Re: [PATCH] git.txt: mention mailing list archive

[Taylor Blau]

On Wed, Sep 26, 2018 at 10:05:29AM +0200, Martin Ågren wrote:
> On Thu, 20 Sep 2018 at 21:07, Junio C Hamano  wrote:
> >
> > Martin Ågren  writes:
> >
> > > In the "Reporting Bugs" section of git(1), we refer to the mailing list,
> > > but we do not give any hint about where the archives might be found.
> >
> > And why is it a good idea to give that information in Reporting Bugs
> > section?  Are we asking the bug reporters to look for similar issues
> > in the archive before they send their message?  If so, I think that
>
> Your guess is correct, sorry for forcing you to make one.
>
> > we should be explicit about it, too.  Otherwise, the list archive
> > location would look like an irrelevant noise to those who wanted to
> > find the address to report bugs to.
> >
> > For example, we can say something like this:
> >
> > >  Report bugs to the Git mailing list  where the
> > >  development and maintenance is primarily done.  You do not have to be
> > >  subscribed to the list to send a message there.
> >   +If you want to check to see if the issue has
> >   +been reported already, the list archive can be found at
> >   + and other places.
>
> I think that one reason I avoided spelling out why giving the archive
> location was a good thing to do, was that I didn't want to begin a huge
> list of "please do this and that", scaring away potential bug reporters.
> I think your "If you want to" solves that problem very nicely. I'll wrap
> this up later today.

Yeah. This is a tricky issue in my mind. On the one hand, getting a
deluge of duplicate bug reports is a burden for people who actively
read and respond to the list. On the other hand, imposing such a burden
on bug reporters is a detriment to Git users, who wouldn't benefit from
the fixes that would come with good bug reports.

But I think that the above is only a problem if bug reporters are
consistently ignoring this advice. I don't think they will, since the
barrier to entry is already quite high (e.g., sending email is more
foreign to some than opening a GitHub issue, say).

So, I think that the suggestion above is a good one, since I believe
we'd rather get some bad bug reports than no bug reports at all.

Thanks,
Taylor

Re: [PATCH] git.txt: mention mailing list archive

[Martin Ågren]

On Thu, 20 Sep 2018 at 21:07, Junio C Hamano  wrote:
>
> Martin Ågren  writes:
>
> > In the "Reporting Bugs" section of git(1), we refer to the mailing list,
> > but we do not give any hint about where the archives might be found.
>
> And why is it a good idea to give that information in Reporting Bugs
> section?  Are we asking the bug reporters to look for similar issues
> in the archive before they send their message?  If so, I think that

Your guess is correct, sorry for forcing you to make one.

> we should be explicit about it, too.  Otherwise, the list archive
> location would look like an irrelevant noise to those who wanted to
> find the address to report bugs to.
>
> For example, we can say something like this:
>
> >  Report bugs to the Git mailing list  where the
> >  development and maintenance is primarily done.  You do not have to be
> >  subscribed to the list to send a message there.
>   +If you want to check to see if the issue has
>   +been reported already, the list archive can be found at
>   + and other places.

I think that one reason I avoided spelling out why giving the archive
location was a good thing to do, was that I didn't want to begin a huge
list of "please do this and that", scaring away potential bug reporters.
I think your "If you want to" solves that problem very nicely. I'll wrap
this up later today.

Martin

Re: [PATCH] git.txt: mention mailing list archive

[Junio C Hamano]

Martin Ågren  writes:

> In the "Reporting Bugs" section of git(1), we refer to the mailing list,
> but we do not give any hint about where the archives might be found.

And why is it a good idea to give that information in Reporting Bugs
section?  Are we asking the bug reporters to look for similar issues
in the archive before they send their message?  If so, I think that
we should be explicit about it, too.  Otherwise, the list archive
location would look like an irrelevant noise to those who wanted to
find the address to report bugs to.

For example, we can say something like this:

>  Report bugs to the Git mailing list  where the
>  development and maintenance is primarily done.  You do not have to be
>  subscribed to the list to send a message there.
  +If you want to check to see if the issue has
  +been reported already, the list archive can be found at
  + and other places.

[PATCH] git.txt: mention mailing list archive

[Martin Ågren]

In the "Reporting Bugs" section of git(1), we refer to the mailing list,
but we do not give any hint about where the archives might be found.
Copy the text from README.md on this to give potential reporters an
honest chance of finding out whether their bug has already been
reported.

Signed-off-by: Martin Ågren 
---
 Documentation/git.txt | 4 +++-
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/git.txt b/Documentation/git.txt
index 74a9d7edb4..40eaccafb2 100644
--- a/Documentation/git.txt
+++ b/Documentation/git.txt
@@ -858,7 +858,9 @@ Reporting Bugs
 
 Report bugs to the Git mailing list  where the
 development and maintenance is primarily done.  You do not have to be
-subscribed to the list to send a message there.
+subscribed to the list to send a message there. The mailing list archives
+are available at ,
+ and other archival sites.
 
 Issues which are security relevant should be disclosed privately to
 the Git Security mailing list .
-- 
2.19.0.216.g2d3b1c576c