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Re: HEADSUP: mails sent to nnn@bugs.debian.org are NOT sent to the submitter



On Mon, Dec 26, 2016 at 11:03:05PM +0000, Ian Jackson wrote:
> Samuel Thibault writes ("HEADSUP: mails sent to nnn@bugs.debian.org are NOT sent to the submitter"):
> > This happens again and again...  Quite a few maintainers don't seem to
> > realize that mails sent to nnn@bugs.debian.org are not sent to the bug
> > submitter, and the bug tracking thus halts down completely when the
> > maintainer asks for information only to the bot, and not to the human.
> 
> When I decided that debbugs should work like this:
>  * The email environment was very different to today;
>  * I hadn't properly realised that a bug is actually like a special
>    kind of mailing list (although I sort of got most of the way there);
>  * I was overly concerned that submitters ought not to be troubled by
>    Debian-internal communications about their bug.
> 
> Maybe this decision was right at the time, but I think it is wrong
> now.  I suggest we change it.

Hell yeah!

While any change of this kind obviously can make people used to the old
default unhappy, having 123456@b.d.o not notify the submitter is so
unintuitive not only new users but even most of us who forget this keep
getting caught.  And having a bug stalled is much worse than an superfluous
mail.

Thus, let's move the current behaviour to 123456-maint@b.d.o or some such,
and have 123456@b.d.o notify at least both the maintainer/uploaders and the
submitter.

The BTS is notorious for sending duplicates if there are multiple reasons
someone should receive mail, but that deficiency shouldn't stop
improvements.


We could go further: I think GitHub got it right: by default, you get a mail
if you're either the maintainer, the submitter, or have commented on the
bug.  The BTS already tracks "with mail from".

The only snag I can think of is that there's currently no way to edit
addresses of old mails included in the bug.


Current procedure of subscribing to a bug is an abomination: you need FOUR
mails for something that could be done by default.


Meow!
-- 
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  ./configure --host=zx-spectrum --build=pdp11


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