Appropriateness of posts to this list (Was Re: evince crash)

[Todd Deshane]

On 10/8/07, Aaron Whitehouse <lists at whitehouse.org.nz> wrote:
> > It seems to me that if users, developers and testers that are
> > following this list care about a particular issue or bug they can
> > raise it here. If it generates no discussion and others simply ignore,
> > then it is probably not a big issue.
>
> I see your point. The same rationale, however, would support sending a
> report of each new bug filed to the list. Everyone on the list *could*
> ignore anything that they weren't interested in.
>
> > Also, the fact that the release is close, to me means that any major
> > bugs should pass by more eyes and get more attention.
>
> Most people tend to see their bugs as major. I don't mean to lessen
> the frustration of your plight, but not being able to view a pdf on a
> password restricted site isn't the most major bug that I have seen
> filed against Gutsy. In some ways there is a problem with the way
> users can't rate the importance of their own bugs. I filed a bug about
> suspend locking up my laptop every time it is used and one about the
> default spellchecker for NZers being en_US instead of en_UK. Clearly
> one is more important than the other, but they have the same
> "importance" prior to being triaged. The counter-argument, I assume,
> is that normal people can't be trusted to objectively rate the
> importance of their bugs.
>
Agreed. But, in that light who is brave enough to raise any bugs or issues?

There are a lot of issues that get discussed that don't interest me,
but I just don't read into them as much. I do see your point, and it
is a good one, the signal to noise raise needs to be high. So, I
haven't raised other things I have found, since I didn't think they
would be interesting to a general audience or they are seemingly
obvious bugs that everyone should see. This one, being that it is an
app that most people will use and may be hitting an edge case and it
may just have a chance of being fixed before release.

> I have grave issues with Gutsy... especially seeing as it is about a
> week from release. I have tested each milestone since pre-Breezy for
> the LaptopTesting reports and Gutsy is the least stable for me yet.
> That is largely, as I said earlier, a result of -Intel and Compiz. I
> filed my reports against each package and they are still sitting there
> untouched. So perhaps you are right that I should have pestered the
> list instead. I just don't see it as being a good policy.
>

I think your issues are probably more important for a list such as
this. I know that there was requests at some point for experiences and
feelings about compiz.


> To be fair, I have now succeeded in generating more noise than the
> recent bug "awareness raising" has!
>

This list has been pretty good about generating good content. Maybe I
was too quick to fire of the evince crash email. I just wonder where
the line should be? For example, some things should probably go to the
users list, but would they get lost in the noise there?

And coming close to a release was another reason. I still think this
list has been quiet considering that.

Regards,
Todd


> Regards,
>
> Aaron
>