Mantis package bombs

[Aaron Konstam]

On Sun, 2007-08-26 at 13:40 -0400, Todd Zullinger wrote:
> Charles Curley wrote:
> >> You aren't expecting every maintainer to subscribe to user lists
> >> and follow all the threads here. Do you? Very very few people have
> >> the time to do this and mailing lists are not a good place to keep
> >> track of bugs which is why bugzilla exists.
> > 
> > Yes, as a matter of fact, I do expect them to subscribe to this
> > list. Not because they are maintainers per se, but because
> > presumably they are users as well. It would be a bit difficult to
> > maintain a package without using Fedora. Of course I could be wrong,
> > which would explain the state of the Mantis package.
> 
> But not all users will gain from reading the messages on this list.
> Certainly most folks capable of maintaining packages would get bored
> reading the many questions by folks that are new users, especially if
> they don't have time to help out with answering those questions.
> 
> You may well know what the package to maintainer ratio is in Fedora.
> If not, it's rather large, with nearly 4700 source packages in the
> distro and a little other 400 maintainers.  I don't think it's all
> that unreasonable to ask that users help out by reporting bugs to
> bugzilla.
> 
> I do understand your hesitation of the package seems so full of bugs
> that it's pointless.  However, if that doesn't get bugzilla'd, then
> other maintainers may not find out for a while that something is
> horribly awry in the mantis package and that someone needs some help
> (or a smack with the cluestick).  So, a bugzilla may be the most
> helpful thing you could do for a terribly broken package, even if it
> just says that there are numerous problems (listing them briefly) with
> the package and the whole things needs work.
I agree that bugzilla should work but it has never worked for me. I file
bugzillas and nothing much happens. By the time we get through all the
requests for further info a new distribution is out and it makes no
difference.

I will admit some bugzilla reports are resolved but I have never been
that lucky.

I will go further and explain in what situation it is useless to
bugzilla. When you problem is more or less unique to your system. If a
large fraction on users are having the same problem that your chances of
getting an answer are better.
--
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The world needs more people like us and fewer like them.
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Aaron Konstam telephone: (210) 656-0355 e-mail: akonstam at sbcglobal.net