Nigel McFarlane wrote:
>
> Surely what is required here is a carefully worded email.
>
> When someone submits a bug, they should receive an email that lists
> the top 10 things they can do to squash the bug themselves.
> eg:
>
> 1. 10% of all new bugs are duplicates, even after searching for
> existing bugs that match your problem. Please do a further search
> (at least 2 hours of effort) to ensure this bug is not a DUP.
> Submit all bugs which might be duplicates to the bug report,
> better still, close the bug yourself as a dup if that is the case.
>
> 2. 10% of all new bugs are enhancement requests that have already
> beem considered ... please ... etc.
>
> I appreciate your systematic approach, but one little email
> reminder might point out the reality to knee-jerk bug submitters.
>
> regards, Nigel.
>
As I have mentioned elsewhere, I would like to create a supporting system
to support developers in current communication channels instead of directly
modify these channels. I do not wish to add more noise to Bugzilla and
other places by adding more feature requests. Rather, we could develop a
set of tools that everyone can choose and use at will.
But thank you for the suggestion. The following is a text snip that incorporate
what you have suggested. The snip is intentionally long so that it covers
frequently encountered problems and can be edited depending on the context.
--
The bug that you reported has already been filed:
(This RFE (request for enhancement) has been filed:)
12345 dummy bug
<http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=162593>
current status: NEW. HELPWANTED
Steps I have taken to find this bug report in Bugzilla <www.bugzilla.com>:
field: summary
search terms: dummy bug
field: product
search terms: browser, mailnews*
components: everything except Address Book
* to select multiple items in a list individually, hold down CTRL key and select
the items.
+ to select a group of items by range, hold down SHIFT key and range(drag) select
the items.
<< Netscape and Mozilla incompatibility problem >>
Problems such as this would arise when you install both Netscape 6 or Netscape 7 and
Mozilla on a computer. Although Netscape 6 and Netscape 7 are based on Mozilla,
Netscape has added its own features into its brand browser, thus causing its formats
of user profile files to be incompatible with those of Mozilla. Also, Netscape brand
browsers lag behind Mozilla development, so problems that have been fixed in Mozilla
would occur due to, again, incompatiblities. To avoid incompatibility problems, users
who wish to use both Netscape 6 or later and Mozilla are encouraged to assign different
profile directories to each browser. This can be done via the Profile Manager (you
must first completely exit the browser before using it).
_How to verify if a bug (software error) has been fixed._
Before reporting any problem, users are also encouraged to get the latest browser
version to first verify if the problem has been fixed. Sometimes it is difficult
to track down a bug. As with the case of Netscape, complications may arise because
a newer build may not be totally backward incompatible to a older build. To
properly verify if a bug is fixed, users should do the following:
- Get the latest nightly build.
- Completely exit any running Mozilla browser. If Quick Launch is on, exit it too.
- Install the nightly build to a *different* directory.
- After installation is complete. Run the Profile Manager and create a new user
profile.
- Launch the browser and choose the new profile.
- Test if the bug still exists.
- Sometimes a problem may be related to the active Theme. If you can still see the
bug, switch to a different them (Open the View menu, choose Apply Theme, then
choose a different theme item). Exit the browser and launch it again for the
theme switch to take effect. Test if the bug still exists.
_How to file a bug report or feature request_
Please understand that:
- bug reporters far outnumbers developers, and
- over than 10% of newly filed bug reports are duplicates
To ensure that we can respond to your concerns efficiently, and to help relieve
the stress that our overloaded developers and technical supporters have, we
appreciate that you first check if your bug report or feature request has been
filed already in the following locations:
MozDev.org Wishlist <http://wishlist.mozdev.org/>
Bugzilla Most Frequently Reported Bugs
<http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/duplicates.cgi>
Mozilla Commonly Requested Features <http://www.mozilla.org/wishlist-faq.html>
Wishlist newsgroup: <news://news.mozilla.org/netscape.public.mozilla.wishlist>
Also, search for any duplicate in Bugzilla <http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/query.cgi>
Once you have identified a unique bug, you may file a bug report. Read Mozilla's
Bug Writing Guidelines <www.mozilla.org/quality/bug-writing-guidelines.html>
and follow the instructions.
--
Thank you for use Mozilla. Please note that n.p.m.* newsgroups are for
developers only (yes, yes, the word 'public' is misleading). Mozilla
end-user questions should be directed to:
snews://secnews.netscape.com:563/netscape.mozilla.user.general
snews://secnews.netscape.com:563/netscape.mozilla.user.win32
snews://secnews.netscape.com:563/netscape.mozilla.user.mac
snews://secnews.netscape.com:563/netscape.mozilla.user.unix
(Note that you need to have SSL enabled and the port set to 563.)
Thank you for using Mozilla. We appreciate your help in making Mozilla a better
browser.
