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> but the important information the engineer needed was what was actually right outside the boundary of the screenshot I took Ah ah. At one gig we had trained

> but the important information the engineer needed was what was actually right outside the boundary of the screenshot I took Ah ah. At one gig we had trained the users to always send a screenshot of the entire screen. People reviewing the tickets would dump them if the screenshot was cropped and the user warned: "No full screenshot, no ticket". Why? The most important info was the time at which the error happened (which, for users who were on Windows, was in the bottom right of the screen). With the time we could look in the logs and the error/bug was usually obvious.

thedg 2y ago
Ha! Right, totally! That’s a great trick to get the exact time from full screenshot
VoidWhisperer 2y ago
This seems like it would only work if the applications in question didn't contain any PII - as soon as you get into applications or flows within an application that contain some form of PII, either displayed or the user entering it, having them send a screenshot of the entire screen is asking for the user to accidentally leak their PII to the person reviewing the ticket. Where I work (in which the above would be a problem), we make sure to log enough information that given a relative timeframe of when the user had the issue, we can usually narrow down to where the issue was using context and some querying of the logs (splunk is incredibly helpful for this)
freedomben 2y ago
Indeed, that's a great rule. Another one is "What URL was the browser on?" which is rarely ever in cropped screenshots but is visible in full screenshot
- mattl 2y ago
  Don’t many browsers hide the full URL now?
  - freedomben 2y ago
    Oh maybe, I do remember hearing about that. Mine don't (Firefox & Chrome on Fedora) but maybe that's a default setting (on Linux) or maybe I changed the setting and forgot about it?
    - mattl 2y ago
      I think you changed it immediately when you first saw it and never thought about it again. I’d doubt Chrome binaries on any platform would change that only on one platform.
  - Thorrez 2y ago
    Desktop Chrome only hides the scheme by default I think.
- thedg 2y ago
  URL, totally. I was talking to a PM recently where their customers self-host their product so without knowing the url, they have no idea where on the internet to start looking for the bug.
EMM_386 2y ago
> Why? The most important info was the time at which the error happened (which, for users who were on Windows, was in the bottom right of the screen). Except it isn't in UTC and it doesn't show an offset. Even if you stored the user's timezone, that doesn't mean that's where they were working from.
- jojohohanon 2y ago
  oooh. you got them. Like figuring out which timezone the user was in is impossible. What if the user intentionally set their clock wrong to mess with support. You are being silly.
  - avarun 2y ago
    No, the people requiring a screenshot to include the time instead of just asking the user for an ID and time of error are the ones being silly. Have you ever heard of log filtering?
- ale42 2y ago
  Or, some users might have hidden the taskbar, or the clock. Or have several screens, and only one of them has the clock...
  - db48x 2y ago
    Most users don't customize anything, even something as trivial as that. Most corporate users may not be allowed to. I bet they never had to deal with any of these supposed gotchas.
  - boarush 2y ago
    Users that might customise their system a bit by digging into the settings are usually more inclined to give a detailed report in case they encounter a bug or have a general knowledge of what to look for when requested for some information in my team's experience. Sounds much more like an edge case.
    - 2y ago
magicalhippo 2y ago
For us it's not the time but the id of the thing they're working on, but users tend to like to crop to just the dialog or subsection they're having issues with. It's infinitely easier to help the customer when we can take our own look at things. Good tip, will pass it along to support and see what they say.
stevage 2y ago
Seems nice but I hate sharing my whole browser window with anyone. I don't care to let other people see which plugins I use or my bookmarks toolbar etc.

thedg 2y ago

Ha! Right, totally! That’s a great trick to get the exact time from full screenshot

VoidWhisperer 2y ago

This seems like it would only work if the applications in question didn't contain any PII - as soon as you get into applications or flows within an application that contain some form of PII, either displayed or the user entering it, having them send a screenshot of the entire screen is asking for the user to accidentally leak their PII to the person reviewing the ticket. Where I work (in which the above would be a problem), we make sure to log enough information that given a relative timeframe of when the user had the issue, we can usually narrow down to where the issue was using context and some querying of the logs (splunk is incredibly helpful for this)

freedomben 2y ago

Indeed, that's a great rule. Another one is "What URL was the browser on?" which is rarely ever in cropped screenshots but is visible in full screenshot

mattl 2y ago
Don’t many browsers hide the full URL now?
- freedomben 2y ago
  Oh maybe, I do remember hearing about that. Mine don't (Firefox & Chrome on Fedora) but maybe that's a default setting (on Linux) or maybe I changed the setting and forgot about it?
  - mattl 2y ago
    I think you changed it immediately when you first saw it and never thought about it again. I’d doubt Chrome binaries on any platform would change that only on one platform.
- Thorrez 2y ago
  Desktop Chrome only hides the scheme by default I think.
thedg 2y ago
URL, totally. I was talking to a PM recently where their customers self-host their product so without knowing the url, they have no idea where on the internet to start looking for the bug.

EMM_386 2y ago

> Why? The most important info was the time at which the error happened (which, for users who were on Windows, was in the bottom right of the screen). Except it isn't in UTC and it doesn't show an offset. Even if you stored the user's timezone, that doesn't mean that's where they were working from.

jojohohanon 2y ago
oooh. you got them. Like figuring out which timezone the user was in is impossible. What if the user intentionally set their clock wrong to mess with support. You are being silly.
- avarun 2y ago
  No, the people requiring a screenshot to include the time instead of just asking the user for an ID and time of error are the ones being silly. Have you ever heard of log filtering?
ale42 2y ago
Or, some users might have hidden the taskbar, or the clock. Or have several screens, and only one of them has the clock...
- db48x 2y ago
  Most users don't customize anything, even something as trivial as that. Most corporate users may not be allowed to. I bet they never had to deal with any of these supposed gotchas.
- boarush 2y ago
  Users that might customise their system a bit by digging into the settings are usually more inclined to give a detailed report in case they encounter a bug or have a general knowledge of what to look for when requested for some information in my team's experience. Sounds much more like an edge case.
  - 2y ago

magicalhippo 2y ago

For us it's not the time but the id of the thing they're working on, but users tend to like to crop to just the dialog or subsection they're having issues with. It's infinitely easier to help the customer when we can take our own look at things. Good tip, will pass it along to support and see what they say.

stevage 2y ago

Seems nice but I hate sharing my whole browser window with anyone. I don't care to let other people see which plugins I use or my bookmarks toolbar etc.