
Please copy and paste the text of the error - jordigh
https://secure.phabricator.com/book/phabflavor/article/please_please_please/
======
danso
I initially attributed this kind of omission as originating from laziness or
just not knowing how to copy-and-paste* into their email client. Now I think
it actually stems from a much bigger problem: the average computer user's
inability to understand cause-and-effect, and their belief that there is just
" _the_ error", with a corresponding " _the_ solution", because they think
there is only one reason (and not really a real "reason", as it seems to be
only understood by "neckbeards") that a computer error could occur.

Thus, it's not laziness, just something that logically follows from the
erroneous assumption that there is only one kind of error, and thus, a
competent programmer should automatically know the one solution to it.

* In terms of people not being able to copy-and-paste...just because they can do it in Word doesn't mean they realize that function exists in other apps. Take Google's finding that 90% of users didn't know how to use Ctrl-F ([http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/08/crazy-...](http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/08/crazy-90-percent-of-people-dont-know-how-to-use-ctrl-f/243840/))....just a couple days ago, in the final week of my programming class, one of my students was amazed when I did a Ctrl-F in the terminal.

~~~
epriest
I originally wrote this when I worked at Facebook. The intended audience (who
were submitting these reports at the time) was professional software
engineers.

~~~
sitharus
As a professional software engineer I can confirm that many of our rank have
some sort of blind spot when it comes to error messages.

Many time someone has commented "I don't know why this build is failing!", and
a quick search for "Error" in the build log reveals the exact cause.

My current pet peeve is an error message that reads "This application requires
<dependency A>. <Dependency A> can be installed from <url>". If I had $1 for
every time someone said "I don't know how to fix this".

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dimitar
A lot of users have been trained by viewing years of essentially meaningless
error messages: "Program has encountered a problem and needs to close",
"Error!" or something which actually useful, but its by no means
understandable to non-programmers.

Maybe people complaining about not being sent errors should make the errors
themselves more approachable.

~~~
jimmaswell
Or just make the programs automatically send error reports.

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kuon
As a programmer I think it's our duty to gather errors, it's not the user job.

Some thoughts:

\- Write everything in log files

\- Include a big button "send error to the programmer" which sends the log
file

\- If you really need to display codes, make them short (like
yourinteger.to_s(36).upcase in ruby)

\- Write friendly error messages that are informative and constructive, if
possible write a solution in the message. NO: Cannot write file. YES: I was
unable to save your document because your hard drive is full. You may delete
unimportant files to gain space (like downloads) or you may try to save the
file on another device (external drive, network drive…).

~~~
irascible
This is the right answer.

------
ajmarsh
Most error dialogs I see on Windows/OSX systems are not text that can be cut
and pasted. You have to take a screen shot.

~~~
moepstar
Which will most likely be sent to you as a Word doc...

~~~
ddmf
or pasted into MS Paint and then emailed as a 4Mb bitmap.

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robotcookies
Is it possible to make these titles just a little bit more descriptive of the
content? I enjoy reading hackernews but increasing see these completely vague
titles that tell nothing about the link. Some of us are pressed for time.

------
nullc
The error is meaningless to the user (else they'd fix the problem instead of
asking for your help), so it's no shock that sending the (meaningless) text to
you is not the first thing that comes to mind.

That said, computers (and other complex machinery) have been integral to
modern life for some time now. It's unfortunate that we're still graduating
people from school that don't know how to make a useful bug report.

~~~
kstrauser
> The error is meaningless to the user (else they'd fix the problem instead of
> asking for your help), so it's no shock that sending the meaningless text to
> you is not the first thing that comes to mind.

That's a good point, and implies that the better the error message, the dumber
the support requests you'll get about it because they're the only ones left.

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hudell
Sadly, the people who will see this are not the people who need to see this.

~~~
jordigh
Now you have something convenient and funny to show to the people who need to
see it.

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kyled
If you can display an error message, you should be able to record it too. If a
network error occurs and prevents the client from phoning home, log the error
and send it later.

~~~
paulannesley
I'd much rather the tools I use on my computer _didn't_ phone home to report
every time I use them incorrectly or they emit an error for whatever reason.

Edit: you could say “record the error and give the option to report it” but
that's a whole lot of extra complexity, both UI and code. Especially for a
bunches of single-purpose composable tools.

------
coldcode
Even better track every error your app or web app or whatever shows a user.
Even if the user doesn't tell you anything, at least the app or web app or
whatever will.

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martin-adams
While it is extremely valid to say that the error message should be more
meaningful to users, they should. I often find myself in situations where
people are asking me for support (co-workers not customers) on related tools
and products which I have no control over.

In this case, please, please, please copy and paste the error message or send
a screenshot.

And for those using TortoiseGit 'git did not exit cleanly (exit code 128)'
does not count as an error message. #ScrollUp

------
mbesto
In case anyone is interested, this is normally what I send to my users so they
properly document issues for me:

[https://github.com/backticks/issue-
documentation](https://github.com/backticks/issue-documentation)

Feel free to fork and stylize as you want.

------
aruggirello
Sometimes I think that we should really reconsider the way we allow people to
use computers. You need a license to drive a car, and IMHO perhaps it should
be the same with computers - at least the more complex systems - this would
solve a lot of issues.

Just my two cents.

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markbnj
The same thing applies to searching for the cause/resolution to a problem. I
don't know how many times I've had to encourage my parents to just Google the
text of the error message they see, and read the first few results.

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chippy
Reminds me of Eric Raymond's "How To Ask Questions" guide.

[http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-
questions.html](http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html)

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anant90
The last two lines of the post :D

Subject: Irony

There is a spelling error in the error message I received.

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jasonlfunk
Please.

