BUG REPORT - Upgraded days don't carry over.

[qualin]

I would like to file a bug report.

> What did I do?

Donated to renew my membership when I had 4 upgraded days left.

> What did I expect would happen?

365 upgraded days would be added to existing upgraded days, resulting in 369 upgraded days left.

> What happened instead?

Counter reset to 365 upgraded days, "eating" the 4 remaining days.

> How can it be replicated?

1. Note number of upgraded days on upgraded days counter
2. Donate more than $12 USD
3. Note how the counter only resets to 365 days

> What would I like seen done?

<span style="text-decoration: line-through;">1. Notification that any existing upgraded days will be discarded if adding to existing days isn't an option. </span>

1. If there are remaining days left, the user should be prompted with a "Are you sure you would like to do this?" dialogue, or something similar, to prevent upgraded days from being discarded.
2. Ideally, upgraded days should be allowed to be expanded beyond 365 days with multiple donations, up to a clearly defined maximum.
3. Existing upgraded days should be allowed to carry over after a donation.

 

POST EDITED at 11:22 PM on 11/4/12

[this post was last edited: 11/5/2012-00:29]

 

[foraloysius]

From the instructions:

You can add to your days of upgrade privileges anytime during your current upgrade status. PLEASE NOTE---> the maximum allowable upgrade days is 365 days, so if you have 15 days left and upgrade for a whole year you will be reset only to 365 days.

 

[rp2813]

Re: Reply #1

That is correct.  There is no bug. 

 

Donating members need to keep an eye on their balance and/or mark their calendar, or for members of the smartphone-whipped masses who have forgotten how to put a pen or pencil to paper, have your indespensible Siri-bot to remind you when 365 days are up so your brain can continue on its atrophous course unimpeded.

 

[qualin]

BTW, The definition of a computer bug from the Wikipedia site is as follows:

"A software bug is an error, flaw, mistake, failure, or fault in a computer program or system that produces an incorrect or unexpected result, or causes it to behave in unintended ways. Most bugs arise from mistakes and errors made by people in either a program's source code or its design, and a few are caused by compilers producing incorrect code."

In other words, due to my failure to read a single line of text, I personally experienced what I considered to be an unexpected result. In my eyes, as a user, I consider this to be a bug rather than a feature request.

Fortunately, I can live with losing 4 upgraded days, where I can see this being an issue is if someone decides to renew when they have 100 days left.

Let me get something clear before anyone else thinks about turning this into a flame war. I file bug reports on a very daily basis as part of my job as a Systems Administrator. Filing bugs does not denigrate a developers work and should never be considered as a personal attack against their coding abilities or knowledge. If anything, it actually improves their work because it results in a better user experience for everyone.

I'm not trying to raise hell here, I'm just being honest and straightforward.

 

[yogitunes]

With all due respect

By your Wikipedia explanation.....there is NO BUG.....the program was written, it works as intended, and EXPLAINED, in plain BLACK AND WHITE......

just because you did not read the FINE PRINT does not make it an error or bug...or that it is not written to your liking, or should be written another way....comes under the TERMS of your OPINION.....

you can make suggestions to Robert, which he can take under consideration, or not...its his choice...BUT whatever he does, as far as programs and how they run, a TRUE glitch will be worked out.....it just seems that your complaining about the RULES, and how they don't pertain to you, or how you want it written.....

We may goof up, and post something we should not, or in the wrong section.....and in an instant Robert can change or remove it as he sees fit.....it happens....humans make errors.....but thats just it, HUMAN ERROR, not a computer bug

We all knew the rules and regulations as to joining this group, or paying for the upgrade....if there was something you did not understand, you can re-read it again, or send a request to Robert.....2300 members can't be wrong....

consider this something NEW you learned today.....

the instructions/rules clearly explained what would happen if you had said days left and renewed early.....which you did, and reset your counter to 365....How is that an UNEXPECTED result?....it did EXACTLY what was explained, end result, IT WORKS PERFECT!.....and you confirmed it!

others may disagree....but thats the way it is

 

[Unimatic1140]

Thanks everyone for your explanations!

Yes I clearly state in bold right above the button to donate "You can add to your days of upgrade privileges anytime during your current upgrade status. PLEASE NOTE---> the maximum allowable upgrade days is 365 days, so if you have 15 days left and upgrade for a whole year you will be reset only to 365 days."

My reasoning for doing this is simple. If something happens to me and it renders me incapable of running this site I don't want people to have people to have years worth of upgraded time that I cannot fulfill.

 

[tomturbomatic]

This is all well and good, but a couple of years ago, I received a program-generated message about renewing when I still had 15 days left. Might the renewal program have been jumping the gun a bit? Robert took care of it so I am not complaining or anything and, yes, I know that is unusual for me, but maybe it would be better to have the reminder closer to the expire. Then again, maybe you could just go to sign on one day and find out that you have expired and need to pay up.

 

[revvinkevin]

My 13 cents worth....

 

 

Ultimately you are "donating" the money to the site anyway.   

If you are only donating the $12 minimum, we are ONLY talking about 13 cents for that lost 4 days here.

 

When I renewed I lost a few days too, but I'm not worried about it.

 

Kevin

 

[Unimatic1140]

I received a program-generated message about renewing when I still had 15 days left.

Now I find that very strange Tom, because I have no renewal reminder code or program what so ever, I've never had that as I can't stand those kind of things myself.

 

[donprohel]

For Yogitunes

There wasn't really any nicer way to say that?

 

[kenmoreguy89]

Like for  human programmed  "computer's bugs" which are  programmer's, creators', error  (Human being)  which of course makes  human errors ...  Qualin, probably didn't read or forgot  or misunderstood the upgrading instructions.....so an error as well, Qualin is a  human being and that is normal to mistake, humanity learned and keep learning  from errors.
Maybe my english is not that good (actually I'm forgetting many words not being able to speak it at home anymore) but what I do understand from your Wikipedia's quote is not this case.....it is not a problem regarding a computer, system, software nor it's creator etc  as the website worked as it should and it actually didn't cause in a bug or error, rather an unexpected result you didn't think to have, caused by a wrong expectation you had in your mind but  that  actually was never advertised/stated in the website and so programmed to make that, but indeed warned it would not  have made that, ....so what happened is not what I personally  would call  "bug" nor this is what I think/can understand is stated/explained in Wikipedia.
Every human being makes errors, is from them we learn...what's matter now is that you got this and may this thread be helpful for those maybe thinking that you could prolong/collect upgraded days for more than 365 as you...

[this post was last edited: 11/5/2012-14:37]

 

[qualin]

OK, I should respond here..

I will admit that there was a human error made here. I don't believe that a single line of text is enough to prevent user error, that's my personal opinion.

First of all, I understand Roberts rationale behind limiting the amount of upgraded days, that's fair enough. That's a good rationale behind why some bugs are labelled "WON'T FIX", because the developers feel that this is the way they intended their program to operate.

I have another idea.. How about.. if a user has remaining days left on their account, the website refuses to accept the donation until the number of days is less than 10? If the user renews with less than 10 days left, They carry over the remaining days plus 365? This way, the user never has to face having their account expire and if they don't read the fine print, they're not "punished" by having their remaining upgraded days lost.

I think that is a reasonable solution.

Yogitunes said:

> or that it is not written to your liking,

You have to stop thinking about it that way. It is not about what _I_ like, it is about improving the general user experience overall. If I feel that there is a better way of doing things, I will always suggest them, not demand them.

> it just seems that your complaining about the RULES, and how they don't pertain to you, or how you want it written.....

Perhaps I should clarify my position here. I filed a bug report, not a complaint. A bug report should never be considered a complaint. That doesn't help anyone.

> We all knew the rules and regulations as to joining this group,

I'm sorry, but that's not relevant to this discussion. This isn't about rules or regulations. This post was about improving functionality to this website. I saw a shortcoming in the way it operates and I think it can be improved. Rules and Regulations implies things like netiquette and profanity, not program functionality.

> consider this something NEW you learned today.....

You could look at it that way. Yes, I'll be a bit more careful. Look at it this way.. People used to have issues stalling vehicles with manual transmissions all the time. People learned not to stall them eventually, which made them better drivers. Then someone got sick and tired of it and invented the automatic transmission so that everyone could drive using less skill.

Do you see what I'm trying to get at here?

> How is that an UNEXPECTED result? ....it did EXACTLY what was explained,

Right. It did. Just because the instructions are there and made it clear doesn't mean that I believe the operation of it is correct, at least from a user standpoint. I received an unexpected result because no warning was given. There wasn't anything in place to check for the number of days remaining.

Tell you what.. Delete something on your computer.. Do you notice a "Are you sure you want to move this to the recycle bin?" prompt? Then, do you notice that there is a recycle bin?

Microsoft made allowances for user error in this situation because it was such a common user error.

I'm sure more than one user has had days lost because they made the same mistake I did. We're used to getting prompted saying, "Are you sure you want to do this?"

I guess what I'm trying to get at is... the behavior of the website is not typical. It is actually quite unique, so it is unexpected. If you can cite anywhere else on the net where you see this behavior, please let me know.

 

[qualin]

Since it is too late for me to edit my original post... Let me revise the last part of my bug report, which may make it more relevant to Roberts needs:

> What would I like to see done?

1. The "Donate" button is disabled if the user has more than 10 upgraded days remaining on their account.
2. When a user has 6 days left, for example, those days are carried over plus any additional days remaining. (ie. 6+365)

If disabling the donation button isn't an option:

1. If there are remaining days left, the user should be prompted with a "Are you sure you would like to do this? You will lose x upgraded days if you donate now." dialogue, or something similar, to prevent upgraded days from being discarded.

--

Robert, what do you think?

 

[mattl]

If I recall correctly the way it was setup was to allow people to donate whenever they felt like it. There is only a low set amount specified but all are welcome to give more or more often. The idea is to defray the costs involved with running the site. I was a member when this all came about and I recall the lengthy discussions on this "feature" and why it's set up as it is.

 

[Unimatic1140]

Robert, what do you think?

I think it's fine just as it is, there is a big difference between a Payment and a Donation, you are acting like it is a Payment. It is NOT A BUG, it is working just a designed. If you don't like that, you can send me an email and I will give you a full refund for your donation. End of discussion we've got much more important things to worry about today.