Launchpad itself

RFE: discourage no-package bug filing

Bug #189923 reported by Henrik Nilsen Omma
6
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Launchpad itself
New
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

We currently have a large pool of bugs filed against Ubuntu but not against any particular package. These don't get much attention because the development teams naturally don't look at bugs that are not filed in their category of interest. The build-up of no-package bugs is too large for the bug triagers to proces given their other commitments. We should there fore put in place structures to reduce the number of bugs being filed this way.

My suggestion:

When a bug is filed against ubuntu but no package, send out an email to the submitter (or auto-inject a comment), like:

"Thank you for filing a bug with Ubuntu. Please try to provide the appropriate package so that the bug can be dealt with by the appropriate team. Information on identifying the right package for your issue can be found here: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage

If your issue is regarding the entire distribution, and not a specific package, it may be more appropriate to file it as an idea at http://qa.ubuntu.com/qapoll/ideas/ or a blueprint at https://blueprints.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"

On doing so the bug should also be set to incomplete. That way it will eventually expire if the submitter does not respond.

Tags: lp-bugs
Revision history for this message
Scott Kitterman (kitterman) wrote :

I disagree with this. I think it would be more productive to work on doing a better job of package hinting. The U/I already pretty clearly discourages this and I think it unlikely that additional discouragement would help significantly.

The most common no package bugs I run into as a MOTU are needs-packaging and these are correctly without package. They most certainly should not be treated in the way suggested in this bug.

Revision history for this message
Murat Gunes (mgunes) wrote :

Malone now has a "bug reporting guidelines" feature, which is adjustable per project. Ubuntu's bug reporting guidelines are shown at
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+filebug , as well as when filing bugs using Apport, and they do mention https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/FindRightPackage. I don't think there's any need to further stress this.

I also disagree with automatically expiring bugs with no package set. It's safe to assume that people who will file bugs without a package will be new to reporting bugs, and possibly Ubuntu; they're just the audience that we don't want to alienate with such barriers.

Revision history for this message
Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) wrote :

We're also considering ways of getting Launchpad to actively encourage people in pushing bug reports through the pipe of getting fixed. One step in this process would be inviting people to take a bug report that has no package, and file it with the appropriate package.

Revision history for this message
Murat Gunes (mgunes) wrote :

Another small step may be awarding karma for assigning a bug with no package set to a package (bug #183584).

Revision history for this message
Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt) wrote :

A bigger step would be to have the package field radio button selected by default, instead of "I don't know" -- bug 195620.

To post a comment you must log in.
This report contains Public information  
Everyone can see this information.
Subscribing...

Other bug subscribers

Remote bug watches

Bug watches keep track of this bug in other bug trackers.