Some time ago — I think it was back in September — I mentioned in the InWorldz forum that I wouldn’t be commenting there anymore. We just didn’t have the staff to actually take care of things and also get into discussions, explaining the rationales for some of the technical actions and priorities that I put in place, or the business or other actions and decisions that Elenia has gone forward with. Sometimes we do, or can a little, but that a public forum with many participants is just not time-effective given such a small number of people getting things done. This post clarifies where you will find me, and Elenia, and how to get things done as InWorldz residents. We’ve said this many times, but then violated that (I’m certainly the main culprit there)… so lately I’ve been trying to stick to this with more discipline. Here’s the rundown:
• Suspected bugs and enhancement suggestions should go in the Mantis bug reporting system. It’s easy to remember where that is: bugs.inworldz.com. This includes both the grid (logins, regions) and the inworldz.com website.
• Bugs that are unique to the InWorldz viewer and enhancement suggestions should also go in the Mantis bug reporting system above. However, if the bug is shared between many different viewers, it may also be more appropriate or effective to file a report with the upstream viewer, i.e. Alchemy, or Second Life if it is in all viewers.
• Problems with regions, such as not being able to get to a region, not showing in the list on the website, performance problems within a region, etc. should start with a Support request. This will be seen much sooner, and by more InWorldz staff, than a Mantis bug report. If it turns out that it is a new technical issue for which Support doesn’t have a workaround solution, then it will be escalated for further investigation and/or will become a Mantis bug report.
• Requests for changes for regions or user accounts should also be submitted as a Support request.
• Payment problems or any financial issues should also be handled as a Support request.
• Business suggestion and other ideas for InWorldz (and just about anything) could be discussed among residents within the forum, because sometimes other residents will see the problems with suggestions and respond. This does save time for staff. However, if something is agreed upon by many residents as a good business idea (or even if not), that should then go directly to Elenia as an IM or notecard. Only Elenia can speak for InWorldz business.
• Everything else… When in doubt, submit a Support request and it’s probably the best place anyway, but if not, you will be directed to the most appropriate place.
• The InWorldz forum is almost entirely provided for the residents. It is mostly a peer-to-peer discussion area, and while we say this repeatedly, it is rarely understood: it is not a place for reporting problems,bugs, enhancement suggestions or business ideas to InWorldz. See the areas above for that. Both Elenia and I sometimes reads forum messages, but we both place our focus on the actual official channels: Mantis reports and Support requests, and getting the planned work items completed. Reading the forum, and especially responding in the forum, would be a major distraction when there are so few people actually doing the hands-on work. The forum does not support any form of tracking of unresolved issues, and each thread tends to go well off-topic and become highly unfocused. Then only hours later, it may be lost in the flood of other message threads. It is absolutely the worst method for communicating and tracking issues and bugs. It was not designed for that at all.
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Personally, I will be prioritizing and trying to address Mantis bug reports, and the technical needs of the grid. I have not been reading the forum for weeks now (or only a message or two when someone points it out to me) and absolutely will not be replying in the forum.
I want to be clear… this is not ignoring the residents; it is doing, not talking about doing things. It is focusing on the residents who are using the requested methods for properly reporting issues, bugs and suggestions. Again, it is focusing on getting stuff done rather than talking about getting stuff done. My desire to be as transparent as possible has become a lack of discipline and a problem managing time, and I’ve finally learned that lesson.
So please: use the proper channels for alerting InWorldz to issues, bugs and suggestions. It will be more effective. The forum tends to temporarily involve all the residents who just like to comment on everything, whether or not they have any direct or particular connection to the post, then the thread goes into hiding very quickly and is forgotten. It’s absolutely the worst way to try to get something accomplished.
I want to be clear, the whole purpose of me being more disciplined with regards to my forum participation is to do more to ensure that the InWorldz residents who are using the proper, more efficient methods of reporting issues (support requests and bug tracking reports) are not ignored, but that their reports are tracked and monitored.
I’m trying to make sure those proper reports are not ignored in favor of other residents who feel the need to post an untracked comment in a public place, often in an attempt use the forum to “jump the queue” ahead of the other residents reports. We triage the reports in the Mantis bug tracking system, so urgent problematic issues will be dealt with as soon as possible regardless of how many other reports are already in the system. Most of the residents with issues to report have no trouble reporting issues in the proper place, where we can focus on the technical symptoms etc, and avoid the time abyss of forum drama magnets.
Also, I want to be clear that both support issue and bug reports are optional. We’re not insisting people file reports or shaming anyone who doesn’t. You’re here to have fun, not do paperwork. It’s just that if a problem is bothering you enough that it is worth it to you, then by all means report it and we’ll see what we can do.
But reports in the forums are for other residents to see and comment on, not for me or Support staff. I owe it to those residents who take the time to properly report a bug or support issue, where they can be tracked, where they are not lost in a sea of unrelated social events etc.
To post this message now, I’ve taken time away from investigating the issues with slow texture loads, asset fetches and uploads. I don’t think anyone really wants that to happen on a regular basis. I could spend more time participating in the forums (and I would love it if InWorldz was large enough to have a full-time social media spokesman) but the reality is that I am a software developer who should be spending as much time as possible fixing bugs, investigating support escalations and making things better.