Re: random thought about bug-buddy (in the 'very long term thinking' category)

[Wayne Schuller <k_wayne linuxpower org>]

hi Luis,

Caveat: I always seem to take the more conservative position on
suggestions to mass block or close old reports!

On Tue, 2002-07-02 at 11:54, Luis Villa wrote:
> So, this has a /bit/ to do with 1.4 support and such, but also just with
> long-term planning. Would anyone object if future versions of bug-buddy
> 'expired' a year after being built? Like, run the binary, it checks the
> date, if date is greater than one year after being built, it refuses to
> run.
> 
> I do this because we still get reports from GNOME1.2, among other
> things- basically all old, useless crash reports. So I'm thinking that
> very old GNOME installations should have the ability to report crashes
> disabled. Pop up a nice little 'your GNOME installation is over a year
> old. Please upgrade to a newer version of GNOME. If you still wish to
> report a bug against your current version, please go to
> http://bugzilla.gnome.org/' dialog instead of bug-buddy.
> 
> Am I on crack? Any reasons to object to this?

You are right to be in 'long-term-thinking' mode, and to be thinking
pragmatically about what is possible for bugmasters.

I think there are several reasonable objections to this:

a) We still support the old platforms. This is the offical gnome policy.

b) These bug reports reflect the userbase of Gnome. Taking an extreme
example: if 90% of people in July 2002 are still using gnome 1.2, then
obviously there is big problem, but it is not with bug-buddy. 

I think people underestimate the usefulness of easy (ala bug-buddy)
anonymous bug reporting - it tells us quite alot about who our users are
and what they are doing.

c) If there is an active userbase using an old gnome desktop, new
bug-hunters and triagers will arise from within that community. We
shouldn't put obstacles in front of their gnome hacking. So if anyone is
triaging the current platform why can't they just ignore these old
reports?

d) At the end of the day, bug-buddy should be putting these old reports
in a place that doesn't bother the people triaging the current platform.
This is why we use a clever tool like bugzilla, right?

thanks,
wayne