question regarding feedback of launchpad translation suggestions

[Danilo Šegan]

Hi Tom,

Your email doesn't sound directly related to what OP said (in my
reading, at least :), but since I am not sure what it refers to and it
sounds worrying regarding the Launchpad project, I'd respond to your
email directly.

У сре, 25. 08 2010. у 11:22 +0000, Tom Davies пише:

> I think this is part of a wider problem in Launchpad and one i have
> complained about to no avail on a few previous occasions.  Now that
> the Translators Team are becoming aware of the problem i have some
> hope of this getting resolved as you folks seems to be one of the more
> effective and "can do" teams.  It's really something that needs a dev
> working alongside someone who has a lot of tact and diplomacy skills 
> which are not necessarily skills vital to being a good dev.
> 
> When people write to Launchpad Answers or bug-squad it would be "good
> practice" (from a customer relations point of view) to send an
> automated response just to let the person know their
> question/bug-report has been received.

That kind-of happens.  When you file a bug, you get an email.  In
Launchpad team (so, for questions regarding Launchpad usage or Launchpad
bugs), we try very hard to keep the number of untriaged bugs at zero,
and the same thing for questions.  We do it daily (there's always
someone taking care of forwarding issues to appropriate places).

Since I am not sure where are you seeing many problems like this, if it
is indeed in Launchpad itself (i.e. launchpad.net/launchpad-project,
launchpad.net/rosetta, ...), I'd be happy to talk it over and see where
are we failing.  If it's not Launchpad-proper, then I probably can't
help much (your email kind of implies that you are talking about Ubuntu,
but wording makes me confused a bit with direct references to
Launchpad).

Also, AFAIK, Ubuntu has a bunch of triaging scripts which do many things
automatically.

> It seems that many devs hate auto-responses on principle but they are
> better equipped to deal with a total lack of response where many
> people contacting Launchpad may be completely new to OpenSource Forums
> and may just decide that Windows support is better.
> 
> Currently the only auto-response from Launchpad Janitor is a very rude
> note sent 15days later and the note says something like "We cannot be
> bothered to deal with your question.  Go away".  Which i feel is a
> little bit negative and has been written up in external, mainstrem
> press as a reason why some people try Ubuntu once and then go back to
> Windows.  I think if we have not been able to help with a question or
> bug-report then we should let that person know of other sites that
> they could try instead, such as 
> http://www.linuxquestions.org
> http://www.ubuntuforums.com

That might be a good idea.  Alternative is to switch off "answers"
application for Ubuntu and just direct people to eg. Ubuntu forums.

Do note that Ubuntu QA team is doing a great job making sure this
doesn't happen with bugs filed against Ubuntu.  But, "questions" is an
entirely different beast altogether.

Cheers,
Danilo