Once upon a time, on Wednesday 04 September 2002 05:43 am, the famous sage Warly did write:
>>Chuck Davis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: >>This is very poor public relations for Mandrake that really should be fixed by >> whoever has the authority to get the bug reporting mechanism for beta and RC >> releases in place..... > > Well, at some points developper has to choose between developing and > answering all the incomplete, unuseful, or already fixed bug report. > > If you are not answered it is mainly because your bug reports are not > relevant, or because you are not doing enough job for us to fix > more easily. Warly, I REALLY must take exception to your statements here. I challenge you to tell me what is "incomplete, unuseful, or already fixed" about the THREE bugs I posted to Bugzilla (#s 79, 119, 122) that have gone unexamined. Some of these bugs may presently be unfixable, but leaving the reports in Limbo is a lousy response to them, and discourages those who trouble to report bugs at all. (Clearly not just me...) The problem here is NOT just that people are posting bad bug reports, (although I agree there are many of those); this is a management and developer-relations problem, and it NEEDS attention. Calling this a choice between developing and acknowledging bug reports is a false dichotomy. Sorry, but you need both of these, and your management needs to recognize that and support you accordingly. Even at the cost of slowing release schedules if need be. It is developer relations problem 'cause the beta testers are part of your development team, and have been REQUESTED to submit reports. If you let bug reports (by what I've read from others, we're talking about a significant proportion of bug reports) sit "quietly ignored", the Beta testers who found them will GIVE UP ON YOU and go elsewhere. This is a Bad Thing. Yes, your time is limited; yes, some reports are useless; yes, it's no fun to tag the useless reports. But it IS productive and it IS necessary. If you want beta testers to stick with you, you MUST give them the sense they're being heard. Ignore them, and you'll miss the good reports along with the bad ones. This is a basic principle of managing a team, and like it or not, y'all are in that position here. On any corporate software project I've ever been involved with, letting unread bug reports pile up would be a quick route to the unemployment line. On an Open Source project, you will just fail... At bare minimum, the developers should at LEAST change the Bugzilla status to "Unverified" or "Wontfix" or *something* to let the poor bug-posters know you heard them. I can tell you from personal experience, "We can't verify/fix this one" is MUCH better than never hearing back at all. Open Source beta testers are a force-multiplier for bug hunting, and your managers must surely realize that pissing them off and discouraging them by visibly doing nothing (or by doing nothing visible - the effect is the same) erodes the many-eyes effect you want and need. I've had a number of Very Bad experiences with Mandrake tech support, but I'm not giving up on you(quite) yet. Others have less patience and won't stick around. If you don't "get it" by reading this far, I guess there's no hope for improving this mess. Please tell me I'm wrong. Thanks for listening, Steve Hersey -- Steve Hersey N1XNX [EMAIL PROTECTED]
