Bug workflow - a wider view

[Colin Watson]

On Fri, Jul 06, 2007 at 03:17:33PM +0100, Matt Zimmerman wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 06, 2007 at 10:41:32AM +0100, Ian Jackson wrote:
> > Christian Robottom Reis writes ("Re: Bug workflow - a wider view"):
> > > In the case of Debian I guess this doesn't mean anything apart from
> > > using the end-user's From: address in the email sent to file the bug,
> > > but that's effectively what they use for credentials there AIUI.
> > 
> > You seem to have completely missed my point.
> > 
> > Debian are going to be _very upset_ if you arrange for Launchpad to
> > send bug submission mails to the Debian BTS without getting a
> > go-ahead from Debian.  The fact that you're doing it on behalf of some
> > user and putting their name in the From: doesn't help address that.
> 
> What, exactly, do you see as the difference between a user submitting a bug
> to Debian using their email client, and using Launchpad?  The resulting bug
> will be essentially identical, except for linking the bugs to each other
> (does debbugs have Launchpad bug watches?).

The difference I see is that after the first few times somebody does
something wrong, some Debian folks who are unfriendly to Launchpad will
notice that some set of bogus bugs have been submitted via Launchpad and
start asking owner at bugs.debian.org to restrict access, just as they did
when a flood of bogus reports was emitted by an early version of the
GNOME bug-buddy tool. After a few such requests it would not surprise me
at all if owner at bugs decided to restrict access just to avoid being
caught in the middle, particularly now that we have fairly plausible
infrastructure for doing that kind of thing. (Note: I am one of the
people behind owner at bugs, but I expect I'd have to abstain on something
like this.)

It doesn't matter whether the complainants would be right or wrong about
this; it only matters that it is likely to happen.

I have to agree that the best way to avoid this is to not give anyone an
excuse to complain: get it cleared in advance!

-- 
Colin Watson                                       [cjwatson at ubuntu.com]