debian community credits
Reading Debian Weekly News i noticed
that the debian bug system up for redesign.
I have recently give some thought to
how we could make a better bug system.
Some of the problem I found in the preset bug system is:
1) Maintainers closing the bug, with the reason:
we think the next upload will fix the bug.
then surprise, surprise it didn't fix the bug.
The fix wasn't verified before closing.
2) Maintainers to busy elsewhere to fix a bug and so on.
As you can see this is motivation problems
and to solve this type of problem we
need to create a motivating feedback loop.
The people which contribute by fixing
the bug need to get something in return.
The most used thing for this type of feedback loop is money
but other things can be used as well something like status within
a community also works.
In the real world money act like a measurement of the
economical status.
So, I think that if we can create a good measurement for
status within the debian community we can solve some
of the motivation problems.
a solution could be to give points (debian community credits)
for contributions.
Here is one suggestion how this can be implemented.
1) Alice post a problem with a package.
2) Some time passes and then Bob post a solution to the bug and the
problem is marked solved.
3) Cindy the maintainer check the solution, fix the problem
and upload a new packet and the bug is then marked fixed.
4) Then Alice download the package verify the solution and mark
the bug closed.
For the system to work optimal the all need to get credit points
for the work.
For bug fixers like bob I think a good system would
be to give a number of point equivalent to the number
of hours from Alice post the bug report to Bob post the solution.
This will make a situation where. the older a bug get
the more profitable it becomes to fix.
For bug reporters like Alice, the points should be inverse proportional
to the time she uses to verify the solution.
so we get fast response time.
The maintainer Cindy, should get points inverse proportional
to the time she uses to check the solution and upload a new packets,
again to optimize response time.
The system should be made so that
being a maintain is more profitable
than a bug fixer which again is more
profitable than a bug reporter.
This will make a natural progress
bug reporter -> bug fixer -> maintainer.
The points earned should expire after 3 years or something
like this, so that new user can raise to the top in
a 3 years time and old users have to contribute to
maintain there position.
This is my suggestion, I would like to hear
what you think.
Knud
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