Filing bug reports: What's the point?

[Ryan Thiessen]

On 11/21/05, Mario Vukelic <mario.vukelic at dantian.org> wrote:
> I guess the developers have better things to do than posting an "I've
> seen it" message to every new bug report. I think you should consider it
> an acknowledgement that the bug is there, visibly, on the website, and
> will not be lost.
> And if you file more bugs you will also see cases were bugs are dealt
> with extremely swiftly if they warrant the urgency, so please continue
> to file your reports :)

You are of course correct when you say that the developers have better
things to do, especially at this stage in the dapper development
process.  But even given that, it is also true that attention to bug
reports will probably result in more bug reports being made.  I know
that my personal volume of bug reports has gone down since a number of
them were effectively ignored for months.  Being ignored makes the bug
reporter not feel like his or her contribution was valued, and will
result in less contributions of that kind.

This is not to say that ubuntu "owes" anyone acknowledgement, just to
say that such acknowledgement does encourage more of this feedback and
contribution.  Scott's orginal complaint should not be discounted, I'm
sure there are many more people who have had similar feelings to him
but have just not said anything and have silently discontinued
reporting new bugs.

Cheers,
-rt-