Forums » Smalltalk » Another reason you should report bugs

So, have you gotten a speech about why you should report bugs yet? It happens a lot, because a lot of folks are shy about it or don't expect it to actually lead to any results. Kim, herself - creator, admin, and sole formal staff member of RPR - frequently asks and encourages people to send bug reports, even if it seems like a minor issue or you're not sure the thing happening isn't actually supposed to be happening. There's an entire page in the Help docs about the value and importance of sending in bug reports. One of the benefits the reporter can get out of it is a nice little accolade to show off on your profile. Of course, as shown in those links, accolades are already explained, and are mentioned pretty regularly.

But you know what? I don't recall ever seeing my favorite thing about accolades mentioned much. (Admittedly, I'm not sure if it's accessible to everyone with the way it's set up.)

Honestly, most of the accolades icons (the standard ones) are kinda boring. Which you get for a standard bug report is random, but it's still a pretty limited set, so reporting plenty bugs can get you a pretty repetitive accolades display. (Side note: One of the butterfly items you can get from Moa when she appears allows you reorganize your accolade display to look nicer, and if I remember right, can be purchased using just the friendship knots you get from welcoming new users!) I'm certainly not the top bug reporter, but I do have enough to go "meh" for most of them, visually speaking.

If you've ever gotten an accolade, then you know that you get a little notice on your feed about it that states why you got it. That message remains attached to the accolade displayed on your profile, as hover text.

Often, the message is pretty straightforward: things like "...helped improve the farming game" and "...helped improve the new chat." They're nice little reminders of ways you've helped the site, even if you end up forgetting what it was you even did.

And some... come out a bit more fun.

• "...helped stop videos from getting too big for their britches inside of groups."
• "...helped old epic week items out when they were having mild anxiety attacks."
• "...helped the Adorable Battle Girl take the field!" (This one is another pretty straightforward one, actually!)
• "...helped prevent campfires from spontaneously lighting while in storage." (Uh... also straightforward. )
• "...taught the compose button on the manage mail folder how to live loud and proud!"
• "...helped Server overcome his shyness about sending push notifications regarding his own PMs."
• "...set me on the trail of the way too responsive dialog boxes!"

And there are yet more amusing ones that I'm much too lazy to retype. These fun little messages make me happy. Some make it sound like an adventure. Some are amusingly bizarre. Some are funny simply because the context is no longer there, and it makes it sound a lot weirder or more epic than what happened.

Again, not all accolades get the fun messages. The more bug reports you send though, the more accolades you could end up with (they aren't a guarantee; you get accolades when your report contributes to a resolution). The more accolades you get, the more likely some of them will have fun messages attached.