[Mageia-dev] How will be the realese cycle?

[Marc Paré]

Le 2010-10-16 15:52, Renaud MICHEL a écrit :
> On samedi 16 octobre 2010 at 21:29, Marc Paré wrote :
>> There would be no middle man. Once the middle-man could replicate the
>> bug and verify the bug with other users, then the middle-man would
>> submit to bugzilla. That's it. From there on, the middle-man will take
>> care of testing requests from devs.
>
> That would only work for pure software bugs.
> If the bug is hardware related, it is unlikely that the "middle man" will be
> able to reproduce it. For those we really need the input from the real bug
> reporter.
>
> And for software bugs, the "middle man" would have to reproduce the software
> environment of the reporter, which may be complicated if he installed
> software from third party (or worse, proprietary software).
> Sometimes the problem is obvious and only related to a single package, and
> for such case a forum with some contributors reproducing the bug and then
> submitting a bug report may work.
> But if the problem is related to a particular combination of packages then
> the "middle man" could spend a considerable amount of time replicating the
> reporter particular configuration before he can actually reproduce the bug.
>
> I think it may work if those "bug friends" (don't remember who proposed that
> name) only take for themselves the simple, one package, software only bugs,
> and suggest to the reporter to create himself a bugreport (eventually
> providing assistance if the reporter has never done it before) describing
> his problem, because the devs will really need his feedback first hand.
> That forum would be an easier entry point than bugzilla for users not
> familiar with bugreports.
>

Yes you are perfectly right. This is where the the bug report would be 
ramped up to the bugzilla stage, and at the point, the reporter would 
have obviously shown an interest in the resolution/fix of the bug. This 
would in effect would create a mentorhsip/reporter relationship and a 
great training opportunity for the reporter. We would then have, by 
default, a mentorship programme in the "Report a bug" forum that may 
eventually form other "bug friends" This would be a great opportunity 
for Mageia to teach reporters how to use bugzilla.

IMHO, this would still be a simple way of dealing with normal users who 
do not want to involve themselves any more than reporting a bug. And for 
those who develop a taste for furthering their knowledge of the process 
of bug reporting, the "bug friend" could then mentor this person ... who 
could eventually become a "bug friend" himself/herself.

Marc