Sorry, I must have been REALLY unclear here - I am not saying I expect/want people (or myself in particular) to ask questions on bugzilla and get a quick answer - just the opposite in fact. I totally understand and agree with all the reasons you mention for asking on the user list, and understood them before bringing this (non?)issue up. I have never myself asked a question on bugzilla that wasn't related to a bug or enhancement, and never plan to!
What I am saying is that when people do ask questions on bugzilla, the questions are almost always answered as they are closed out. Also (in general) when somebody answers and closes the "bug", it is within a few hours. Sometimes responses on the user list aren't so quick, or they never come, which can be discouraging. These discouraged people may see bugzilla as a quick way to get what should be a user-list question answered, because the commiters and other people that watch bugzilla tend to answer the questions even if they aren't bugs. Now - like I said, if it doesn't bother anybody that questions routinely get asked and answered in bugzilla then this isn't an issue, and sorry for bringing it up. If people are bothered by it, then I was offering one possible solution. Hopefully I've made myself more clear about this. Matt Bathje ----- Original Message ----- From: "Craig McClanahan" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Struts Developers List" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, July 28, 2004 12:28 PM Subject: Re: DO NOT REPLY [Bug 30364] - org.apache.struts.validator.DynaValidatorActionForm.validate(DynaValidatorAc tionForm.java:115) > On Wed, 28 Jul 2004 11:16:51 -0500, Matt Bathje <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > ------- Additional Comments From [EMAIL PROTECTED] 2004-07-28 > > 15:57 ------- > > > P.S. Rather than raising a *bug* report against Struts could you please > > post > > > problems like this to the user list first. > > > > > > Raising *Bugs* is not the best way to get help - asking questions on the > > user > > > list is. > > > > > > Thanks > > > > > > > This is going to sound bad maybe - but from some peoples perspective, filing > > a bug report IS the best way to get help. > > > > Some questions to the users mailing list go unanswered (even something > > simple like this may get ignored.) When somebody files a (non)bug report > > like this though, it always seems to gets closed out very quickly with an > > answer and a "reprimand" to use the users list. The bug reporter gets > > exactly what they want - a quick answer. They can completley ignore the > > reprimand if they want. > > > > Now maybe this isn't a problem to anybody and it certainly doesn't bother > > me, I just thought I would bring it up based on what I've seen in the few > > months I've been part of the struts community. > > > > Of course, if this does bother people (especially if those people are > > committers) we need a solution. The only one I can think of is to stop > > rewarding the behavior - when somebody posts a "question" to bugzilla, it > > gets shut down quickly, but with no answer, just a pointer to the mailing > > list. (Whoever closed it down can also be sure to watch for the question on > > the user list and answer it so as not to piss people off...) > > > > Again, sorry if I am raising a non-issue, I just thought I would mention it. > > > > Matt, there are several "big picture" reasons that questions (as > opposed to bug reports) should be raised on the user mailing list. > > * Issue tracking systems do not make it particularly easy to > have a conversation and explore possibilities, particularly > compared to how you can interleave conversational elements > in responses to mailing list messages. > > * The audience of people available to answer your question is much > larger than the audience of people who read bug reports. > > * The audience of people on the user mailing list probably has more > experience *using* Struts than the developers do; they are much > more likely to have run into something similar and figured out > what to do. > > * When an answer is given on the mailing list, it is archived in many > locations that provide powerful searching capabilities. The number > of people who search mailing list archives before asking the same > question again (while not as large as user list subscribers might > prefer :-) is orders of magnitude larger than the number of people who > would ever search the bug tracking system's archives. > > If you expect to actually get your questions answered, then, the user > mailing list is the best place. However, if you expect to *always* > get an answer, in a timely manner, then I'm afraid your expectations > are never going to be met (no matter what approach you take for asking > them) -- the people who answer questions (as well as create Struts) > are all volunteers. > > > > > Matt Bathje > > > > > Craig McClanahan > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
