Re: Forwarding bugs upstream
Ben Finney dijo [Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 04:01:46PM +1100]:
> (...)
> > I'm adding zero value here. Zero. It is a huge and frustrating waste
> > of my time.
>
> Not in my view. I appreciate the Debian package maintainer acting in the
> interest of “lower the barrier for each Debian user of this package to
> report useful bug information”.
>
> To be clear: Thank you for the time you spend doing this, and the same
> to any other Debian maintainer who does unromantic work to keep the
> good information flowing.
You are clearly adding value, you will probably word the user's
request in a better way, you will know the library versions and
settings the package was compiled with, the way it is installed,
etc. You will probably forward only some relevant bits - We as package
maintainers should bridge between a nontechnical user and the upstream
developers. Of course, if your bug report was initially submitted by a
technically knowledgeable user, it might be better just to point him
to a bug report (already opened by you) in the upstream tracker. Also,
when I forward a bug report, I quote the Debian BTS address for the
upstream developers to be able to get the original (although I will
mediate anyway).
Of course, there is not just one kind of user or upstream. Some will
appreciate to get more involved. Some users will sadly just say "this
is b0rken, you must fix it, you suck" - But they are IMO not
prevalent. Many upstreams will want users to use the latest versions,
and it is our task to find how to fix/backport.
> Quite the opposite, from my position. A great feature of the Debian BTS
> is that any user can interact with it through a standard interface
> without maintaining multiple separate identities; heck, without having
> to create a single new identity at all.
FWIW, I have been asked by users and upstreams whether they can
interact with bug reports via a simpler interface, as they prefer not
to use mail for it. Of course, it all depends on the person at hand. I
agree it is good to have a unified, standarized interface for our
users. And, of course, our BTS serves us (the Debian community) very
well.
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