On 23.10.2015 14:00, Brian wrote:
On Fri 23 Oct 2015 at 00:03:02 +0300, Piyavkin wrote:
On 22.10.2015 17:03, Brian wrote:
On Thu 22 Oct 2015 at 16:15:27 +0300, Piyavkin wrote:
I agree with the topic starter: the Debian's bug reporting process is
horrible and not userfriendly from user's viewpoint. If an organization
cares about usability and effectiveness of bug reporting process, it
shouldn't be like that.
If a user cares about the usability and effectiveness of the bug
reporting process, more detail to back up the complaint would be
welcome.
[...]
As it could look in my view. Bug tracking system is a web-service with such
reporting interfaces as application (~thick client), web-page, mail.
/Web-page/
Web-page is most convenient and most reliable way to report for user. On the
mentioned above web page instead of wall of text there is placed a huge red
button «report a bug» and few links below to pages with short descriptions
of alternative ways (app, mail) and «more details» in those.
There is a standard form to fill. User is asked to fill just needed fields,
and fills only those ones that he can, bug reporting system provides hints
and examples straight in the form (or through «more details»). Selections
from drop-down list are presented whenever possible.
The process of reporting can be partitioned in steps: a) common information
(what reportbug collects from user now, plus contact information); b)
description according to template; c) system specific technical information
(«run such command, copy results here»). When every step is finished,
provided data is recorded in database. Even if the process is not fully
completed and there is no sufficient information to solve the problem, there
is still information for analysis on types of bugs, their intensity, etc. In
some cases user can be contacted through provided contact information and
asked to give more details.
This sounds suspiciously like a Bugzilla type process.
In the part of web-interface: kind of. Why not?
The chances of
Debian going that route are vanishingly small. Also see bug #277744:
https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=277744
The reason for the 'wontfix' is at
https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2007/03/msg00381.html
Any such frontend must not be worse than reportbug at actually
gathering information and providing real contact information for the
submitter. I personally don't think one for submission will ever be as
useful as reportbug, which is why I've never worked on it myself, and
why I've marked #277744 wontfix.
The thread with msg00381 starts at
https://lists.debian.org/debian-devel/2007/03/msg00362.html
It is worth a read to get some feeling for the issues involved. As far
as I can determine the project was not completed, which might be an
indication of the complexity in realising it or a lack of consensus on
whether a web frontend for reporting bugs to the BTS is needed.
[...]
Thanks for the info. I've read the thread, and mentioned bugs.
March 2007… Well, I'm glad that the topic has been already rised by a
specialist in usability (~10 years ago), many good points added in
discussion by others too. I support the initiative from user's
viewpoint. I see no sound arguments against that either (just can guess
about motives).
Actually the point is wider then just web-interface. It's about
usability on the user's side. I have nothing against reportbug kind apps
as itself. And why web-interface should compete with reportbug app, I
wonder, if it already coexists with mail-channel (manually sent mail
reports) and web-page based access to the base (I suppose with some
elaborated CMS functionality).
Anyway, I see that developers are aware about the need. It is good. And
I'm hardly able to do something more on that beyond just wistfully
expressing my personal opinion.
Thanks again.
Piyavkin
