| 5 | | '''Please keep the following in mind before creating new tickets:''' |
| 6 | | * Before reporting a problem you are having as a bug in !VirtualBox, please do some research using search engines, in our [http://forums.virtualbox.org forums] and using the search engine on this page to see if other people know about the problem and have solutions, or if it has already been reported. Please consider taking the problem to the forums before creating a ticket and provide a link to the discussion (but still put all relevant information in the ticket). And before adding comments to a ticket please go to the linked forum topic if any to work out if your issue is the same one. See also [http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html this guide to asking questions on-line]. |
| 7 | | * We receive many more bug reports than we have time to look at properly (or even at all!), and we have to choose which ones we spend time on. You can increase the chances that we look at your bug report by putting in the right work, both while and after reporting it (see for example [http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html this guide to reporting bugs]). However, please do not be offended if we are still unable to spend time on your report because we are forced to choose between it and other issues that appear more important to us. |
| 8 | | * If you cannot find a ticket describing your problem and create a new one, '''please attach your !VirtualBox virtual machine session log file (VBox.log) to the ticket! ''' This file includes a lot of useful information and saves us time asking you for it. If you are using the main !VirtualBox user interface you can access the log files using the "Show Log..." entry in the "Machine" menu. |
| 9 | | * Please try to stay polite, respectful and relevant. Abusive, offensive and aggressive comments will be deleted, as will off-topic comments if they make it hard to follow the issue under discussion in a bug ticket. Unpleasant and uninformative ticket content not only reduces our desire to work on your ticket but also takes away time (and motivation!) that could be spent on other people's tickets. |
| | 5 | '''Please be aware''' that we (the core team) receive more bug reports than we can read, let alone resolve, so we tend to focus on tickets which seem important to us - because they impact a lot of people, or some people very severely, or paying customers, or look like something which can be fixed quickly. Please also remember that developers and reporters are on an equal footing - just as we cannot make demands of you, neither can you demand that we work on a particular issue, however important it may seem to you. |
| | 6 | |
| | 7 | Remember also though that !VirtualBox is open source software. That means that if we are not able to work on a particular issue someone else or you yourself can do so and we can integrate the solution if it does not impact other people. A good bug ticket is a great aid for whoever chooses to work on a problem. |
| | 8 | |
| | 9 | So bearing that in mind, there are a number of things you can do to '''improve the chances of getting your problem solved'''. |
| | 10 | * '''Do some research''' (e.g. using search engines, our [http://forums.virtualbox.org forums] and [search:?link&q=&ticket=on existing bug tickets]) before creating a ticket. Your problem may well be known; someone (we or others) may have solved it or be working on a solution; you may find out enough to solve it yourself. |
| | 11 | * You should find out and understand as much about the problem as possible before creating the ticket, so that you can create '''as clear, as complete and as concise''' a description as possible for whoever (us, someone else, yourself) attempts to fix the problem. Consider using the forums to get help with this. |
| | 12 | * Describe as precisely as you can '''how to reproduce the problem''', bearing in mind that it may be triggered by something special on your own computer system. It is often next to impossible for a developer to fix a problem that they cannot reproduce. It may help to find other people with the same problem and compare notes. |
| | 13 | * '''Choose a summary carefully.''' The bug tracker and ticket notifications are mainly seen by (busy) developers, and unless a summary catches their eye and looks related to the things they as an individual work on the ticket may not even be read. |
| | 14 | * Please stay '''polite, relevant and on-topic'''. Try to avoid creating tickets for issues which are already being worked on, but do also try to avoid commenting on a ticket if you are not sure that your problem is the same (and not just similar) - if the ticket contains a link to a forum topic, consider going there first. Offensive or unrelated comments and tickets take time away from other things and sap our and other people's motivation; in extreme cases we can delete them. |
