Subject: Reporting shareware bugs

24. *****
 Q: I found a bug in a shareware or a PD program. How should I
report it?

 A: This is not actually a Frequently Asked Question, but I would
like to put forward some personal views on this. Starting with my
own programs, all sensible feedback is welcome whether it is emailed
or posted.
   Some of the colleagues on the net may have a slightly different
views on reporting the bugs publicly, and I respect also that view,
even if I don't personally see anything basically wrong with it as
long as the feedback is not malicious or outright incorrect.
   The first thing to do when you note a bug (or a truly problematic
feature), and want to report it, is to recheck your facts. Is it an
error you have made, or a simple case of RTFM (you haven't read the
documentation properly)? If the bug is still there, then by all
means go ahead and report.  The second thing to do before reporting
to a major shareware author is objectively asking yourself are you
just trying to solicit extra support, or are you honestly reporting
a bug for the author's benefit.
   Let me tell you about my own method of giving feedback. When
reporting bugs I have had very varying responses from shareware
authors. Some are very responsive, some never answer. The method I
use (if I feel I have something useful to report) is roughly the
following. If I can find out the email address of the author I send
an email report. If I cannot find the email address I leave things
be (I'm frankly too busy to go through the extra trouble of ordinary
paper mail). If I get a confirmation of the receipt (or have at
sometime had useful exchanges with the author), then ok. If I don't
get any reaction (or haven't had any previously), I let things lie,
but if I ever have further feedback, I won't send it. Instead I send
an enquiry telling that I have this bug report, and ask the author
if s/he is interested about getting my bug report. If I still get no
response, I won't bother send that author any feedback ever again.
   Incidentally, I have compiled a list of the addresses of MS-DOS
PD & SW authors reachable on or from Internet. This list is
available as ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/pd2/author35.zip.
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