Nearly every day, I see at least 3 to 5 threads where the poster attempts to describe the situation with a combination of at least two of the following:
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A lengthy paragraph without a single punctuation mark or line break
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Varying degrees of intelligibility [By this I do not mean language barriers. Those can’t be helped. I’m talking in your native tongue.]
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If related to violations or ghosting: wild tales of being mugged on final, cats robbing them of their devices, the President was on the landline, etc…
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Failure to understand the difference between an AP speed setting and actual KIAS
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The ability to know, telepathically, what was happening in their flight while they weren’t watching. (If you’re really telepathic, consider the lottery, Vegas, etc)
While inevitably leaving out much of the following:
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Anything remotely relevant (What plane, what device, what speed, ROC, ROD, what altitude? Pretty much anything that might be useful)
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If ghosting or violation, what they actually did (or at least the parts they think won’t be on the controller’s screenshot)
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What the exact scenario was when the “glitch” occurred
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The obvious next step of attempting to reproduce the error by doing the same thing to see if it happens again
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If about grades, the grade table (AKA the only thing which can possibly lead to an answer)
Then, based on too much irrelevant information and barely a dollop of useful information, the forum is supposed to come to a precise conclusion. I’m of the math, science, IT background. Your output can only be as good as your input. GIGO. If we have nothing to input, there isn’t a magic black box that can spin straw into gold. Alchemy is dead.
What is missing from very nearly all of these threads of varying pursuits is the Holy Grail of IT troubleshooting:
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A screenshot at the exact time of the event
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Better yet, a video recoording
Both of those are worth a thousand disjointed explanations of what happened. Yet, I rarely, if ever, see one, unless it’s dragged out of the poster over the course of hours.
The first thought that should pop into your head when something weird happens is "I should capture this’. That’s not being trite. It is quite literally the most instinctual thing that should pop in there if you expect a resolution. You see something crazy, capture it. If Sasquatch sits down next to you on a park bench, you don’t finish your game of Fruit Ninja, bid him adieu, then go try to explain it to your roommates. You take a picture.
Same theory applies here. If you’re actually flying at 12000 feet and the system says violation at the top, how is it that not a single one of these threads includes a screenshot? You think you’ve discovered a massive glitch in the code, but don’t think taking a screenshot will help? Sasquatch sits across from you and you finish your sandwich?
And I mean then. Right then. Not 3 minutes later when you’ve slowed down, etc. Right when that red lettering pops up on the screen. (And if you say you didn’t notice it, logic dictates you can’t possibly be so precisely sure of all of the info you provide afterward as established fact. You know the exact KIAS, the altitude to the 5th digit, but just forgot that big red lettering at the top. Both of those can’t be true simultaneously. You’re also saying the it is both true that you know exactly when you received the violation, but did not see the notification while it was on the screen. Again, logically, at most, only one of these can be true.)
Take a picture
[FYI: It helps if the information on the info bar is useful information. Depending on the situation, exactly what that is may change, but I promise using four spots for Local Time, Local Time (Sim), Flight Time, and Zulu Time isn’t the most effective use of the bar.
For example, a shot without a HUD which doesn’t show MSL altitude because you’re saving that spot for Flight Time doesn’t do much good.]
Anyway, if you want assistance with a glitch, take a screenshot. It’s the most inherently-obvious reaction you should have, yet none seem to have it (except for the terrain glitch which, not coincidentally can actually be shown a real thing and followed up on. While “I was at FL180 and IF started handing out violations like candy” can’t be…not one screenshot. That’s not a coincidence.)