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Re: Fundamental flaw in bug reporting system



Michael Wheatley writes ("Fundamental flaw in bug reporting system"):
> I would understand a steep learning curve but this is a catch 22 overhang.
> 
> I am a complete newbie.  The install went great and I have my command 
> line. Then I spend hours trying to find info on loading a GUI and the 
> closest I get is GNOME support telling me to "Click on the session 
> icon"  but all I have is a command line.  I decide that this could be 
> a documentation bug or feature request and I try to submit a bug 
> report but your system bounces it for poor info or structure.  It 
> looks like it will take me hours to figure out how to properly format 
> a bug report so I will not try further.

I'm going to get flamed to a crisp here, but:

I think that the difficulty of submitting a Debian bug report via the
BTS (which is after all a fairly minor challenge to anyone who can
read and understand documentation) provides a very useful barrier
against poor-quality bug reports.

The purpose of a bug report is to help the developers improve the
software.  There are times when a particular user lacks the capability
(whether background knowledge or aptitude) to write a bug report that
can serve that purpose.  It is best for those users to seek assistance
from their friends and colleagues, rather than to file a bug report
(and perhaps, if there is a bug that could usefully be reported, their
friends will help them do that, or do it for them).

The slight inaccessibility in the bug reporting facilies is an
appropriate part of our approach to improving bug report quality.

Ian.



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