Upstream bugs vs. Fedora bugs: KDE people do it wrong

[Christoph Wickert]

I am irritated by the way the KDE SIG and the KDE bugzappers handle
bugs. For most bugs that are reported they demand the reporter to file
an upstream bug report at bugs.kde.org and set the bug to NEEDINFO. If
the reporter doesn't respond, the bug is closed NOTABUG or WONTFIX. But
if the bug has been reported upstream, the Fedora bug gets closed
UPSTREAM. Ether way, the bug gets closed, no matter if it was actually
fixed or not.

IMHO filing bugs upstream is a maintainers duty. We are doing the same
in Xfce or I do the same with all my packages. The only exception I make
are feature requests, because I cannot support a request that I don't
understand or that I am not convinced of. The use of a feature should be
discussed upstream with the developers because they are in no way
specific to the distribution, but bugs that affect Fedora need to be
tracked in Fedora.

The wiki says:
> Deal with reported bugs in a timely manner 
>       * [...]
>       * If there are bugs which you aren't capable of fixing yourself
>         because they deal with intricacies of the source code which
>         you don't fully understand, then you still need to address
>         these bugs. It can be helpful to work with the upstream
>         maintainer of the code, obtain help from more code-oriented
>         people on fedora-devel, or check other distributions for
>         patches. Always be sure to post to the bug report what you
>         have done so that the reporter knows what it happening and
>         what to expect. It is recommended that non-coder packagers
>         should find co-maintainers who are familiar with the
>         programming language used by their package(s), and can help
>         with such bugs as a kind of 'second line support'.

https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Package_maintainer_responsibilities#Deal_with_reported_bugs_in_a_timely_manner

The Fedora KDE maintainers and bugzappers already have a KDE bugzilla
account, while most of our users don't. Thus it is easier for them to
file the bug than it is for the user. The maintainer has to act as a
proxy between the reporter and the developer. 

By closing down the bugs, our bugzilla is effectively rendered useless
because there is no way of searching for bugs that affect our KDE
packages. Bugzilla is for tracking bugs, not for blindly closing bug
reports no matter if they are fixed or not!

I'd like the KDE SIG and their bugzappers to reconsider their policy:
     1. Forward bugs to the upstream developers
     2. Leave bugs open until they are fixed upstream and in Fedora

Regards,
Christoph