On Thu, 15 Sep 2005 11:39:58 -0400 (EDT), in php.internals [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Derick Rethans) wrote:
>> Comparing php bug reporting to mozilla and mysql (the latter being a >> bit unfair comparison with professional workers) I think that mozilla >> bogus bugs have better references (to dupes, etc.) and mysql bogus >> bugs are even more polite in their template answers. >MySQL has real customers, we don't have that. That doesn't mean that any >suggestions for better template answers are not appreciated. Oh... I knew it was a mistake to mention MySQL as the focus would move to their business plan instead of their methods (or the methods of Apache or Mozilla). >You know we actually added the requirement only if you bogus bugs to add >a comment why. But there are quite a lot of bugs that should not have >come in in the first place, and those are hapily answered with "." only. I really agree that a lot of bugs shouldn't be present there in the first place. Therefore anything to reduce this number could be appreciated. Assuming that just one or two out of ten bogus bug submitters have searched the bug forum in advance and still submits. I believe that just a couple of words could help - such as a reference to the appropiate page in the manual (maybe a template that just takes a section or function as input). Again, let me stress out that I don't think that it is of much use to just help the one that files a dupe or an obvious bogus bug. The payoff is based on that it might help everybody in the future who might search for that bug. That includes dupes where the dupe has a better summary than the original bug - they should have a reference to the original bug. That said, even when a user submits a bogus bug and he is the 100th user to do that on a given day there is no reason to treat that bug report more harsh. He might have no relation to the other 99 submitters. >> I guess my only real suggestion is that some of the template-answers >> could be better worded. >Feel free to send a patch, and that was not meant as an attack. It seems like Christopher Jones was faster than me. - I agree that the comment should appear before the template - especially if the template is used several times. - The bug post mentions "If you feel this bug concerns a security issue, eg a buffer overflow, weak encryption, etc, then email [EMAIL PROTECTED] who will assess the situation.". There is no information about whether or not it is possible to follow progress or if any reply is expected. - Posting a new bug in Bugzilla for Mozilla results in a "Related bugs" search before the actual submission. Would it be possible to implement anything like that? - I don't know what to patch to avoid comments such as "Try this on a real OS, like Linux" :-) But I doubt it would help bug searchers or submitters in the future. - In general, if we would like users to search the bug database at first it might be treated more as a knowledge base. It wouldn't be a here-and-now solution but could reduce the bogus bug submissions in time. -- - Peter Brodersen -- PHP Internals - PHP Runtime Development Mailing List To unsubscribe, visit: http://www.php.net/unsub.php
