Development decisions and user feedback

[Murat Gunes]

Wouter Stomp wrote:

> Now, there is a forum section devoted to developer <-> user
> interaction.[1] This would be a perfect example of something that
> could be posted there for feedback. I do realize this will never be a
> representative sample of the ubuntu user base, but you will get
> feedback from a sufficiently large group to allow you to make these
> kind of decisions. I must say I was a bit disappointed that this
> opportunity was not used.

One of the strengths of the forums, which otherwise aren't very well 
suited to development discussions for various reasons, is the large and 
fairly active user base that can help test things out and provide useful 
feedback quickly when guided with good instructions. As an example, 
Bryce Harrington has been frequently posting to an Xorg 7.3 testing 
thread he started[1], which it seems was helpful in testing xorg-server, 
mesa and various other X components early on, and the bullet-proof-x 
code, before it got turned on by default.

As part of the Forum Ambassadors team [2], I'd like to take this chance 
to state our availability to help with this process. Even though 
developers can start threads and ask for feedback themselves, since the 
preferred media for development discussions are mailing lists and IRC, 
and one needs to visit the forum threads back actively to get feedback 
(which can be time consuming and/or may not be preferred), we can act as 
a liaison. I suppose the process can go like this:

- The developer drops us a notice, at #ubuntu-devel, 
#ubuntuforums-ambassadors, or via email, that a new component needs 
urgent testing, or data is required on possible specific issues related 
to a component already in place

- A member of the team starts the thread with proper instructions for 
testing the component and a description of the precise kind of feedback 
that's needed

- The thread gets lots of replies; some useful, some not so useful

- The team member(s) responsible from the thread gather the useful 
feedback and pass it on to the developers, together with statistics if 
needed (and possibly instruct the people who provide feedback to file 
bugs in the appropriate source package if the component is already in)

I think the process can be beneficial once we fine tune the steps above.

m.

[1] http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=490982
[2] https://launchpad.net/~ubuntu-forum-ambassadors