Re: Disputes between developers - content, draft #4

[Ian Jackson <ian@davenant.greenend.org.uk>]

Hamish Moffatt writes ("Re: Disputes between developers - content, draft #4"):
> On Wed, Nov 06, 2002 at 03:09:53AM +0000, Ian Jackson wrote:
> > 6. Bug report etiquette
> [...]
> > * [...]  The matter should be debated until both Developers are
> > happy.
> 
> This seems to imply that only developers submit bugs. Although your
> document is specifically about communications between developers,
> developers also interact with users particularly through the BTS.
> Therefore I suggest generalising the last sentence to both parties
> rather than both developers.

In an earlier message, in a reply to a similar point by Manoj, I said:

  I do think we have to place developers in a privileged position.  This
  isn't really because they're necessarily better than nondevelopers,
  but because we have (or should have!) in the project other ways of
  dealing with developers who persistently submit junk bugs and engage
  in other kinds of unhelpful activity.

  Writing a requirement that developers have to treat every junk bug
  from a nondeveloper seriously may end up wasting a lot of people's
  time.

  That's not to say that I think that developers ought to make a habit
  of dismissing nondevelopers' bug reports.  I think that would be bad.
  I just don't want to make a rule forbidding it.

  Of course in most cases people won't bother looking to see whether
  someone is a developer - with anything but the most obvious abuse
  it'll be much easier just to take things at face value.  So
  nondevelopers will probably get the benefit of any courtesy
  recommendation anyway.

Do you disagree ?

Of course one possibility is to put this text in the document itself,
but I think that would be bad - it might make it seem it was a good
thing for developers to act badly when dealing with nondevelopers.

Ian.