Astrolabe Report Feedback

[Ork]

Backlands. What an amazing addition. Reporting is always a chore and you've made it so much simpler.

In the hopes of increasing simplicity, I was wondering if there was a way to parse out the mandatory sections like location, time, etc. into their own separate box instead of it all being lumped into a description box that you have to erase.

Thank you for making it so much easier to report!

[Dreams]

I resent all of the reports that hadn't been responded to via the astrolabe report function. (edit: have since seen the announcement and will stick to using one or the other from here on, it's mostly because I've been told that reports which aren't responded to could be assumed to have not been actually seen. Is the Astrolabe or the forums the better method of reporting for the DMs?)

It's a great idea! I think there probably needs to be an option to send image via hyperlink rather than in the body of the text. e.g. You have the upload file part, just add a text box next to it for the link to hosted images.

The drop-down menus are really counter-intuitive because you've got some PrC requests mixed into rules, rules are separated by categories that don't always make sense.

[DM Chatsworth]

Please do NOT resend any reports prior to the Astrolabe go-live into the Astrolabe.

Not all reports get responded to quickly, or ever.

If they are sent in, they are seen, they are dealt with.

You won't always get feedback from us, because you don't need the feedback 9 times out of 10.

Thank you.!

[Darkstorn42]

I love the update to the Astrolabe! This new report/application/PM system is amazing looking on the front end and I imagine it will be a god send for the DMs on the back end.

On that note, I think I saw that there was no place to submit setting noble applications. I don't know where it should go, but I imagine it wouldn't be too much work to shift:
PRC / Race Request
to
PRC/ Race/ Noble Request, and then add Noble as a drop down. (I don't think you'd need to seperate each Cordor and Drow House. Hopefully it would be fine for them to all get lumped together.)

[backlands]

Backlands. What an amazing addition. Reporting is always a chore and you've made it so much simpler.

In the hopes of increasing simplicity, I was wondering if there was a way to parse out the mandatory sections like location, time, etc. into their own separate box instead of it all being lumped into a description box that you have to erase.

Thank you for making it so much easier to report!

Thanks so much! It is a labour of love and it seems folks are liking it.

Those details will be kept in the report body though, as they can vary a fair bit from report to report for what is needed. Adding a field for that would add more layers that may not be used in every report.

I resent all of the reports that hadn't been responded to via the astrolabe report function. (edit: have since seen the announcement and will stick to using one or the other from here on, it's mostly because I've been told that reports which aren't responded to could be assumed to have not been actually seen. Is the Astrolabe or the forums the better method of reporting for the DMs?)

For this part, for old reports, assume that they have been seen. Some of the team recently went through the entire PM backlog and made sure we had everything being actioned in a ticket. In this case you may not have received a PM, rest assured the past cases sent by PM are being looked at.

In the future all reports/requests should go to Astrolabe.

It's a great idea! I think there probably needs to be an option to send image via hyperlink rather than in the body of the text. e.g. You have the upload file part, just add a text box next to it for the link to hosted images.

Going forward we would like all player submitted images to be uploaded directly to our system, any external hosting runs the risk of being lost in the future as third-parties change their policies. Image embeds in the post body won't be supported at the moment. Any links to image albums will be uploaded to our system for future proofing and players can help by just uploading them directly.

The drop-down menus are really counter-intuitive because you've got some PrC requests mixed into rules, rules are separated by categories that don't always make sense.

What PrC's are mixed into rules? Currently they can all be found under "Applications" some may have been mixed.

I love the update to the Astrolabe! This new report/application/PM system is amazing looking on the front end and I imagine it will be a god send for the DMs on the back end.

On that note, I think I saw that there was no place to submit setting noble applications. I don't know where it should go, but I imagine it wouldn't be too much work to shift:
PRC / Race Request
to
PRC/ Race/ Noble Request, and then add Noble as a drop down. (I don't think you'd need to seperate each Cordor and Drow House. Hopefully it would be fine for them to all get lumped together.)

All sorted out now and can be found under the "Applications" category, thanks Darkstorn!

[Dreams]

Going forward we would like all player submitted images to be uploaded directly to our system, any external hosting runs the risk of being lost in the future as third-parties change their policies. Image embeds in the post body won't be supported at the moment. Any links to image albums will be uploaded to our system for future proofing and players can help by just uploading them directly.

In that case, it might be worth working out how to let people Copy + Paste images into the report because screenshots for some reason can take up a lot of space. Imgur is super useful for this because you don't need to save images on your machine (not everyone has modern space allocations for HD).

[AstralUniverse]

Definitely big +1 from me here.

Reporting sometimes feels like a waste of time, especially since we have no way to tell if/how our reports are handled, when there's no feedback from the DM team about any steps taken in regards to the report other than "your report has been seen and is being looked at" which is really all I could ask for, realistically, but at the same time it does make reporting a bit frustrating in that sense. Cutting down on the time consuming part of reporting really helps a lot at making it less frustrating which, I'm sure, will make players report more and give the DM team a better reflection on the player base, what rules are working and what rules are out-dated/unenforcible etc. This is really good.

[Dreams]

It would be really cool just to have basic feedback like:

• Your report has been received / looked at.
• Your report has been handled.

Naturally I understand that players won't get any more details, but maybe that could help with the feeling that concerns sometimes go unseen or unheard.

[Miaou]

I love this system so much, and hope it is as clean on the backend as it is on the player side!

A Request!

When uploading two different images with the same name, it doesn't know how to handle the request and doesn't do anything. I was able to fix this by changing the name of one of the files, but there was no feedback to inform me that was the issue. If perhaps an error message can show to tell silly people like me to not have two different files with the same name, might be helpful!

I like the ability to reply and add further context to a situation in the case there was forgotten details. It's very easy to use on mobile, too.

[TheDoctor]

It would be really cool just to have basic feedback like:

• Your report has been received / looked at.
• Your report has been handled.

Naturally I understand that players won't get any more details, but maybe that could help with the feeling that concerns sometimes go unseen or unheard.

One million times this!!!!

We dont want to know what has been done.... We dont want to know WHO its been done to!

We just want to know our report was seen and HANDLED.

[D4wN]

I adore this new ticketing system. One question, would it be possible to see a status on the report? I.e. 'read', 'investigation', 'closed' etc? Or something along those lines

This would help a lot to manage expectations.

[backlands]

Just wanted to give a heads up that the feedback in this thread is being looked into. I am seeing if we can add some more details for players about the status of a report but can't promise anything. The team needs to discuss this and see what we are comfortable with exposing. I will announce when a new version goes up!

Really glad to see that folks are liking the new system!

[DM Nixie]

I'd like to pop in and say the new system makes it foolproof and wonderfully quick to communicate back-and-forth with players about reports and applications. Backlands's work has been amazing!

[Waldo52]

Just used it to make a report. I got a response quickly and the interface worked well.

I'm liking it.

[DM Nixie]

Just to give a little insight from the team's perspective, here's a case to illustrate why having mandatory status categories which are visible to the reporter isn't as straight-forward as it might seem at first blush:

You send in a report for a clear-cut case of no-RP PvP, someone's character just walked up to your character and started wailing on them. You've provide your combat logs, we verify things on our end, it's very clear that a DM needs to have a chat with that player, and we're ready to hunt them down. But that player doesn't log in, for weeks.

We're not ignoring your case, but we can't do anything about it either until the player shows up.

This is just one example among many where a status label would have to be either misleading or possibly reveal too much about what's going on with the other involved player. Needing to observe, monitor, and/or wait happens a lot!

We do understand that it is frustrating to feel like your report is being ignored (which the new system as-is should help mitigate, as it's much easier for us to see the communication history of any report), but any status-labeling system, if implemented, would need to be able to account for the entire range of squirrelly situations that occur when best intentions meet reality.

[LivelyParticle]

I think even an 'acknowledged' status would be a big improvement. I submitted something recently to ask for feedback on a situation that left a bad taste and it's just like it's gone into a black hole.

[TheDoctor]

I think even an 'acknowledged' status would be a big improvement. I submitted something recently to ask for feedback on a situation that left a bad taste and it's just like it's gone into a black hole.

You hafta understand that these reports might not even get seen let alone worked on for a good while. I know for a fact there is a backlog. You hafta give the team some slack here in this regard. They have a ton of work and not enough time in the day. You have people that report every tiny little thing also so sometimes the team has to have god only knows how much backlog.

I know someone how had a DM talk last week about something 3 months old... Thats a major backlog...

TLDR
Cut the team some slack there is only 24 hours in a day....

An acknowledged or READ status would indeed be helpful. As well a "resolved" for when its be actioned on.

[Eyeliner]

"Acknowledged" would be good to let you know your report went to the right place. I don't think any player should know what happens next or expect a "resolved" message... I'm going to guess here but I don't think every reported incident warrants someone getting a talking to or punishment, and your particular report may not ever be directly addressed but it may be kept on file in case there's a pattern that needs to be dealt with.

I know a lot of players want some sort of satisfaction if they've been wronged but reporting isn't so you can get that... It should be to make DMs aware there's an issue and let them decide what to do.

[TheDoctor]

I don't think any player should know what happens next or expect a "resolved" message... I'm going to guess here but I don't think every reported incident warrants someone getting a talking to or punishment, and your particular report may not ever be directly addressed but it may be kept on file in case there's a pattern that needs to be dealt with.

Yeah I agree people should never be given any details of what was done... All I was really meaning was just like....

open..... Closed....

No details or anything

[Miaou]

It's me again! Something I've noticed.

There is a notification system that informs you that you have a new message, however it seems to be very delayed when it puts the notice out. It is also possible that replies do not show up as well, but I can't confirm that. Specifically, I had put in a request ticket on 7/02/2024. I got a reply 7/7/2024, but did not receive the reply notification until 7/21/2024. I use the astrolabe often and would have noticed the notification normally.

[The GrumpyCat]

I don't think any player should know what happens next or expect a "resolved" message... I'm going to guess here but I don't think every reported incident warrants someone getting a talking to or punishment, and your particular report may not ever be directly addressed but it may be kept on file in case there's a pattern that needs to be dealt with.

Yeah I agree people should never be given any details of what was done... All I was really meaning was just like....

open..... Closed....

No details or anything

nod Sadly even this can give away a little bit more than you might think.
Example - you notice Tony has two quarters. You report this. You get a 'Closed' notification - well now you know that one of those quarters might be free to buy!

[TheDoctor]

I don't think any player should know what happens next or expect a "resolved" message... I'm going to guess here but I don't think every reported incident warrants someone getting a talking to or punishment, and your particular report may not ever be directly addressed but it may be kept on file in case there's a pattern that needs to be dealt with.

Yeah I agree people should never be given any details of what was done... All I was really meaning was just like....

open..... Closed....

No details or anything

nod Sadly even this can give away a little bit more than you might think.
Example - you notice Tony has two quarters. You report this. You get a 'Closed' notification - well now you know that one of those quarters might be free to buy!

Thats a pretty bad example. The person who reported that Tony has two quarters will most assuredly be checking those daily to see if one goes up REGARDLESS of what the open or closed status is.

[backlands]

It's me again! Something I've noticed.

There is a notification system that informs you that you have a new message, however it seems to be very delayed when it puts the notice out. It is also possible that replies do not show up as well, but I can't confirm that. Specifically, I had put in a request ticket on 7/02/2024. I got a reply 7/7/2024, but did not receive the reply notification until 7/21/2024. I use the astrolabe often and would have noticed the notification normally.

This is actually because I just implemented the notifications in the Astrolabe very recently and had not announced it as I was fixing a bug with it!

Yeah I agree people should never be given any details of what was done... All I was really meaning was just like....

open..... Closed....

No details or anything

nod Sadly even this can give away a little bit more than you might think.
Example - you notice Tony has two quarters. You report this. You get a 'Closed' notification - well now you know that one of those quarters might be free to buy!

Thats a pretty bad example. The person who reported that Tony has two quarters will most assuredly be checking those daily to see if one goes up REGARDLESS of what the open or closed status is.

Seems like a fine example of a less dire situation, that us revealing case details might lead to IC or OOC action on a players part if we start showing open/closed status.

On the DM side we have added some checks to better ensure that players receive some form of response from the team. That should reduce the worry that a report is simply missed. There is also an alert on a report for the DMs if it goes unreplied for too long.

The new system should make it a lot more reliable for staff to see and respond that a case is being looked into. This update has eliminated a lot of manual process that existed before.

It has always been the server stance that we don't make case handling public and things will remain that way.

[What Fate Awaits]

On the DM side we have added some checks to better ensure that players receive some form of response from the team. That should reduce the worry that a report is simply missed. There is also an alert on a report for the DMs if it goes unreplied for too long.

The new system should make it a lot more reliable for staff to see and respond that a case is being looked into.

I preface the following by saying that I completely understand that there is a backlog, limited staff who are all volunteers, and issues that take priority over others.

With those understandings in place, I'm curious about the time frame for the alert. Does it come after a week? A month? Three months? If I've submitted a report, what's a reasonable time for me to wait for a response before I attempt a follow-up? I ask because there's differing guidance throughout the forums and Discord. I've seen staffers suggest following up after a week and others saying wait a month.

I'd also like to echo the prior comments about giving read receipts. "Someone from the DM Team viewed this report on Date/Time" would at least provide some peace of mind that the report wasn't lost into the ether. Building on that, it'd be nice to have an automatic way to "bump" a report after X amount of Time (if read receipts aren't available; if they are, then this idea becomes mostly moot).

I'd also like to suggest a way to withdraw a report or to self-mark it as closed. I'd submitted a event request a while back for something that's come and gone, and I'd love a way to pull the report so it's no longer cluttering the to-do list for the Team.

All in all I like the Astrolabe reporting system, and I'm sure it's a lot more streamlined than a jumble of forum PMs. With it being so new, though, I feel that some small measures in place to communicate that everything's working as intended would be invaluable to the playerbase.