How To Report Bugs Problems Issues With BYC Website - Troubleshooting Tech Support

Nifty-Chicken

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For the vast majority of our users the BYC website provides tons of great tools and features to help lean about raising chickens and sharing pictures and stories. Unfortately from time to time we receive reports of people having problems. Hopefully this guide will help those visitors an members find answers to their problems.

The Rapid Pace Of Technology - Stay Up To Date FOR FREE!

Tech and the internet evolve at lightning speeds. Many people visiting BYC are using Internet Explorer 8 as their browser (4 years old) and some are even on IE 7 (over 6 years old). In internet time, that's like taking a Model T onto the freeway and trying to keep up with all the cars around you going 65 MPH... you're bound to run into problems!

Are you on an old version of IE? We STRONGLY suggest that you use the newest version of Google Chrome or Firefox, both of which are free (some reports show Chrome may be the best choice). Programmers all over the world would be happy if they didn't have to code for IE, but they have to since people keep using the inferior browser.

Again, Google Chrome & Firefox are completely free and you can even run them at the same time as Internet Explorer to see the difference in performance.


Troubleshooting Website Problems - Easy as 1, 2, 3x √8 ÷ ∝!

Trying to troubleshoot problems on a website for a user is like a mechanic trying to find and diagnose a problem with your car... over email!
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In the case of mechanic, sometimes it's easy for them to to find the problem... you drive your car in with a big hole in your radiator... pretty easy to diagnose and they know what needs to be done to solve the problem.

Of course there are also the times where your car makes a loud knocking sound from the engine... except it stops when you take it into the shop.

The same applies to problems with websites, but imagine instead of one engine in your car to troubleshoot, you have 10! That's what it's like trying to fix problems with very large / robust websites... it's very complex and complicated. Is it a problem with the server, the database, the programming, the ads, the user's browser, browser plugins or extensions, the user's computer, other software on the user's computer, the internet connection, or one of the almost infinite combinations of all of the above?
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What We Need To Help You, Help Us, Help You, Help Your Chickens:

Just like a mechanic, the #1 best way to get to the root of a problem is to be able to reproduce it. The difficulty is that we often can't duplicate the problem, especially if the problem is only happening to one or a few users. This often means the problem is with the user's browser and/or computer, and again, there are billions of combinations to try to account for and solve. Basically, we need as much information as possible!
Steps You (and all good troubleshooters) Should Take:

  1. Try resetting your computer. Turn it off, wait 2 minutes, turn it back on.
  2. Clear your internet browser's cache / history of files. It's easy to do and almost as important as taking out the trash at home! See instructions here and here.
  3. Determine if the problem is because of your browser and/or plugins and extensions. Download a free version of either Google Chrome or Firefox and see if the thing that was broken now works. Note: when we people to "try another browser" it isn't meant to say, "permanently change browsers" (unless you're on IE). Instead we mean: "Try a different browser for a moment to help isolate if the problem is with your browser or your computer or your account or something else." It's just part of the process of determining the exact cause of the problem so we can then try to fix it.
  4. If you're still having problems, continue to the steps below:
Report The Problem & Be VERY Specific!


Below are are the required steps that will help us find, duplicate, and hopefully resolve the problem you are having. Go through these steps and once you have the answers to each of them, post a new topic in our feedback section with all the details of your problem:


Table of Contents



  1. How to Report a Bug
    1. Sample Bug Report
  2. How to Report a Mobile Device Bug
  3. How to Report a Bad Ad
    1. Sample Bug Report


How to Report a Bug:

A good bug report can bring about a quick response to a problem - a bad, or incomplete, bug report can leave us guessing what you're actually trying to report and might not see the issue be addressed.

Help us help you - when reporting a bug, use the following template and include as much of this information as you can:
  • Reproducibility: Were you able to reproduce this problem consistently?
  • Repro Steps: What steps did you take to reproduce this problem?
  • Expected: What action did you expect to occur when this bug appeared?
  • Notes: Any additional information that will help us diagnose the issue
  • Browser, active browser add-ons, and operating system
  • URL where the issue occurs

One thing you should always attempt when an issue arises is to see if the issue occurs when you open up an incognito window without any browser add-ons.

Your report's subject line should offer a clear, concise description of the issue so that other members who experience the same problem can find your report and confirm it. An example of good/bad report titles is below:

Good Title: Thread listing order in Off Topic is not correct
Bad Title: Off Topic is Broken

Sample Bug Report:

Delivery Diagnostics URL:
https://www.google.com/dfp/5441#inventory/diagnostics/gdfp_req=1&correlator=2824582798171470&output=json_html&callback=callbackProxy&impl=fif&eid=108809080%2C108809028&sc=0&sfv=1-0-4&iu=%2F5441%2Fhud.pets%2F_backyardchickens%2F_backyardchickens%2F%2Fhome%2FHOME_TOP_LEADERBOARD&sz=728x90&scp=loc%3Dtop%26pos%3Dtop_leaderboard%26ox728x90%3D210&cust_params=s0%3Dhud.pets%26s1%3D_backyardchickens%26s2%3Dhome%26page_url%3Dhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.backyardchickens.com%252F%253Fgoogle_force_console%26src%3Dhuddler%26fromsearch%3Dtrue%26hudd%3Dhome_index%26loggedin%3Dtrue&cookie=ID%3Da1bd36d3c297e3fc%3AT%3D1464026999%3AS%3DALNI_MZrfeeijTibYPJ4zifrYlHHV927CA&lmt=1470435742&dt=1470435755797&cc=100&frm=20&biw=1468&bih=1270&oid=3&adx=626&ady=9&adk=3129138569&gut=v2&ifi=2&u_tz=-420&u_his=4&u_h=1440&u_w=2560&u_ah=1365&u_aw=2560&u_cd=24&u_nplug=5&u_nmime=7&u_sd=1&flash=22.0.0&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.backyardchickens.com%2F%3Fgoogle_force_console&dssz=49&icsg=1095216694016&mso=33554432&std=0&vrg=92&vrp=92&ga_vid=1306080024.1464026998&ga_sid=1470434925&ga_hid=1878622031&ga_fc=true&base_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsecurepubads.g.doubleclick.net%2Fgampad%2Fads

System info: Windows 7 x64, Chrome 51.0, Adblock Plus and Noscript (both allowed on site)

URL: www.backyardchickens.com
vWEUYdsL5BJR542QMhQGxweKUG4mrBdgSMhBLQf4FNegTaBFCo0WrJDRfiQn7J4gW5OZZpcvTa0GhM0J4uSRc8DWT9YPj4xENoeZ1c-8nPft3cmwpqHMhUqMlQ3ojm0hxOyDHfaU


What happens next?
Bad ads are reported directly to the Ad Operations team. The ad ops team then will then diagnose the report ad and take any necessary actions to block the ad from being displayed on the site.

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Hi.this thread is OLD but, I'm having some issues.i have a Apple Ipad and all the Emocons are blue ?'s and I don't know why.if you need a screenshot, I can get one.
 
Hi.this thread is OLD but, I'm having some issues.i have a Apple Ipad and all the Emocons are blue ?'s and I don't know why.if you need a screenshot, I can get one.


It's not just you. I am getting the same on my iPad and on my desktop and laptop, I just get the symbols/letters.
 
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