Launchpad itself

merge proposal mail context is confusing

Bug #348750 reported by Martin Pool
4
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Launchpad itself
Fix Released
Low
Unassigned

Bug Description

The context (ie what merge proposal, state, etc) is too subtle in merge proposal mails compared to mail from answers or bugs. In this example:

---------------
To: Martin Pool <email address hidden>
From: Robert Collins <email address hidden>
Subject: merging this..
Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:18:28 -0000

However, next time you put a branch up for merge, please run the test
suite first. You would have seen your code was broken :)

Tests would be better, but I want to clear the decks so am just doing
it.

-Rob

-- =

https://code.launchpad.net/~james-w/pqm/tags/+merge/3659
You are subscribed to branch lp:pqm.

----------------

I have no clue from the subject line or body what he's talking about or who he's talking to with "merging this" until I read right down to the end. The To header is set as if it's a mail to me but Robert's not directly talking to me at all, I'm just getting copied on his mail to someone else. So it's quite confusing.

So I'd suggest:

1- Reconsidering setting the recipient into the To header
2- Putting [mp 3659] or something similar into the header
3- At the top of the mail, putting the merge proposal context, something like this

> regarding https://code.launchpad.net/~james-w/pqm/tags/+merge/3659
> proposed to merge into lp:pqm, state pending

Also it's not clear from this mail whether this is a comment or a vote (and if so what.)

Revision history for this message
Martin Pool (mbp) wrote :

Apparently they do sometimes have [Merge] in the subject but not always?

Revision history for this message
Tim Penhey (thumper) wrote : Re: [Bug 348750] Re: merge proposal mail context is confusing

On Thu, 26 Mar 2009 13:40:03 Martin Pool wrote:
> Apparently they do sometimes have [Merge] in the subject but not always?

If someone overrides the subject, we keep it.

I think not setting the recipient as the To may help.

Tim

Revision history for this message
Jonathan Lange (jml) wrote :

Agreed, the To: field is broken. What should it be?

I think we're wrong to use the subject provided by the sender without modification. We should prepend some information.

A header at the top of the email might be nice but is not necessary to fix this bug IMO. What do our UI ppl think?

Martin, I hope you've figured out the riddle of the [Merge] prefix (hint: bzr send).

Changed in launchpad-bazaar:
importance: Undecided → Low
status: New → Triaged
Jonathan Lange (jml)
tags: added: code-review email
Revision history for this message
Martin Pool (mbp) wrote :

2009/3/30 Jonathan Lange <email address hidden>:
> Agreed, the To: field is broken. What should it be?
>
> I think we're wrong to use the subject provided by the sender without
> modification. We should prepend some information.

I agree.

> A header at the top of the email might be nice but is not necessary to
> fix this bug IMO. What do our UI ppl think?

fwiw it would be consistent with what's done for questions.

> Martin, I hope you've figured out the riddle of the [Merge] prefix
> (hint: bzr send).

My confusion actually came from not realizing that review responses
could themselves specify a subject, which overrides the default
subject of the merge mails. I realize this is consistent with bug
comments, but is it actually useful? Why not just have one text field
per comment?

--
Martin <http://launchpad.net/~mbp/>

Revision history for this message
Tim Penhey (thumper) wrote :

Poolie, recent changes were made in this area. Can you see if you still see this as a problem?

Changed in launchpad-code:
status: Triaged → Incomplete
Martin Pool (mbp)
Changed in launchpad-code:
status: Incomplete → Fix Released
Revision history for this message
Martin Pool (mbp) wrote :

Tim, if you think it's fixed I'd suggest just marking it fixed, and I can reopen it if I disagree- it saves round trips.

I see you got rid of the subject line field and it looks like all comments are now lining up nicely in threads so that's good.

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