A BIT report is a short text message that you can send to the Ainur to notify them about a problem in the game or to suggest a change. In other games/environments such reports may be called "tickets" or "support tickets".

There are four types of reports:

• bug - A problem with the game code; something does not work or does not work properly.
• typo - Any problem related to descriptions: a misspelling, a grammar mistake, missing description, missing ID of an NPC, etc.
• idea - A suggestion of improvement, of either particular room, item, NPC, or the game in general.
• commend - Also known as praise; your means to express thanks to the Ainur!

As for bugs and typos, you should report them as soon as you encounter the problem, or if it is not immediately possibile (due to combat, PK situation, etc.), at your next convenience. As for ideas and commends, well, whenever you like!

If your report concerns the room you are in or more general matter, just type "bug", "idea", "typo" or "commend" depending on what type of report you want to make. If it concerns an object or an NPC, use the report name followed by the object name, for example: "bug orc" or "typo sword". After that, you will be moved into the MUD text editor where you can enter your report text. When you are done, you will be prompted whether the report concerns a global matter or the room you are in. After you answer, the reporting is complete.

This depends on the report type, but there are several general guidelines:

• Be as specific as possible. A vague report that leaves us guessing what you really mean is not very helpful.
• If you are reporting something about a room/item you are not currently inside/carrying, describe in detail where the report subject lies/can be obtained from. The MUD has thousands of rooms and objects and just stating there's a typo in an emote of a "large iron sword" is not enough; it is impossible even for experienced ainur to know every item in game, not to mention remember their file paths!
• (particularly for bug reports): Log, log, LOG! In case of "odd", hard to repeat bugs, log is the single most helpful information you can attach. If we know which messages from the quest you have received and in what order, we are able to quickly track down the problem. So, every time you report a bug, paste in the log of your actions just from before the bug occurred.

They are described in 'help idea'. Please read them before you submit an idea report.

There are three cases where it is OK to contact an Ainu directly about a bug. One, you have found an unlimited gold bug. Two, you are in a life or death situation (in other words the bug is going to kill you and there is no escape or the bug has killed you and may kill others). Three, you are trapped due to a bug.

There are several reasons you should avoid contacting an Ainu directly. This MUD has thousands of rooms and objects, and it is very likely the Ainu you ask simply won't know the quest/room/item you refer to. Also, the Ainur are very busy, constantly working on making new areas and updating old areas. You may think that because a certain Ainu is a Maker, Overlord, Power, etc., they must know the area you are going to ask about and be able to assist you; however, you have to also consider that each of these ranks holds extra responsibility and most of these people do not have the time to drop everything and check out your bug.

Do not worry about that. It's better to report than not; the worst that may happen is that you will receive a response stating it is not a bug. However, that does not mean you should not think when you submit reports and submit them en masse; first make sure that *you* have a very good reason to think that something is a bug.

It is generally not a good idea to ask the Ainur for progress reports on your report. They are divided into different categories (report files) and it is likely that the Ainu you ask has never seen your report. Also, we tend to have discussions on player reports (particularly ideas) and that takes time. In general, every time your report is decided upon, you will receive a MUD mail that either states the problem has been fixed/idea implemented, or that it has been dismissed. If you do not receive a mail, it means that the report is still being decided upon, or simply waits for someone to have some free time to look at it.

This may mean that the Ainu simply forgot to mark your report as fixed and reward you. It may also mean that the idea was implemented based on an idea report received from someone else (this happens quite a bit) and yours either hasn't been seen or was discovered after the idea was implemented. If this happens then it is usually OK to ask someone if they know what is up.

Not right away. Quite often changes made will not take effect immediately. If it is a mudwide thing, it is safe to assume that the change is waiting installation and/or reboot. Only if the change isn't present after reboot should you report again.

You need to reply to the mail as soon as possible and make SURE that you include the text from the previous message in your response (use the 'ri' mailer command rather than just 'r'), since the Ainu may make several responses and might forget which report yours was regarding.