Improved bug tracker

The current bug reporting system is a bit underwhelming and I was thinking of ways to make it better. I really want to help squash those bugs I'm having problems with, but often it seems like they're just ignored and I never know why. During the new UI beta phase I was very happy with how much the devs were interacting with the users on the forums and I wish there was more interaction on the regular bug reporting process too. I know devs usually won't have time for lengthy discussions, but if they just had to click a button or two on a bug report they look at, maybe that could be done. I don't know what you use internally, but it already has to be something a bit more sophisticated, right?

Reporting bugs from inside the editor and attaching projects is cool and works great. However the experience declines after that, as you often only get the automated reply and nothing after that. The report can be viewed in fogbugz, but there's no interaction and the reports are either open or closed. There's no way of knowing if anyone ever saw the report or if it was a duplicate, incomplete etc. It would be great to have something with a bit more information and possibility for interaction (like in Jira). The issue tracker is better, but it's not up to you if the issue ever makes it there and interaction there is also limited to voting and writing comments.

I would like to be able to see a more defined status of my bug report:

* rating (blocker / critical / major / minor / trivial)
- I could rate the severity when sending / see the rating it was given after review

* waiting for review
- If my report goes ignored for a while but the problem still exists, maybe I could update the report and bump it to the top instead of sending a new one?

* Reviewed
- Cool, I know it's not ignored and I know to wait for some status change.

* Unable to repro / insufficient info
- I could double check everything, add information and resubmit.

* Duplicate
- OK, I can watch the other report instead.

* Sent forward to developers
- I know it's in the pipe and being reviewed more thoroughly / being worked on. Maybe I can add some more information too.

* Fixed / Closed
- Great, it says it's fixed in version 5.3.2p2. I can confirm that myself then.

Updating my own report would be great too, I can think of many cases it'd be useful in.

* Noticed new stuff, better repro steps, more info, whatever - I could update the report instead of sending a new one / sending a email reply.

* There's a new patch, but the bug is not fixed. I could update the version number or maybe even the repro project in the report instead of sending a new one.

* I noticed I was stupid and it's not a bug afterall, I could just close the report so no-one wastes their time on it.

* I found an active bug case this is a duplicate of, I could mark it myself.

* Could work as a way of bumping, if the report has been seemingly ignored for a while, but it's still a problem.

I do realize this would be more work for you and you don't want thousands of people pinging you with "why u no fix" updates every day. Maybe there could be some prerequisites, like people with some kind of positive bug report karma would be able to have more interaction?

So, any planned changes? Is there a point in dreaming of something like this?

 

Great idea!

 

I am sure that Unity is aware of this problem. Keep in mind that the issuetracker is still relatively new and it was already a huge step forward. The current situation can't be compared to what existed before! But I certainly agree that this kind of changes would be highly welcome!