[swift-users] problem tracking/transparancy (Re: bugs/wishlist/features)

[ghostlands at hush.com]

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Bernhard,

"Learning yet another tracker"

Most I've seen are basically no different than comment boxes in
article threads. Nothing to learn there, but maybe you're thinking
of trackers I'm not aware of.

"getting yet another account is annoying,"

This is why a public login with limited privileges is a great thing
for all concerned. Worst case scenario for that dynamic would be
spam, but I haven't seen it as a problem elsewhere - anyway
administrators can just delete spam or vandal bugs, unless of
course they become automated or something in which case cleaning
the useless bugs out of the list could become overwhelming.
Spammers could easily automate a bogus bug reporter... I just
haven't seen it happen yet and don't know what their incentive
would be beyond vandalism.

There isn't any reason to drop either the mailing list or the chat
room, that isn't anything I'm suggesting. I mean only to suggest
that bug reporting needs to be accessible for users and easily
referencable for devs. I would think that it is a lot more work for
a developer to have an extended conversation in one medium and then
manually file a report themselves in another than to review a
report already submitted and flag it one way or another.

"Maybe both can be combined. :)"

Everyone likes the convenience and immediacy of personal
communication. But it is inescapably difficult to reference at the
time that work is finally done, usually awhile after the
conversation that inspired it. Chat logs have no reference points
at all; digging through emails for the relevant conversations, even
when they have roughly accurate topics in the subject line, is time
consuming - especially when multiple things are being discussed.
And again, these conversations cannot be referenced in bug reports
easily, copy/paste is the best that can happen, again, after
digging the relevant details out.

When users are disinterested in any kind of persistent
attentiveness to the bugs they report, and prefer only immediate
conversations, it places a kind of clerical burden on devs. This is
not the best use of developer's time; they are best kept busy with
actual engineering instead.

The best "combo" option I can think of is simply to offer all
options, and let users do what they want (you can't and shouldn't
force any volunteer to do anything). However, encourage them and
make it easy for them to take the action that creates the least
work and best quality for all concerned.

The situation of users who want to report in realtime or via email
only can probably only be enhanced by diligence on the part of devs
to make a point of referencing filed bugs within chat or the
mailing list. That could help tie things together.

~G


On Mon, 28 Apr 2014 17:13:20 +0200 "Bernhard Reiter"
<bernhard at intevation.de> wrote:
>Am Sonntag, 27. April 2014 03:17:45 schrieb ghostlands at hush.com:
>> Still - it would be nice as a user to somehow get
>> notified of the bug # etc. so that I can follow development and
>ask
>> questions in a *time-relevant* fashion.
>
>I agree that there is some value to see if a problem has already
>been reported
>or has been worked on. It saves my time and avoid frustation
>of an "oh, we already know" or "is fixed in hg:tip since two
>weeks".
>
>> "We also hope that reporting through mail or the MUC is
>> easier for our users than having to deal with a bug tracker."
>
>Learning yet another tracker and getting yet another account
>is annoying, so yes, getting listened to via email or chat is very
>cool!
>
>Maybe both can be combined. :)
>
>--
>www.intevation.de/~bernhard (CEO)    www.fsfe.org (Founding GA
>Member)
>Intevation GmbH, Osnabrück, DE; Amtsgericht Osnabrück, HRB 18998
>Geschäftsführer Frank Koormann, Bernhard Reiter, Dr. Jan-Oliver
>Wagner
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