6

Is there any way to report a bug to a community which I don't want to join or I don't deserve to join (Much like SO in Portuguese because I don't even know it)?

The only thing that I thought to report the bug and not join the community was creating, reporting on meta, & deleting the profile, but maybe that is not such a good way.

2
  • 1
    The localized language SE sites' metas actually only accept questions in their language. The SE team has stated that English-language questions about localized sites may be asked here on MSE (even though they are otherwise site-specific). Sep 17, 2019 at 18:57
  • @SonictheAnonymousHedgehog Well, I am not only talking about communities with other languages. There are several communities other which are in English but I don't want to join, eg Cryptography etc
    – Nouman
    Sep 17, 2019 at 19:00

2 Answers 2

7

I had the same question a couple months ago, not about a "bug" bug, but a flag I'd have raised on something I spotted on Software Engineering. I didn't have an account there, and did not want to create one just to raise a flag, so, as chat is cross-Stack Exchange (save for Stack Overflow and Meta), I posted the following in the stack's chat:

Hi guys. I don't have an account on this site and I don't want to create one just to raise a flag, so I'm dropping that here, in case it hasn't been spotted before: this site has and tags, both without wikis but likely to be about the same stuff. Maybe they should get synonymized/merged or one gets nuked or something. Just saying :)

A chatter with an account eventually brought it to the per-site meta, and it was actioned.

I raised a similar issue in The DMZ, Information Security's chatroom, after spotting a disorienting (but by-design) redirection for logged-out users:

Hi there :) I'm just here to point out that this question security.stackexchange.com/q/201992 is closed as a dupe of a merged question (hence it's a rare self-duplicate!). Not sure what can be done, though, but meta.stackexchange.com/q/232442/398063 reported and apparently fixed a similar situation. It's really nitpicking but as it's a tad bit desorienting for a logged-out user, I thought I'd point it out. Cheers :)

I think as long as you don't sound like you're dumping an issue for the stack's community to handle, can explain a bit why it is an issue or stuff, the community will receive it positively.

6

For the non-English sites, it's fine to post them here: I found a bug on a non-English site and I don't speak the language. Can I post it here?

This answer says site-specific bugs should be posted on the per-site meta; that has the benefit of being more visible to users who are more likely to encounter the bug.

Still, even if you encounter the bug only on one site, it might be a networkwide problem. I once reported a design-related bug on MathOverflow Meta: Disabled buttons not visible in /review but later I encountered it on Puzzling Stack Exchange as well: Disabled buttons not visible in /review on some sites. If you provide a high quality bug report (including steps necessary to reproduce and screenshots/screencast), I doubt the Meta Stack Exchange crowd will get mad at you. Worst case, one of us will flag it for migration. I guess your method works too (if you qualify for the association bonus – otherwise you can't post on the per-site Meta); after migration the question will appear to be asked by an anonymous account.

Joining a community doesn't come with any obligations, and one could even say that by browsing alone you're already part of the community. (And the majority of the members doesn't even come close to reporting a bug.) You can always hide the community from your list of accounts (though this only offers limited 'privacy').

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .