Jiggling with the Jira

The whole ad farm issue is too depressing for me to want to discuss right now, monsters have been unleashed on all sides with extremists trying to get their way on an issue that really shouldn't be this hard to solve. Harassment and griefing were already covered in the TOS, there was also a ban on ad farms, I'm not sure why there has to be all this turmoil.

Then there's the land market. I have a little mall in Second Life, there are some odd advertising plots nearby with Vote McCain type boxes above them, and strange slogans. Then there are 16M parcels with banlines, not for sale and owned by Governor Linden and then there are plots for sale and if you want to despair at the land market then these are the plots to look at.

A 1024M for sale for L$12,000. That's around the price I paid when I purchased land in that sim. Then there's a 1024 for L$8,650. However then we see the reality of today's prices kicking in, a couple of 1024's for L$5,700 and then 512's, that tell the story of where we're at. One is for sale for L$2,000 and one for L$1,980.

For less than L$4,000 I could own a 1024 (the plots are adjacent). That's the land market for you, but there's a massive disparity of prices in that sim, the guy selling the plot for L$12,000 is going to be waiting a long time for a buyer there me thinks.

However as that's all much too depressing I thought I'd delve into the wonderful world of the Jira. A monstrosity of a tool for the average user, but a useful tool in the greater scheme of things.

The problem with the Jira is that it is so cumbersome. Linden Lab want more people to report faults but when they do report faults they'll receive curt replies that it's already been reported, that more information is needed, that the problem can't be reproduced.

Imagine filing you first Jira report, being happy that you managed to negotiate the multitude of options and then you receive a reply that it's resolved because more information is needed. How is it resolved? I'm sure a lot of people are put off ever submitting a Jira ticket again when that happens, as they are when they are told it's a duplicate, or it's resolved because there's a fix in the pipeline.

This isn't to say that those who respond are intentionally rude. I know from my work experience that it's tiresome explaining over and over again to people how to report faults. That trying to elicit descriptions of faults is a pain in the backside. These guys and girls working on the Jira are are volunteering their time so it must be frustrating to file, filter and resolve.

However instead of resolving an issue as a duplicate, why not import it into an already reported fault? The terminology is important, you're not making the person reporting the issue feel bad for not having waded through umpteen Jira reports to see if the issue already exists.

Instead of resolving an issue as requiring more information, why not set it to pending more information. If more information isn't received in a set time then close it, but don't close it right away. I noticed two similar looking reports that were closed for requiring more info, if the first had been left open the second could have been imported and between them the two users might have actually imparted more information.

As a basic fault reporting tool the Jira sucks and there's no getting away from that. If I used the Jira at work fault reports would be way down. The Jira can be a damn powerful tool for collaboration, but it's not a good means of submitting basic issues to a lot of people and many will take one look at the interface and decide they can't be bothered. The fact that there are video tutorials on how to use the Jira exemplifies just how cumbersome it is.

Those who do work on the Jira put in a lot of time and effort and those efforts are much appreciated, but the Jira definitely needs more tweaks if it's to become more encompassing, it simply isn't user friendly.