The Feedback Loop

There are many issues with Connect not only this one.

Firstly the speed of the site is bad. It is slow. It should be fast as Google, not slow. Anything over 1 second in page load is unacceptable. I understand that this is the issue with many Microsoft websites but Connect is a site on which I just want to spend as little time as possible to report a bug and then continue my work. I don't have a full time work reporting issues.

The profile is confusing. Why do you ask for all these personal info like my full name and address and my phone number and e-mail? What do you use them for and why are they required?

It seems that the site tries to prevent users for casually posting issues. You have to go through a whole process of registration, choose a screen name which by the way you cannot change,  search for the right connection some of which are invite only some of which are not, search for the bug and fill in a complete form which might contain unnecessary, for many issues, items like OS language.

The bug resolutions are also not clear. What do you mean closed and what is the difference between the resolved status and the closed status.

Can other users see my personal information that I have provided in your famous profile new registration process?

There is a privacy policy and in it there is a link that says that if you have any questions on the policy you can fill in a web form with your question. Well the link displays a page cannot be found error on the Microsoft Support site instead of showing the web question form as it had promised.

How can I re-activate a bug which has been closed as not reproducible? It seems impossible if I am not the user who had submitted the bug in the first place. Why? Do I need to submit a duplicate bug.

Why don't you provide an offline rich client for accessing both the forums and Connect? Or better suggest improving to existing web protocols which will allow the building of such web clients. It seems that the problem of rich offline access to online databases, like the database of forum postings or Connect bugs, is a problem which can be dealt with and in which Microsoft can make the first move if it desires. Make a protocol for accessing and posting to such information.

Anyway you get the idea. Although I have listed here what has come into my head not in an organized manner, I think that you get the idea. Where is the organization, the simplistic design, the consistency, the fast load time. Connect should be a site on which I will have to spend as little of my time as possible. I might want to report a bug out of my good will. Don't force me to have to think before using it because the bug report might never be submitted in this case.