bugs audit volunteers required

[James McKenzie]

Maarten Lankhorst wrote:
> Vijay Kiran Kamuju schreef:
>   
>> just like last year we did an audit of all the bugs in bugzilla.
>> I think this year also we should do the same, the bugs are growing
>> large  and older bugs are being neglected.
>> just wanted to say  that we need to check all the old open bugs, and
>> test them/ask the user for status.
>> Close the bug as Abandoned if there is no response. also test the
>> application yourself on latest git.
>> this is the work to be done. and we need volunteers for this work.
>>
>> need volunteers to clear up the mess(old abandoned bugs) in bugzilla
>>     
> The situation with bugzilla is quite bad. The rate at which bugs are
> opened is a LOT higher then the rate of bugs that can be fixed. This
> adds a lot of bugs that won't ever be fixed.
>   
There are bugs that are related and these should be linked since the
Wine developers have
disallowed Metabugs.  Thus if a bug is dependent on a fix for .NET 2.0
for example, then the
bug should be linked into a report for .NET 2.0 installation not
completing.  Thus, the reporter
is aware that .NET has to be fixed first and then the reported bug can
be worked on.
> The situation also isn't helped by the fact that a lot of the newly
> generated bug reports are not of good enough quality. Example: "My
> obscure app doesn't do xxx", without for example mentioning what the app
> is, or a link to a demo, or insufficient information to really reproduce
> the bug.
>   
I agree.  If you cannot find the application or a demo version to work
with, how can you fix the
bug.  Logs and other helpers go a long way.  Maybe an intro page as to
what is needed and how
to get it.  This will become more and more critical as the project
approaches 'release' status (1.0).
Also, marking bugs as having insufficient information to fix advises the
reporter that the project
needs more information to help or troubleshoot.
> The situation isn't improved by the fact that bugs are reopened by those
> persons after minimal additions. Perhaps we should have a bug
> moderation? Only allow bugs that follow the criterion, then have a way
> for bugzilla admins to accept bug reports and then a new bug report
> entry is created in bugzilla.
>
>   
This would put a heavy load on the bug admins and actually slow down the
process.  I work on
other projects.  Clicking on the "NEW BUG" link should take a person to
a web page with reporting
criteria.  At this point, the reporter will read through a page of what
should be done to report a
bug.  After clicking a 'I read and understand the reporting
requirements', then the reporter will be
able to submit a bug.  After a few cycles of this, regular reporters
will not be subject to this page and
will be taken instead to the regular bug reporting page.  For the
occasional reporter, this is a good way
to handle bug reports, IMHO.

James