Bug Triage Project - WAS: Re: Dapper Flight 5 Installation Report

[Francois-Denis Gonthier]

On Wednesday 15 March 2006 14:52, Lee Revell wrote:
> On Wed, 2006-03-15 at 14:32 -0500, Francois-Denis Gonthier wrote:
> > I'm scared of subscribing to Ubuntu-bugs.  I fear my mailbox will
> > overflow :(
> >
> > But I'm very interested by the 'triage team' idea.  I can even provide
> > patches
> > myself sometimes.
>
> IMHO no sane developer would contribute their time to this until some
> decent bug reporting guidelines are in place - who wants to wade through
> a ton of impossibly vague bug reports asking users for more information
> over and over and over?
>
> The ALSA team has good instructions in place for bug reporting including
> a script to gather required information and as a result I would estimate
> 90% of bug reports we see are good enough to be immediately actionable.

I'd say the ALSA bug trackers probably have different average customer than 
Ubuntu.  The Linux distribution that distributes ALSA acts as a first line of 
defense for them.  

In fact, an user that knows that the sound that their speakers output goes 
throught a set of drivers that is called 'ALSA' means the user is begining to 
be Linux-saavy.  A bug report that says "There is no sound out of app X" 
probably won't reach them directly...

Making bug reporting guidelines is a Good Thing.  Some people will follow 
them.  Many may actually do.  But I personally don't expect miracles.  I 
think vague, incomplete bug reports are a part of the game.  Long term 
education will help interrested user complete better bug report in the 
future, and that's why I think ignoring the sometimes naïve bug reports they 
post is the worst thing to do.  Appending a feedback, maybe only asking for 
more informations, is the best thing triager can do.

oh and I do admit developers shouldn't care about that.  Gathering more 
informations is a front line job for bug triager and newcomers to the 
project.  Developers should develop, and patch things when they are 
confirmed.
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