Communication is key. Sometimes it can be difficult to know what kind of topic or reply is appropriate. These tips can help out in those situations.
There are 2 ways you can post on the tracker. Either a “response” or a “comment”.
- Responses are used to give detailed information and on-topic communication.
- Comments are small comments, notes or tips that are not directly related to the topic, but are directly in response to the post they are added to.
The Community Tracker has various sections. Some sections are more discussion based, others should have clear communication.
With clear communication in your posts you will probably get upvoted and gain reputation. If you want more wishes you will need reputation.
- Include additional background information like links to knowledgebase articles or other related topics.
- Use proper formatting in your posts
- Show screenshots if they can offer better insights.
- Post confirmations notes or +1’s for a bug or feature request as a comment. Post them as a comment on the response that is appropriate
- Improve responses if you see obvious errors like typos. Resolving them helps better communication from then on. The improve function can also be used to better formulate a question or answer so it is more clear. This can be helpful for non-English speakers.
If you post a new Feature Request, Bug or Question topic, please use a descriptive title for your request, titles such as “MB Problem” are not helpful, whereas “ImageByNameLocation in XML contains whitespace.” provides a good overview of the topic. In the case of topics concerning a specific plugin, at least include the correct tag that the plugin developer uses to keep track of things related to his plugin.
Tags used by developers to see the complete topic list for that plugin:
- Music Support by Nephelyn: “music”, “music-plugin”
- SubtitleProvider by Miksu: “subtitleprovider”
- Vanilla Theme by Throgmorton: “vanilla”
- Harmony Theme by Throgmorton: “harmony”
- Maelstrom Theme by Throgmorton: “maelstrom”
Questions & Answers
The point of the Q&A topics is to have a clear question with clear instructions on how to resolve it.
- These kind of topics should not be disccusions about pros & cons and such.
- The amount of responses should be limited to as few as possible. Those that exist should be improved if information is incorrect or missing.
- If the question is not clear enough, ask for more details by using the commenting feature instead of posting a response.
- Comments should be removed after the extra information is supplied.
- The additional information should be included in the question itself, not a response.
- If the solution is found, the topic title and or question should be renamed and edited so it matches the actual problem it turned out to be.
Features
Feature Requests are intended to allow others to clearly see the idea behind your request.
- Try to clearly outline the desired purpose and use situation for the feature.
- Try to be as detailed and clear as you can to help others understand the idea behind the request.
- Feature requests should not be used if you are just unsure of how a part of MB works.
- If possible, include a potential design for how your feature could look or work, depending on the request this could be either a code sample, a UI mockup image or anything else relevent to the implementation of the request.
- Simple +1’s and similar responses should be posted as comments rather than full responses.
- Responses should be reserved for replies relevant to the topic as whole, i.e. possible causes of the issue, potential fixes etc.
Bugs
Bug Reports are intended to allow developers to quickly identify and fix bugs, these topics are not intended for general discussions or questions.
- Please be as clear and precise as possible in your description of the bug.
- Where possible/relevant include details of your system specifications, codec installations, operating system or any other information that may be relevant to the problem.
- Please also include what you wee doing when the error/issue occurred.
- If you can reliably reproduce the issue, then please post the exact steps required to do so in the Steps to Reproduce tab of the topic, you will gain reputation if these steps are confirmed.
- If you have discovered a workaround for the issue then please post it in the Workarounds tab so that other users with the same issue can use it until the problem is resolved by a developer.
- As with Feature Requests, +1’s and responses simply supporting a feature should be posted as comments.
- Full responses should be reserved for replies relevant to the topic, for example, discussion of whether hte feature is neccessary, ideas for implementation etc.
- It is also extremely helpful if you post a logfile of the error happening, this can dramatically reduce the time it takes to locate the problem.
Knowledgebase
It’s not possible to post responses in Knowledgebase Topics. You can however add comments or improve the topic.
Improve the topic if you feel information is unclear, incomplete or contains an error. Your improvement, ranging from typo or grammar errors to extensive additions will be reviewed by the topic owner. The topic owner or other Knowledgebase administrators can then approve the improvement on which it is commited and shown publicly.
Please keep in mind that it can take some time before an improvement is approved. It’s also possible that an improvement is declined. Right now, it’s not possible to see a reason why it is declined.
You can also add comments to a topic. These are useful if you have something to say concerning the topic, but cannot resolve it yourself.