Website "Bug Hunting" for Cabin Credit?

[Engineroom Snipe]

An idea was sparked by a conversation with @Ret MP about conflicting information on RCI multiple websites. Which one is the latest and why is the conflicting information even existing in the first place?

 

RCI should give a small token of a $25 OBC to anyone who finds conflicting information on one their websites.

 

Argument for the credit:

 

1. Experienced CC cruises are a wealth of information and knowledge and RCI could get their website in order for pennies on the dollar.

2. Most RCI employees, contractors, travel advisors, and customers are reading or using the website to answer customer issues. This would eliminate incorrect information that was given in good faith from an outdated website.

3. Incorrect website information could be immediately corrected or removed.

4. Ret MP suggested dating the posting of the answer or website page to know which one is the more recent policy or answer. This could be a "quick-fix", but the end goal is not to even have two or more sites with conflicting information. Incorrect ones should be removed or updated.

5. Overnight, RCI can hire thousands of contractors (experienced cruisers) who only get paid (OBC) upon a successful hunt. They have no overhead costs.

Since it is an OBC, there is no cash-out-of-pocket for RCI.

6. Hunters (cruisers loyal to RCI) are literally helping make their next RCI experience better. Everyone who posts on CC in general is trying to share information to help others. These are the type of people I would like on my next cruise.

 

Ret MP stated he, like so many CC posters, tries his best to get the latest and most accurate information. It is difficult sometimes to blend in multiple conflicting answers within RCI's websites and other cruise sites. He tries to share them. He sometimes gets bombarded with "That is not the policy or fact of the matter" when the real problem is that there are two or more "correct" answers found in multiple sites and threads.

 

RCI, if you are reading this, think about it, I just put a letter in the suggestion box for free!  🤣

Edited December 20, 2022 by Engineroom Snipe
Typo

[A&L_Ont]

This should pass the time until Christmas Day.🙂

[Engineroom Snipe]

5 minutes ago, A&L_Ont said:

This should pass the time until Christmas Day.🙂

Merry Christmas, I hope it is entertaining for your reading pleasure. 😁

[Ret MP]

Totally agree with the premise.  Will RCCL agree to do something like that?  Well, why would they want to be nailed down with facts?  Why would they want to reduce their flexibility to bend what ever policy they have to favor this group or the other group today and then turn it around tomorrow?  Unfortunately, our best of intentions will probably not be enough. Their litigation expenses are baked into the cake.  So, there really isn't much to motivate their cooperation.  Lawyers will always defend whomever is paying them the most and will hide behind the, "everyone deserves a defense" argument.  

 

Bottom line, while your intentions are straight forward and pure, I really don't think Royal or any other business entity would like to be held to such a standard, a standard of reliable information and/or making public their none public policies, and are willing to defend their inaccuracies in court, if required.  Litigation is just another business expense and insurance expense, to them.  

[Engineroom Snipe]

3 minutes ago, Ret MP said:

Totally agree with the premise.  Will RCCL agree to do something like that?  Well, why would they want to be nailed down with facts?  Why would they want to reduce their flexibility to bend what ever policy they have to favor this group or the other group today and then turn it around tomorrow?  Unfortunately, our best of intentions will probably not be enough. Their litigation expenses are baked into the cake.  So, there really isn't much to motivate their cooperation.  Lawyers will always defend whomever is paying them the most and will hide behind the, "everyone deserves a defense" argument.  

 

Bottom line, while your intentions are straight forward and pure, I really don't think Royal or any other business entity would like to be held to such a standard, a standard of reliable information and/or making public their none public policies, and are willing to defend their inaccuracies in court, if required.  Litigation is just another business expense and insurance expense, to them.  

 

You are most probably correct......😭. A cruiser can dream...."I had a dream of dreams gone by........" (Les Misérables) 😞.

 

🤣I was thinking, if they go for it, I should have had a $30 OBC so it could pay for two drinks.

 

I put this out for entertainment because 🐖🐖 will ✈️ before they do anything. 😉

 

I still have hope, if they could make "The Flying Brick" F-4 Phantom fly, this idea might get off the ground eventually. Merry Christmas.

[Ret MP]

2 minutes ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

 

You are most probably correct......😭. A cruiser can dream...."I had a dream of dreams gone by........" (Les Misérables) 😞.

 

🤣I was thinking, if they go for it, I should have had a $30 OBC so it could pay for two drinks.

 

I put this out for entertainment because 🐖🐖 will ✈️ before they do anything. 😉

 

I still have hope, if they could make "The Flying Brick" F-4 Phantom fly, this idea might get off the ground eventually. Merry Christmas.

I'm afraid that all we can do is keep on keep'in on, not turn the other cheek, try to post, in several medias, what we believe is the best information available and hope others catch on to what's happening.  That's not to say that we/I feel that we have been appointed as the "Truth Tellers", just feel that it is the right thing to do.  And, at least for me, most days, I have nothing better to do.  So, why not.  Retirement frees up most days.  My lawn and medical appointments only take up so many hours in a day. LOL

[fenton04]

We are never are “Les Miserables” on a cruise.  Because “life worth cruising”.😊

[Engineroom Snipe]

10 minutes ago, fenton04 said:

We are never are “Les Miserables” on a cruise.  Because “life worth cruising”.😊

 

Yes, it is. I hope the day where I cannot cruise is far, far, away........"Somewhere, over the rainbow...." (Wizard of OZ).     🛳️...🛳️......>>>>>>🌈.     😁

[fenton04]

Hopefully our next cruise we will leave “no song unsung, no wine untasted.”  🎶🍷

[Engineroom Snipe]

1 minute ago, fenton04 said:

Hopefully our next cruise we will leave “no song unsung, no wine untasted.”  🎶🍷

 

Nicely done! Perfect transition sentence to someone else to build on.😉

[Husky1987]

Not a chance...

 

"But there are dreams that cannot be...."

 

 

[Ret MP]

"AS FAR AS YOU KNOW" Caddy Shack

 

 

[Engineroom Snipe]

10 minutes ago, Husky1987 said:

Not a chance...

 

"But there are dreams that cannot be...."

 

 

 

Ok, let us add some emojis for dramatic effect.🥱🥱😴😴

[gmerick]

Before we get carried away -- I work in IT.  Identifying a problem is the easy part.  I'm sure every time someone points out one of these "bugs" here on CC, there are multiple bug reports already present in RCI's system.  They read our comments, their phone agents report problems, travel agents send them e-mail.  

In IT once the problem is identified, service requests / trouble tickets get generated, the issue gets tracked, change management boards generate bug fix requests, developers code fixes, modules are tested, integration testing happens, change packages are created, changes promoted from non-prod to production.  the $25 to a CC member would also have to be reviewed by entire layers of staff.  Actual cost of an individual bug fix is probably on the order of $5-10K.  The $25 bug bounty would probably cost the company $500 in staffing costs.

[fenton04]

32 minutes ago, Engineroom Snipe said:

 

Nicely done! Perfect transition sentence to someone else to build on.😉

“this is my quest

to follow that star

no matter how hopeless 

no matter how far”

 

From the deck of La Mancha of the Seas

🌟

Edited December 20, 2022 by fenton04
Emoji

[Engineroom Snipe]

15 minutes ago, gmerick said:

Before we get carried away -- I work in IT.  Identifying a problem is the easy part.  I'm sure every time someone points out one of these "bugs" here on CC, there are multiple bug reports already present in RCI's system.  They read our comments, their phone agents report problems, travel agents send them e-mail.  

In IT once the problem is identified, service requests / trouble tickets get generated, the issue gets tracked, change management boards generate bug fix requests, developers code fixes, modules are tested, integration testing happens, change packages are created, changes promoted from non-prod to production.  the $25 to a CC member would also have to be reviewed by entire layers of staff.  Actual cost of an individual bug fix is probably on the order of $5-10K.  The $25 bug bounty would probably cost the company $500 in staffing costs.

 

You are preaching to the choir. I work in IT too. Multiple degrees in a 10,000+ person organization. 

 

When I say bug, it was a polite way to catch the eye. What I am talking about is correcting data sitting in a SQL database and eliminating duplicate references where the pointer should only have one reference. What I am talking about is taking a standard html editor and correcting the false data. This requires no changing of the current code; it requires someone to maintain webpages, not reinvent them.

 

When your local chain supermarket changes prices or edits specials, they do not need to rewrite the code every week, that would cost a fortune.

 

Most of the errors I find on RCI's site are html editor fixes: fast, cheap and easy to do. The employee would not need a programming background.

 

A customer comes to the owner, says the price of lettuce does not match the webpage. I use an html editor to correct the price on the webpage, done.

Edited December 20, 2022 by Engineroom Snipe
clarify idea

[Engineroom Snipe]

2 minutes ago, fenton04 said:

“this is my quest

to follow that star

no matter how hopeless 

no matter how far”

 

From the deck of La Mancha of the Seas

🌟

 

Nice!👏

[Ret MP]

3 hours ago, gmerick said:

Before we get carried away -- I work in IT.  Identifying a problem is the easy part.  I'm sure every time someone points out one of these "bugs" here on CC, there are multiple bug reports already present in RCI's system.  They read our comments, their phone agents report problems, travel agents send them e-mail.  

In IT once the problem is identified, service requests / trouble tickets get generated, the issue gets tracked, change management boards generate bug fix requests, developers code fixes, modules are tested, integration testing happens, change packages are created, changes promoted from non-prod to production. 

I don't doubt a word of this, not one bit.  But, my problem with this is, "why do the same bugs keep coming back, over and over again, year after year.  Something is broken or not fixed in the first place when the same issue keep popping up over and over again, year after year.  BTW, this isn't just a problem with RCCL, Rustbucket Cruise Lines has it's share of issues, too. 

 

Makes me wonder if they are asking their equipment to do much more than originally designed to do and/or maybe they don't have the latest and greatest equipment.  I understand keeping up with all the latest and greatest in the IT field can be expensive.  But, they are paying >$1.5 billion for a boat, each, or several of 'em.  So, that makes me somewhat a skeptic of their complete competency and/or the decision making abilities of upper level management.  As usual, I could be way off base.  But, that's just my opinion.  

 

Reminds me about one of the professions that I retired from, an Electric Utility Coop.  We used the same tower PCs for several years, the windows version was no longer supported by MS, the proprietary software that ran almost all of the coops systems, including customer service, outage management and on and on, updated often.  Bottom line, we eventually had to come in to work a half hour earlier just to boot up the computers.  I've since retired and the employees now have laptops as a lot of the employees were required to work form home during the COVID debacle, as in-person customer service was suspended.