Tell Us — Your Direct Line to Me
If you've been using any of the ShawnsVTTs tools, you may have already noticed the 💬 Tell Us button sitting in the header. I want to take a minute to explain what it actually does, because it's not just a support form! It's a two-way conversation with me directly.
How it works
Click Tell Us, and you'll get a small panel with two things to fill out:
First, pick your mood:
😡 Angry · 😕 Unhappy · 😐 Neutral · 🙂 Happy · 😍 Loving it.
I want to know how you're actually feeling, not just what went wrong (or right!).
Then pick what kind of report this is:
- 🐛 Bug: something broke or behaved weirdly
- 💡 Idea: something that would make the tool better for you
- ❤️ Praise: if something clicked and you want me to know
- 💬 Other: anything that doesn't fit the above
Type your message (up to 4,000 characters — no need to be brief), hit Send, and that's it. The app automatically includes the page you were on, your browser version, and the current app version, so I get the full picture without you having to fill out a tech spec.
The part most people don't know about
Every report lands directly in my admin panel. I read them all personally. And here's the part that makes this different from most feedback forms: I can write back to you!
When I reply, you'll see a red pulsing badge on the Tell Us button the next time you open the app. Click it, and it takes you straight to your "My Reports" tab, where you can read my response and reply. It's a threaded conversation, one report at a time. This helps me ask you some questions, and often it allows you to guide the product's direction by suggesting an entirely different way of handling it that may make more sense than my own.
Your reports even show a status: New → Triaged → In Progress → Fixed / Won't Fix. So you can actually see what happened with the thing you reported, not just hope it went somewhere.
Why this matters
I'm building these tools in real time, and I'm doing it alone. The fastest way for me to fix the right things is to hear from the people using them. A bug you report today can be fixed today! An idea you share might show up in next week's update. I'll reply to let you know it's in progress or completed.
This isn't a ticketing system that routes to a support queue. It's a direct line. Use it!
Thanks! Shawn