So I've noticed in my time here on Subeta that there is sort of a "thing" that goes down over in the Site Reporting forum. Users will come in and report a bug, which is what it's for. Only problem is, if they don't express the problem in a way that shows ZERO irritation, exasperation, etc, they get absolutely dogpiled by other users. We know quite well that not all the staff members have their job on Subeta as their primary employment, so we obviously aren't expecting everything on the site to be fixed immediately. However, users should be free to express their frustration at longtime issues, or particularly frustrating bugs or errors, without being made to feel bad or shamed because they weren't sugar-sweet and candy-cute in their posts.

How do we, as members of the site, avoid this? Is it possible to get people to stop doing this without confrontation? I'm worried that it is discouraging people from posting about issues when issues happen, or asking other people if they've come across the same problem.

I can't say I've notice this too much in bug reports, personally. If people are harassing you, then you should be able to file a ticket or contact a mod to deal with the situation. That said, it goes both ways, and you can't expect not to be called out if you come into a thread to complain about how lazy staff members are and throw insults around. I know how frustrating bugs can be, but losing your cool doesn't usually help things.

Are you talking about Problems and Bugs or Site Feedback? Those are two very different places. Can't say that I have seen attacks in Problems and Bugs and if there are then pinging me or Reya is the right thing to do. If you are talking about Site Feedback, then that is really a place to give feedback so as long at they aren't personal attacks, you are going to see differing opinions. The times that personal attacks do happen, staff does try to step in as quickly as possible and tell people to stop. Pinging the MM for that forum or filing a ticket helps!

You can't really control someone else opinions on x subjects. There is a way to voice your side without being impolite or being in the attack position. There is nothing that can be possibly done to avoid heated arguments because words are very easy to be thrown around. We have a community guidelines, mini mod and staff members around to monitor things. As a community, we have to be ready to face a lot of different opinions, even if we disagree with them.

I actually never see this, especially in the bug reports forums. The most is in the suggestions forums, it may get a bit heated sometimes when people disagree with suggestions, but even then staff is usually quick to step in and remind people to stay on topic. Do you have any examples of this happening that you could point to?

If you think specific users are crossing the line, however, I believe the correct thing to do is report them by filing in a ticket (or using the "Report Post" icon at the top right of each forum post). Subeta has rules about behaving in the community, so if you think someone is being rude or attacking you etc, you can report them and have staff look into it.

Best not to point out specific instances because that is targeting but please do file a ticket!

Whenever a post is questionably personal, mods in general aside from issuing a reminder of adhering to rules do contact staff to also step in and monitor. I haven't seen this in Bugs, but I agree in suggestions and feedback it occurs more often. I wouldn't say it is consistently all the time though. However, everyone is entitled to their opinion and may express their disagreement. If you feel it is personal to you then report it and file a ticket. I am just not sure what your suggestion is?

I'm kind of lost as well. If it's in reference to problem and bugs I've personally never seen that happening on the bugs forum. If it's in reference to the site feedback or the suggestions forum, both of which can get pretty heated then a ticket needs to be made if any particular user is feeling personally harassed by other members of the site on a discussion. The only way to stop that is to have a staff member and the mini-mod of whichever forum it is step in and toe it back into line and they already do that so I'm not quite sure what is being suggested.

Going to echo what others have said here: This isn't something I notice in problems&bugs, but it's something that's more apparent in feedback and suggestions (sometimes) where topics get slightly more heated because people have differing opinions. There are already rules in place that don't allow for personal attacks, but if someone's attitude is negative enough in their bug report, I wouldn't be surprised if someone takes offense to that and tells them to knock it off. Expressing frustration and giving constructive criticism is perfectly understandable and fine, but there's a point where that also crosses the line when it comes to the community guidelines. No one is going to confront someone else for reporting a bug in a calm friendly way, so I think some responsibility needs to be shared between everyone who posts.

To me, this is more of a suggestion directed at the user base than a suggestion for anything that staff can implement.

Same as the others said. The staff tends to gets dogpiled by other users in the Problems and Bugs section, which the OP get dogpiled by other users in the Idea and Suggestions section.

This is a weird topic in that there's a lot of words in it, but I'm not really seeing any that make a Suggestion here to comment upon. Am I missing something?

Maybe this belongs in Help & Questions (because the op is asking about how to solve the problem of which Subeta does have a procedure in place and already answered by staff here already?) or in Feedback (if the primary goal is to complain?)

Yeah I haven't noticed this in the Bugs forum either. Once in awhile it happens in Site Feedback or Suggestions but I don't think it actually happens as often as people make it sound. People tend to get defensive when they have an unpopular suggestion and sometimes it turns a little ugly but I don't think people really jump on the OP all that often.

Well you've got the one side that will shout at the staff until they're blue in the face, the other side that will defend staff with their last dying breath, and then everyone else in the middle that gets annoyed with both sides because we know the staff is human and deserves both praise and admonishment in equal measure when they do well and when they do poorly.

Everyone just needs to remember that everyone on this site is a person with feelings that can mess up, say the wrong thing, or say things in the wrong way. (Or you're like me, and come off way more aggressive than you mean to because you're a blunt sort of person and the way you say things is taken badly lol)

Where is the peanut gallery? I'm disappointed, because I went all the way there and only found "THE HOLY SHRINE OF THE NEON GREEN MODEM"

It would be helpful to clarify this. You have great intentions, but the quote below is confusing.

Overall, I believe the posts in the bugs section expressing frustration are mainly due to these:

1. It's causing widespread interruption (persistent or continuous downtime, or blank pages)
2. The issue is taking way too long to acknowledge or fix
3. The thread is locked reporting that the problem is fixed, but it isn't fixed or is already back

That I believe are legitimate reasons to get annoyed at, although being rude won't really help the issue.

I don't feel that the Bugs forum is a place for opinion at all; I don't feel that any post or reply other than "I have this (too) and this is how it's affected me alone" should be allowed. Unfortunately, I HAVE seen people get jumped on and told "I don't think that bug is a big deal". That shouldn't be allowed. Maybe in other forums, but Bugs? No. Not every forum should be a place for debates and it's never made sense to me that anything but the most basic of posts was allowed to be posted in Bugs. It's not up to the userbase to tell someone that a bug isn't a big deal and "It's been this way for years so just deal with it". That's why the great majority of successful pet sites don't permit it. It's not a Complaints forum; it's a place dealing solely with functionality issues. Any 'you can't control opinions' is utterly irrelevant. On the other side of that: Site Feedback is where you voice issues with how the staff handles things. That shouldn't be in Bugs either.

tl;dr: Bugs shouldn't have anything but bug reporting. No opinions, no debate, no irrelevant replies.