Hello everyone, I have been following the org-mode ML and I have seen the discussion about having a bug tracker. I wanted to offer my 2 cents as a non-developer; barely a power user. Org-mode works incredibly well and I use it on a daily basis. It is true that development is very active. However I might say that saying that no bugs fall through the cracks in the ML is a bit of a confirmation bias. My personal experience was different.
I actually submitted some bug reports through emacs about some slightly less used parts of org-mode e.g. ob-eshell. The mailing list is moderated (or has anti-spam) so the result was that my mail did not appear AT ALL. I had that issue before, too, but here in IRC I was suggested to wait for several days. The previous time I think the e-mail eventually got through. When I submitted the bug report for ob-eshell it never did. I found a workaround by using shell instead of ob-shell so I never pursued the issue. Probably the bug is still there. I am glad that the ML works for the most active developers, and I suppose it works well for the linux kernel since it needs to be centralized and somewhat focused. However org-mode could benefit from more community involvement even of newbies, especially around the parts that are "part of" org-mode but are not that often used and don't receive enough love and attention from the main developers. A good bug tracker could also help identify parts that are not used or buggy and that should, maybe, be slated for removal or at least separated in a independent package. You see, for a beginner a bug is quite daunting because you never know if it is actually a bug or if it is your own fault for misunderstanding or misconfiguring something. And, honestly, in emacs, it is quite easy for a beginner to misconfigure something. All this to say that the ML works great and I picked up great ideas while reading through it in my mailbox (I am subscribed), however it still has a significant "gatekeeper" effect. Please, at least address the issue that some bug reports don't even make it to the list AT ALL. I do not want this email to be offensive in any way to anyone. I also realize that what I described may not be representative. I excuse myself in advance if my tone was inappropriate. More than anything I still wish to thank everyone for a piece of fantastic software that has helped me out crucially on multiple occasions! Sincerely, Gennady P.S. I wrote essentially the same e-mail on the IRC channel to be sure that it gets delivered somewhere. -----Original Message----- From: Emacs-orgmode <emacs-orgmode-bounces+gennady.uraltsev=gmail....@gnu.org> On Behalf Of Jud Taylor Sent: Wednesday, 20 May, 2020 12:42 To: Stefan Nobis <stefan...@snobis.de> Cc: emacs-orgmode@gnu.org Subject: Re: issue tracker? I second that. Nicolas, thank you! Great product, better vision, high energy! ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ Original Message ‐‐‐‐‐‐‐ On Wednesday, May 20, 2020 7:12 AM, Stefan Nobis <stefan...@snobis.de> wrote: > Detlef Steuer ste...@hsu-hh.de writes: > > > I would go as far as saying this list is one of the fastest reacting > > amd friendliest communities I have been part of. The job Nicolas > > does is just awesome. > > +1! > > ------ > > Until the next mail..., > Stefan.
