Re: Done

[Thomas Hood <jdthood@yahoo.co.uk>]

On Thu, 2003-09-11 at 05:17, Marek Habersack wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 10, 2003 at 09:00:02PM -0500, Manoj Srivastava scribbled:
> [snip]
> >  Hell no. When you signed up to maintain packages, you signed
> >  up to respond when people come and point out flaws in the
> >  package. You may not agree with every bug, but the least you can do
> >  is investigate, and if a certain modicum of effort makes things
> >  better for the person who cared enough to file the bug, you do indeed
> >  improve the package. 
>
> See, this is something I don't understand in your reasoning. This is a
> community, right? Isn't a community a kind of a fellowship where people are
> supposed to help each other? Walking around and pointing fingers at other's
> mistakes without suggesting any solution is a waste of time, is in no way
> helpful. 

I disagree.  If someone takes the trouble to point out a shortcoming in
one of your packages then you should thank him for the trouble and not
complain that he or she didn't do even more.

This talk of "pointing fingers" makes it sound to me as if you are
taking these bug reports too personally.  I know from experience,
however, that you are not the only one who interprets bug reports as
personal criticism.  I would estimate that about one in ten bug reports
I file is met with an inappropriately defensive reply.  My response to
this phenomenon has been to try to be as polite as possible in the
wording of my reports.  Also I usually file at one severity level below
what I think is really warranted, since the amount of offense taken
seems to be directly proportional to the severity level.  These
techniques don't reduce the number of sharp replies (which are caused
more by stress than by anything else, I imagine) but they do leave the
irritated maintainer without anything real to complain about in his
reply.

-- 
Thomas Hood <jdthood@yahoo.co.uk>