Aloha everyone, Sometimes a "lower tech" solution is best, or at least offers a lot of advantages.
What I see as the advantages of resolving issues through a mailing list are: * Minimal barriers to entry. If you have an email client of ANY type, you're in. No need for anything more. I think this is a very big deal, the merits of which can easily be underestimated. * Distributed data. No one has to be responsible for maintaining a central database, keeping it secure and updated, etc. (except, of course, for the list server but that's a different matter). Changes in policy on the bug-tracker host don't matter because there is no host. * A permanent record maintained and replicated widely. Everyone who saves their mail from the list has a copy. I'm certainly not saying that a formal project-management style issue tracking system is a bad thing; in many use cases, it can be quite important. But this is an open-source, distributed effort, non-commercial endeavor, not beholden to a specific client (the clients are all of us) and clearly not for profit. The requirements are not the same. I can't cite statistics, but I wonder if more gets "lost" on the mailing list than in a formal bug tracking system, where things do get buried and may not surface for a long time if ever. Another big enabling factor is that (as others have mentioned) this list is very responsive, very open and welcoming, and almost always courteous and respectful (rather a big thing on today's internet). I've posted various things and gotten various replies and results. When I've reported problems, they've been addressed, generally quickly and effectively. When I talk about nice-to-haves, some get responses and some don't, which is exactly what I'd expect. I'm very pleased with the way things are working and would hate to add another layer of complexity without being sure the upsides were greater than the downsides. -- Bob Newell Honolulu, Hawai`i - Via GNU/Linux/Emacs/Gnus/BBDB
