REAL Software Forums

Hello all,

We are switching away from our legacy feedback system to the FogBugz http://www.fogcreek.com/FogBugz/ project management system. While this is a huge step up for us, it will change the way you interact with our feedback system. You will still be able to enter bugs and see the communication between REAL Software and yourself, but you will no longer be able to search the feedback system for bugs or sign on to other people's bugs. While it may seem to be a disadvantage to the system, it will allows us to collect more information about each bug or feature request and communicate directly with individuals about specific issues. The bug entry system will also be streamlined to help make it easier to communicate with REAL Software and get more information about the bugs.

We know this is a big change for you and we apologize for any inconvenience it may cause. We hope you understand that this change is only to help us make a better product for you.

Thank you,

--
Nathan Regener
Engineering Manager
nathan@realsoftware.com
REAL Software

Speaking as someone who did not feel it necessary to keep a personal copy of his watchlist, are you seriously telling us that without any notice you have removed our access to our outstanding feedback reports?

Are you going to let us in on the secret of how we should now report bugs?

Extremely poor decision - now I can't even see my (or other people's) bug reports, much less any work around posted.

Whoever made that decision should be sacked for incompetence.

I agree, we should be able to search the bug reports and see workarounds if available. If we cannot sign other bug reports, what will increase the priority of the bug?

OMG!

:(

This sounds like a horrible decision unless there is another way for users to find out what bugs exist BEFORE getting stuck/hindered by them. It is very important for users to be able to search for bugs and know what to avoid before we spend many hours coding a feature only to be stuck by some bug(s). I even choose what projects I work on depending on what bugs exist.

Without a way to search for bugs before we encounter them I feel this would be a great disservice to us.


If there isn't going to be a bug searchable feature, then perhaps it's time RB users create our own bug tracking system which is easy to use. Knowing about bugs is too important to not have.

Maybe we should write a bug filing system that handles both filing the bug report into the RB fogsite and into our own user bug reporting system all at once via an easy RB GUI bug reporter app...

Is anyone interested in this?

The old system sucked and we all complained that they should have a better bug reporting/tracking system. So now they have a new system and we're screaming that "how dare they change the bug tracking system!"

Let's all take a deep breath and relax. :) We've made our thoughts on this subject loud and clear. Let's see what RS comes back with and hope that it's workable for them and us.

Let's face it, RS obviously felt the need to have a new bug tracking system. So they got one of the better ones in FogBugz (by reputation at least). Since I've never used FB I can't tell you how easy or hard it is to do what we all want it to do so I hope someone from RS can fill us in on what the future capabilities of the system will be from our perspective.

I hope we're taking a step backwards now to take a couple of giant leaps forward in the upcoming releases.

We're not screaming 'how dare they change the bug reporting tracking system!', we're 'screaming' how terrible it is if we're loosing our badly needed bug tracking features.


Change for the better is great but change for the worse -if that's what this is, is going backwards and is terrible.

If this fogbug thing is so good then why doesn't it have the basic function of allowing the product's customers to track the bugs as we need?


I hope R.S. offers something for us to find / track the bugs because if it's left to us users I'd imagine we're going to write some very nasty comments included with out workaround notes.

I'd almost have to wonder if this wasn't a PR move -- now there's not so much publicized evidence that RB has bugs. Okay, fine, I can understand that. And if RS wants to deal with us on a personal level, I suppose that's also their choice, though I can't say I see the logic behind it.

However, the end result of this transition makes it impossible for us RB users to cast votes for bugs being fixed. For a company that has always encouraged the feeling of community and such, to me, it feels like a big step backward. Furthermore, for those of us who don't have the resources to join the developer program, yet still choose to code in RB, what little say we did have in the whole process is now gone.

Normally I'd steer clear of a discussion like this -- ain't my business to be running -- but I can't help but feel cheesed off at this latest development. And to think I only filed reports against a handful of bugs that were important to me; I can't imagine how those who filed a significant amount are feeling...

This really sucks.

GreatOm

Send an email to Geoff Perlman <geoff@realsoftware.com> and let him know how you feel (I did) - will certainly have more effect than complaining here.

Better yet, just don't buy or upgrade the product anymore.

That's the best message you can send.

Then why are you still here? Or are you working with a pirated copy?

Please people, while emotions can be helpful and Starbuck is entitled to his/her opinion, shooting him/her for it is going to cause trouble. Lets be reasonable and not start personally attacking people for their opinions.

I'll be the first to admit that I'm a bit of an RB fanboy at times, but I have to agree with Starbuck on this one, as well as others who are bemoaning the loss of the old system. The old bug tracking system, for all of its warts, was a great resource for finding workarounds to bugs and a great way to confirm those "Is it just me not getting this?" moments. I feel this wasn't the best way to handle the situation. I would much rather both systems be up for a little while if only to grab some last minute info like my bug list. I didn't keep track of that information anywhere else, and I write things down so I don't have to remember them all the time.

FogBugz is supposed to have a good reputation particularly for the developers if not the users. I'm sure some good things will come of it. I'll withhold any real judgement until I've used it (though it would be great if I didn't have to).

In the meantime, I've noticed that Nathan posted the following to the mailing lists earlier this evening:



So, they are, as usual, paying attention.