Re: Filing bug reports in Debian (was Re: Debian Stole My Name!)

[Hal Vaughan <hal@thresholddigital.com>]

On Saturday 11 October 2008, Andrei Popescu wrote:
> On Sat,11.Oct.08, 12:23:01, Hal Vaughan wrote:
>
> [...]
>
> I agree, the DD's response was not his best contribution ever (I
> wonder why he was answering on aptitude bugs at all since he is not
> the maintainer). But is it fair to judge developers by one of them[1]
> (possibly having a bad day)?

It's one case.  As I said, most bug reports and most technical stuff I 
have is under another name and it's a long story and a goof up that I 
didn't use the same name for most mailing lists I'm on.  I'm not going 
to go into it here.  My experience with a number of FOSS projects has 
been similar.

And you'll also notice that my comments were not out of line at all for 
fling a bug report.  I've always kept a careful tone in such a case 
because I know some people can take it as criticism, which is why I 
figure Jordi Hermoso's comment in another post in this thread that I 
must be doing it wrong as, basically, a "let's shoot the messenger 
since we don't like the message" attitude.

> [1] I'm sure there are developers with a bad attitude (I could even
> name a few), but I hope you get my point.

Yes, I do.  I have to take bug reports for my work.  Usually that's a 
rare case.  I had never written a line of code professionally until 
2001, when I started my company and started learning a number of 
languages that didn't even exist a decade earlier, the last time I had 
looked at writing any code at all.  The first program I released to my 
clients got a total of 6 bug reports (maybe 5, I don't remember) over 
the next 18 months.  I have the luxury of no boss, so I can test my 
code to pieces before publishing, which I know most people can't do.  
Still, I do have to take bug reports and I have to smile sweetly as I 
do because those reports come from clients who are paying me enough per 
month that I have to keep them a bit more than happy.  If someone can't 
handle bug reports, then they shouldn't be dealing with those who file 
them.

Hal