Re: Proposal how to handle mass bug reports

[dark@xs4all.nl (Richard Braakman)]

Ian Jackson wrote:
> Santiago Vila writes ("Re: Proposal how to handle mass bug reports"):
> ...
> > Mmm, well, what if I sent just one bug against ftp.debian.org saying
> > "these 100 packages should not have `optional' priority but `extra'"?
> > 
> > I would say your proposed policy is incomplete. I would add the following
> > paragraph:
> > 
> > "Bugs against ftp.debian.org count for as many bugs as the packages it
> > refers to. Therefore nobody should submit bug reports against
> > ftp.debian.org if such report refers to five packages or more"
> 
> I disagree.  The problem with many bug reports isn't that they request
> a lot of action, but that they require a lot of action to get rid of.

Hmm.  The problem with a single bugreport that covers many issues is
that it causes a lot of extra work for the maintainer, because there
is no interface for closing only part of a bugreport.  Causing a lot
of work for the ftp.debian.org maintainer seems like a very bad idea.

By contrast, if there were a need to close 100 automatically generated
bugreports, it could be done in less than five minutes.  A single mail
to control@bugs.debian.org would do it.

In practice, the "mass bug reports" I have seen that were controversial 
were all in the range of 5-10 bug reports.  People don't submit 100
reports without prior discussion, simply because it is a lot of work.

I do agree that the text in the Developer's Reference could be
tightened up.  I propose the following text:

5.1. Reporting lots of bugs at once 
------------------------------------

     If you report more than 10 bugs on the same topic at once, you must
     send a message to debian-devel describing your intent before
     submitting the reports, and leave enough time for discussion. This
     will give other developers the chance to verify that the bug is a
     real problem. In addition, it will prevent the situation where several
     maintainers start filing the same bug reports simultaneously. 

     Note that when sending lots of bugs on the same subject, you should
     send the bug reports to `maintonly@bugs.debian.org' so that the bug
     reports are not forwarded to the bug distribution mailing list. 

I thought about various ways to work in the "or send mail to many
maintainers" part of Ian's proposal, but I couldn't find wording
that would not also apply to the ordinary use of mailing lists.

Richard Braakman


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