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How not to log a bug report 14 Feb 2008

Received in my email today:

Hi, I’m one of two persons who has submitted a bug report for v1.1 - "Unknown Command Exception", when will you be investigating them?
  1. The two reports referred-to are for entirely different things in DominoWiki
  2. I investigate stuff when I’m good and ready
  3. The bug report in question was created just ten days ago, and contains scant information as to how to re-create the issue (although in this case I was already aware of the problem, so all good)
  4. OpenNTF has a perfectly good project management interface. I use it to log my progress on bug reports and feature requests: if the status hasn’t changed, then chances are I’ve not looked at it yet. Sorry.

Open source is fun :-)

As an aside, I know many of you are champing at the bit for 1.2, and I can only apologise. If it’s any consolation, I’m pretty much done, with several point releases to follow, quickly.

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Comments

  1. Don't let the ignorant rile you, Ben. Tis just a youngster who doesn't know the ropes yet…

    Cheers,

    LarsLars Berntrop-Bos#
  2. I was in complete agreement until the last paragraph. DON'T APOLOGIZE! You are doing this from the goodness of your heart for all of our benefit, and you don't have to apologize if real life intrudes.Ben Langhinrichs#
  3. Or maybe the young padawan could join in the development effort and suggest a fix his or herself? That's the nice thing about Open Source after all….

    It's worth pointing out for those that don't know or think it through - developing projects like DominoWiki on top of regular work and life involves a LOT of sacrifice: sleep, time with family - that kind of thing. So be nice to the developers they deserve it.Jason#
  4. I suggest to use the $$ method for dealing with requests.
    "I am happy to action your bug report / feature request immediately to pop you to the top of the list will cost you $x. Otherwise you request is queued and will be dealt with in good time".
    This has a great effect of:
    1. Compensating you for your time :-)
    2. Sorting out which features really are important to people
    3. A good solid gate to keep the unwashed (who typically never contribute to development in any way) out of the process.Brendon Upson#
  5. @2 sorry!

    (hah! Do you see what I did there?)

    @4: never a truer word…Ben Poole#

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I’m a developer / general IT wrangler, specialising in web apps, the mobile web, enterprise Java and the odd Domino system.

Best described as a simpleton, but kindly. Read more…