On 22/10/10 10:52, Colin Watson wrote: > On Fri, Oct 15, 2010 at 05:00:22PM -0700, Bryce Harrington wrote: >> In an ideal world I would agree with you, but unfortunately things >> rarely work out that way. >> >> A _bug report_ is not the same thing as a _bug_. As best it's a grainy, >> fuzzy photo of something that *might* have been a bug at one time. >> >> Bug reports often are set to Incomplete if the issue is vague. Often, >> if the original reporter never replies to elaborate and clarify and the >> bug is left open for months and months, someone else with a completely >> different problem will eventually come along and, mistakenly thinking >> they have the same problem, will add comments that don't help the >> original reporter. Further, they don't file a new bug report, so this >> second bug is lost. > > On the contrary, many of the bug reports that I see inexperienced bug > triagers setting to Incomplete are in fact detailed, accurate > descriptions of the problem, sometimes even with something approaching a > fix attached. The reporter merely hasn't jumped through our artificial > hoops of confirming that the problem still exists in the last six months > when asked by an inexperienced triager who didn't understand the > original detailed report, and if they get bored with our constant > pestering about it then we summarily close their bug. > > This is a very poor situation, and it reflects poorly on Launchpad as a > system and on Ubuntu as a distribution.
It's sad, but I have to agree. I don't have the time to be an active developer, but I do try to play my part by submitting bugs... usually about how each new release screws up power management/suspend/hibernate again on my laptop ;) It's part of being a responsible open source user: you try to help the people who help you. I try to supply as much info as possible, respond to any immediate queries... and then usually wait in silence for several months before a "your bug will be closed due to lack of information/activity" mail arrives. Annoying, and usually it doesn't happen at a work lull when I have time to question the downgrading. Until Colin's comment above, I assumed that this was an expert decision and that I had screwed up somehow, despite not having being *asked* for more info in the intervening time. This has happened several times, and has had exactly the effect on me that Colin said: it's devalued Launchpad bug reports as a useful feedback system, meaning that I now think twice about whether it's worth reporting a bug which will just be ignored and then closed, and makes me question Ubuntu's commitment to quality control. I know that's not fair, and there are a *lot* of bug reports for relatively few developers to wade through. But as a sub-devel user experience it's not good, and I was annoyed to see this mail thread appear about how to throw away my feedback more efficiently. There's a problem to be solved, but unless done sensitively there is a danger of even further disillusioning the sort of responsible users who want to give *something* back, but can't supply the fixes themselves. My $0.02, Andy -- ubuntu-devel mailing list [email protected] Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-devel
