Bug report suggestion

[Ignacio Azpiazu]

The bug report is exasperating. ArchiCAD crashes, and here comes Graphisoft proposing that you spend ten minutes of your life sending them a report they will never check (and if they do check it you won't ever have any feedback about it, in my modest experience) about a bug for a product you paid dearly for. Even if you already know you don't want to work as a beta tester for free, the extra-click reminds you of the above and adds insult to irony, irony to insult, injury to irony to insult, etc. At that moment the damn question pops up, everybody hates Graphisoft.

So my proposal is that Graphisoft either a) eliminates the damn bug report, or b) gives you the option of activating it or not in the event of crashes, and in that case *pays* for the bug report. USD 10 to a bank account you fill out when submitting the report would be neat, or it could also be a USD 10 discount for your next upgrade. You send say 60 reports, you get your ArchiCAD 10 for free. [And if they don't think working as a beta tester on a release product after the non-billable time mess produced by the bug itself is worth the 10 bucks, then we are back to the insult part and let them just eliminate that hideous invention.]

[Link]

USD 10 to a bank account you fill out when submitting the report would be neat

D a m n right it would be - I'd be a millionaire!!

I think you are right Ignacio, you should be able to turn off the Bug Reporter if you want to. I never would because for a few seconds of my time (usually somewhere between wondering what the heck just happened and entering recovery mode) I think we are lucky to have such a direct communication with the programmers.

Every program crashes, and how much you notice it probably depends on how much time you spend using it. But as Rakela said, you can simply delete GSReport.exe from your ArchiCAD folder, which a lot of people do.

Cheers,
Link.

[TomWaltz]

Link wrote:

Every program crashes, and how much you notice it probably depends on how much time you spend using it. But as Rakela said, you can simply delete GSReport.exe from your ArchiCAD folder, which a lot of people do..

We did that in AC 8 and 8.1, when there was no way to directly send the Bug Report. I was not going to hunt down a file and email it myself. Once it became automated, I decided it was not a big time drain, and was worth letting GS know we had a problem.... it also gave staff time to call me and complain about it!

[Djordje]

Ignacio wrote:

stefan wrote:
You can always set it to 'yes, ask me if I want to send the report every time ArchiCAD crashes'.

As it takes the whole of 30 seconds, I really see no point in removing it, as NOT sending it means that your problem will never be addressed. Furthermore, you do have the tracking number, so if you do have a persistent problem and your pet crash, you can follow up - after all, if a problem reccurs, it is more time consuming NOT to address it than to address it.

I had more AutoCAD and MSwhatever crashes than ArchiCAD ones ...

[Ignacio Azpiazu]

Djordje wrote:
As it takes the whole of 30 seconds, I really see no point in removing it, as NOT sending it means that your problem will never be addressed

I crash several times a day, typically zooming while ArchiCAD is generating a view or doing some other intensive thinking. I know I don't want to send the same report several times a day. But that is not the issue: the thing is I don't want to be having to click to say 'No, I don't want to send the report' every time ArchiCAD crashes, several times a day. That option is what I would like to see as a Preference. I would like to be able to say 'no, and just don't ask again', at least until I change my mind and change my Preference. I think it is a very reasonable request, since that is what I will be doing anyway but one crash at a time and several repetitive questions a day. Anything else is wasted effort.

Following advice on the thread I deleted GSReport and a folder with a related name, and I keep getting the question every time I crash --so deleting GSReport is not the solution at least on my system.

[__archiben]

Ignacio wrote:
I crash several times a day, typically zooming while ArchiCAD is generating a view or doing some other intensive thinking. I know I don't want to send the same report several times a day.

there is something wrong if (as your signature suggests) you're using AC9 on a G4 powerbook . . . me too and i these days i very rarely crash!

having the bug reporter and noting the bug numbers as they come back is even more important so that you can contact your dealer/tech support and get whatever is causing it fixed ASAP! then you won't even see the bug rep question that's causing you so much concern . . .

get the problem fixed - if something is persistantly causing you grief GS will listen if you make enough fuss about it! trying to ignore the bug reporter is NOT the way to acheive that . . .

~/archiben

[Ignacio Azpiazu]

~/archiben wrote:
there is something wrong if (as your signature suggests) you're using AC9 on a G4 powerbook . . . me too and i these days i very rarely crash!

The crashes I am talking about happen regularly, to everybody, in a large office with a very direct link to Graphisoft.

But let us keep the eye on the ball (my ball): the discussion about the reason for the crash is different from the discussion about the advantages and returns or not of sending reports to Graphisoft, and that is in turn a separate discussion from the point I am making, which is that one should be able to decide whether or not one wants to be asked about sending the report when AC crashes.

The fact that (Link says *many*, I would think PC) users solve the issue by trashing the executable does reflect the need for a Preference, at least in the eyes of many users. The rest, again, can leave it at 'yes, ask me', which is what they have now.