Post a Contest

Ecommerce website monitoring and error reporting

Status: Closed
Prize: $150
Entries Received: 3

Contest Brief

Challenge:
We’re looking to set up a system for monitoring site functionality and get error reports if something is wrong. This is not new, but we want to try this in a new way. Instead of defining the tests and doing the monitoring ourselves we’d like to give others the opportunity to find errors and report them. Successfully reporting an error will then generate a bounty.

The idea is that we don’t want to be involved in what tools are used. That is up to the bountyhunters. All we do is validate the error reports and fix the problems. When we update the site and potentially brake some tests, the reporter should first evaluate the error and update tests accordingly if needed before reporting an actual error.

The challenge in this case is to define how this could be done in a way that’s actually working in practice. How do we prevent people hacking/ddosing our site for the sole purpose of then reporting downtime? How can we make sure that error reporters trust they get the bounty they’re supposed to? How much is a good bounty? What caveats are there that we haven’t thought of?

If you have prior experience of this or something similar, then describe the process and results. Or if you just have a great idea then describe it. We will choose winners based on information that helps us forward in implementing this concept.

What we want:
A document containing your thoughts and ideas. We value short and down to the point syntax, not lengthy books. And remember this is about site functionality testing, not just downtime monitoring.

What we don’t want:
There are lots of companies offering monitoring services, we know. But we want to try this in a more “freelancy” way. We don’t want to depend on a specific service provider, but rather let anyone interested take part in the process. So just pointing to a service provider isn’t going to help. We also haz google… ;-)

Deadline
Wednesday 20 december

Important: We have very limited capacity to answer questions or give individual feedback during the project, instead we will give collective feedback. This will then hopefully help you get a better understanding of what we are looking for.