How to use the new Launchpad status?

[Scott Kitterman]

On Wednesday, July 07, 2010 13:17:19 Bruno Girin wrote:
> On Wed, 2010-07-07 at 11:48 -0400, Scott Kitterman wrote:
> > On Wednesday, July 07, 2010 11:29:36 Evan wrote:
> > > On Wed, Jul 7, 2010 at 11:21 AM, Bruno Girin <brunogirin at gmail.com> 
wrote:
> > > > On Wed, 2010-07-07 at 09:53 -0500, Benjamin Root wrote:
> > > >> Sounds like to me that it is a finer grained version of "Invalid".
> > > >> The idea being that rather than possibly insulting the OP with an
> > > >> "Invalid" statement, one could mark it as "Opinion" where it is
> > > >> effectively closed, but leaves open the possibility that it might
> > > >> have to be revisited later.
> > > >> 
> > > >> I guess this helps to distinguish between the bugs that are
> > > >> blatantly Invalid and the bugs that might be a little bit more
> > > >> ambiguous.
> > > >> 
> > > >> At least, that is my interpretation...
> > > > 
> > > > Thanks, that sounds like a sensible interpretation. So in terms of
> > > > triaging, if the bug is one that we would normally set to invalid
> > > > because even though the software does not behave as the OP thinks it
> > > > should, the reasons for changing it are not clear cut, we would
> > > > assign it the Opinion status rather than the Invalid status.
> > > > 
> > > > I suspect that in this case, bugs in that status should also have a
> > > > severity of Wishlist?
> > > > 
> > > > A new standard response to use when setting bugs to that status would
> > > > be good. What about the following?
> > > > 
> > > >        Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping
> > > >        to make Ubuntu better. While we appreciate that the software
> > > >        does not behave as you expect, we consider that it is a
> > > >        matter of opinion whether it should be changed to accommodate
> > > >        your requirement. This bug is being set to "Opinion" to
> > > >        indicate that, although we do not consider it invalid, we
> > > >        will not start work on resolving it until we are satisfied
> > > >        that there are enough details on how to change the software
> > > >        without
> > > >        compromising usability or existing features.
> > > 
> > > Great. I find the last sentence a bit of a mouthful though. How about:
> > >        Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to
> > >        make Ubuntu better. While we appreciate that the software does
> > >        not behave as you expect, we consider it a matter of
> > >        opinion whether or not the behavior should be changed as you
> > >        suggest. This bug is being set to "Opinion" to indicate
> > >        that. Although we do not consider it invalid, we will not start
> > >        work on resolving it until we have a solution that solves your
> > >        problem without compromising existing functionality and
> > >        usability.
> > > 
> > > Just my two cents,
> > > Evan
> > 
> > I'd prefer we don't use it at all.  I get stacks of bug mail with not
> > very useful discussion already.  Just about the last thing we need to do
> > in the bug tracker is encourage more of it.
> 
> This is why the Launchpad devs are currently working on new subscription
> features which should allow to have more control over what lands in your
> mailbox. Once that's available, you should be able to significantly
> reduce the amount of email you're not interested in.

Future features that may some day reduce the amount of unwanted bug mail I get 
aren't relevant to the current discussion.

> > If a bug is Invalid or Won't Fix, then the bug tracker isn't the right
> > place to discuss it.
> 
> Well, if they added that new status, it's because they identified that
> there's a need for it. You do have bugs that are reported that are
> really a matter of opinion as to whether they should be addressed or
> not. And now that it's there, we (as BugSquad) will have to deal with it
> one way or another.
> 
This wouldn't be the first time a feature with minimal or negative utility got 
added to Launchpad.

My recommendation is if you see it set, have a canned answer along the lines 
of "This is not a bug status that is used in Ubuntu (although other projects 
hosted on Launchpad may use it).  The bug status is being changed back to 
[whatitwasbefore]."

Scott K