Re: How Debian should handle users requests?
(please don't CC me on replies, I read the list)
Abou Al Montacir <abou.almontacir@sfr.fr> writes:
>> We have several forums for user support requests, the main one being
>> debian-user@l.d.o. The bts "general" pseudopackage is not a user support
>> forum. The consensus for dealing with user support requests being filed
>> as "general" bugs has always been "close the bug and instruct the user
>> to contact a support forum, mainly debian-user". When what the user is
>> seeing turns out to be a bug in some package debian-user can also help
>> with producing an actionable bug report against that package. Perhaps
>> this needs to be documented more prominently?
>
> While I agree that the pseudo package "general" shall not be used as a
> help forum, I don't like to close a bug abruptly. Also in this case the
> current bug we are dealing with is probably a real bug.
It might indeed be a real bug, but not in any Debian package. I don't
know what distribution the user runs, but his kernels come from an
Ubuntu PPA. In any case "something no longer works but I have no idea
how to find out what" isn't an actionable bug report, it's a request for
support.
> I'd recommend that reportbug(-ng) provide a clear message when creating
> a bug, just like some other packages do it (evolution to name my
> preferred mail client). This will then filter more this kind of reports.
>
> Then if the user reports a bug we need to understand it and try to fix
> it. Maybe adding debian-user to the list of users monitoring bugs
> against "general" pseudo package could also help in this case.
I don't think reportbug should allow filing bugs against general at
all. The extremely rare cases when one is needed can be filed manually.
--
Arto Jantunen
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