Patch Day tips for the frustrated and cranky.

MidgetMage55 · 06-24-10, 12:55 AM

All hail the joys and sorrows of patch day!

For many this is the time to dive in to new content with reckless abandon or renew accounts for said content.

For equally as many it is a time of broken addons, frustration and grumpiness.

Your neighborhood Grinch has a section to help ALL people remedy some of the negatives of patch days.

Lets start with addons broken by the patch.
For quite a few of us there is the desire or need(?) to post bug reports or even fixes in the effort to assist in getting things up a running. While I share this desire, there are good and bad ways to go about this.

Bad ways to help:
-Running to your nearest forum and posting "it's broken, fix it. I can't live without it!"

-Posting without doing A) a quick search with the search feature in the upper right, B) simply looking over recent threads for similar issues, or C) look to see if the author uses a bug tracker. Its easier for the authors to follow up on issues if they are consolidated in one place.

-Losing your cool over the simplest of things. This should be a no-brainer but you would be surprised how heated people get on patch day and following weeks.

-Being annoyed at having to repeat the same fix or information over and over. If it bugs you then by all means take a break. It doesn't do anyone any good and it certainly won't help your sanity.

-Doing any of the above without having read the Holy Site Rules of Wowinterface.com. Just because its patch day and there is a sense of urgency doesn't mean we waive the rules.

Good ways to help:
-Provide detail. As much of it as you can. Any methods you may have used to trouble shoot (remember we aren't there with you) as well as any errors you can provide. To assist in posting errors you can use addons like buggrabber+bugsack to allow for easy copy and paste of errors.

-Follow up feedback is always a good thing. If you happen to figure out what may be causing a problem by all means post about it (in an existing thread if at all possible) to share your info.

-If you choose to share fixes to files with the community at large it is recommended you provide simple to follow instructions. If you opt to provide fixed files please upload them as patches or plug-ins to the original if the option is available for people to access. The Holy Site Rules of Wowinterface.com has more detail on this.

Now that we have a good mindset for how to help, there is an equally important mindset for asking for it.

Bad ways to seek help:
-Posting 'its broken fix it." (notice a pattern here) with lots of super special awesome extra punctuation.

-Snapping at people trying to help you who appear to be going through rather rudimentary trouble shooting steps. We aren't there with you so we only know what you tell us you've done. (remember info, info, info!)

-Bumping a thread if you don't get a response right away. Sometimes it takes just the right person to help you. Give it time.

Good ways to seek help:
-Detailed information as to what is wrong, what caused it if possible and steps (no matter how simple they seem) that you have tried to fix it or recreate it. Don't forget those error reports!

-A large dose of patience is always helpful. There are many MANY people who volunteer to help out on this site and it is a great community. We all do what we can to help so please show a little courtesy and you will receive it in return.

Of course there are some things you just can't help and for those moments i offer a list of optional bits and pieces that can help relieve the stress of patch day.

Disclaimer!: I do NOT offer these things personally. Nor does Wowinterface.com. No deposit No return, Void where prohibited by law, Must be of legal age to participate, No Purchase necessary, If you pick at it it'll never heal, My sister was bitten by a møøse once, Objects in mirror are closer than they appear, Read instructions for assembly, One size fits all. The Grinch hath spoken!

-Cookies
-A Frosty Beverage
-A Hot Bubble Bath
-Ice Cream
-A nice nap
-Did I mention Cookies?

Thank you for making it this far. I hope it helps you get past patch day hysteria. We now return you to your regularly scheduled website already in progress.

voodoodad · 06-24-10, 01:03 AM

Well said!

Also, I LOVE your sig! But (and there's always a but) you need to do something about the border. It's too thin... Or too thick... And the background should be darker... Or lighter... And maybe your sig could be just a few pixels bigger on the right hand side and 1.4 pixels smaller on the left. What font is that? I personally would've picked something else, but it's up to you...

Anyway... LOVE the sig... Keep up the good work!

xandora · 06-24-10, 01:11 AM

Originally Posted by voodoodad

Well said!

Also, I LOVE your sig! But (and there's always a but) you need to do something about the border. It's too thin... Or too thick... And the background should be darker... Or lighter... And maybe your sig could be just a few pixels bigger on the right hand side and 1.4 pixels smaller on the left. What font is that? I personally would've picked something else, but it's up to you...

Anyway... LOVE the sig... Keep up the good work!

I'd say there's not enough grey.

Bluspacecow · 06-24-10, 04:25 AM

None of this is true !

The only one true way of getting through patch day woes is to fondle a gnome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

/fondles midgetmadge

Bluspacecow · 06-24-10, 04:44 AM

Please ignore the utter silliness of my last post. Was only trying to add a bit of humor to the situation

Ok on topic : Midget mage your post may benefit a little from making some little subsection headings. Maybe bold and underline the "good ways" and "bad ways" may make this post a little easier to read.

To everyone else.

Everybody. We have to remember that every addon author out there is not being paid for the many many hours they spend maintaining and dealing with every bug or feature request we bring them. They do it out of their own spare time so what they choose to spend time on is up to them.

Despite the fact that we have a vibrant addon community , the PTR and a forum in which they announce changes Blizzard have been known to ninja in changes to the API before it goes live that they tell no one about. Not every addon author gets on the PTR either - it's 2GB to download and install , requires regular updates and there's no guarantee the same changes are going to go live anyway.

The upshot of all this is at the end of the day the addon authors aren't special little code monkeys paid by Blizzard who live in a little hut just off the Blizzard campus and live on Blizzard cornflakes , noodles and Blizzard Koolaid. They don't get little missives direct from Blizzard about each and every upcoming change to the API.

They're players just like you and me. They are in the same boat we are in. Patch day madness. ZOMG must try new features. Must play with new stuff. Must kick the tires and see if that little thing they tried a month back still works or now works. They too need to deal with their favourite addons being borked. They too need to go seek updates or solutions.

So this is when you can step up to the plate people.

Take this opportunity to learn all about your addons. That's what patch day is really about. Seeing what addons are getting fixed , fixing them , helping the addon authors by submitting bug reports , updating your addons, finding out about new cool addons you didn't existed , replacing a few of your addons with ones that are cooler/have more features , rebuilding your UI etc etc.

Your patience is appreciated.

Tickets and bug reports are appreciated even more.

***Cairenn*** · 06-24-10, 04:47 AM

*chuckles* Thanks guys, both for the nicely written up suggestions, and for the laugh.

MidgetMage55 · 06-24-10, 05:11 AM

Duly adjusted for bold and underlining. And for the record my main is a Dwarf. =P
Midgetmage is a hold over from my EQ days when my main was... you guessed it, a Gnome mage =P

However in the spirit of alleviating your patch day stress have at it. =P

Torhal · 06-24-10, 02:44 PM

Fffrrrroooooaaaaaakkkkkk!

MidgetMage55 · 06-24-10, 11:10 PM

Originally Posted by Torhal

Fffrrrroooooaaaaaakkkkkk!

Well played sir.

Bluspacecow · 06-24-10, 11:20 PM

Originally Posted by MidgetMage55

Well played sir.

I don't get it

Torhal · 06-24-10, 11:43 PM

Originally Posted by Bluspacecow

I don't get it

Then you apparently never played EverQuest.

***Cairenn*** · 06-25-10, 12:25 AM

"D'vinn to zone!"

"Camp off?" "Orc 1!" "Throne room!" "Taskmaster!"

MidgetMage55 · 06-25-10, 12:31 AM

... And who could forget the Club Fu Train Index.

It still gives me a chuckle. I've easily done about 80% of that with my bard.

Bluspacecow · 06-25-10, 10:06 AM

Originally Posted by Torhal

Then you apparently never played EverQuest.

/off topic

Stilllll not getting it. Can I get an illustrated map , diagram and explanatory hand gestures ?

Dawn · 06-25-10, 05:42 PM

I'm surprised you didn't ask for a commented video tutorial.

Bluspacecow · 06-26-10, 01:52 AM

Originally Posted by Dawn

I'm surprised you didn't ask for a commented video tutorial.

Oh yes.

That too

Just kidding while we go further and further off topic !

MidgetMage55 · 06-26-10, 01:54 AM

If it relieves stress then I'd say it counts.

Torhal · 06-26-10, 02:13 AM

Originally Posted by Bluspacecow

<snip>Just kidding while we go further and further off topic !

OMG! FOCUS!

voodoodad · 06-26-10, 03:51 AM

Originally Posted by Torhal

OMG! FOCUS!

Dude... Ummm... Could you repeat the question?

Bluspacecow · 06-26-10, 06:39 AM

Ok here's an on topic post :

Remember guys.

It usually takes no more then 2 weeks for much of the addons to be all updated and all the bugs worked out.

This patch day addon chaos will pass.

There _is_ a light at the end of all this madness.

Keep your head down , look for updates , look for fixes , look for replacements for ones that can't be updated , submit bug reports etc etc.

You will eventually get to a point where your UI is all updated , error free and causes you no problems.

After which you shouldn't have to do it again for a few months or so.

Like Mr Grincy pants said above. It's not the end of the world and once you have it all worked you shouldn't have to do so again !