perhaps like to see more details in the instructions on how to describe the bug and how to reproduce it, but as a whole the template isn’t bad at all.

But if it doesn’t work properly, or is too difficult to use (fill this, then press that, then copy-paste these and make a post somewhere else), people won’t use it, and we end up with unstructured feedback with the added white noise from the reporting person being angry about the feedback form.

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Thankyou kindly @Kikigirl. While I do hate to put a damper on this good new, it looks like it is now unpinned again. I know that they did pin the Playstation Bug Report Template, and we both saw it. But perhaps the forum did not save the change(?). I will try to summon a member of @Community (please don’t shoot the messenger) to see if they wouldn’t mind taking another look at it.

I really hope that yours is the next to get straightened out. I am not even meaning to sound negative here, but while us forum mainstays know how to workaround it and follow the template, newer members will no posess this knowledge. If we could just hit ‘generate report’ after filling the relevant details it would really streamline reporting, and I believe, save on lost time redirecting newer members. Godspeed warrior queen! :smiling_imp: :metal:

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I have to wonder why they drop bug reports in the forum. Aught to just be fill, file, done.

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Agreed, the template itself does mostly serve to garner the correct information. There’s always room for improvement as you’ve stated.

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I can just imagine how many times that “create new report” was attempted with valuable reproduction content. Then post, summarily closed and pointed to create a report with the bug report template took the wind out of the sails.

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Aaaaand its back XD

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Like, when there’s server issues you go to Zendesk, why not bug reports too? I’ve just assumed its so that the rest of the users could help, maybe?

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