[Geany] Ideas for reducing duplicate bug reports

[Nate Bargmann]

* On 2012 03 Feb 11:45 -0600, Colomban Wendling wrote:
> I agree with Frank and Lex: I do already have given up reporting a bug
> just because the procedure to do it was "too complex".  What "too
> complex" means probably depends a lot on the bug's annoyance, the
> commitment to the project and the basic feeling about the software's
> developers (e.g. what you think they'll do with the bug, or "do I want
> to give them mail/pwd?"), but the fact is that there is something to do
> beside reporting the bug.

I've been on this side of the fence numerous times and am a bit
sympathetic to this line of thought.

> > And what are the chances that you're going to go
> > back to the bug report, which doesn't know your email address to tell
> > you of new comments, and follow up with additional testing, etc?
> 
> Good point though.  Without contact info, follow up is nearly impossible
> and the bug is likely to be useless unless it's particularly good
> straight from the start.
> That's a valid point towards required registration.

And now being on the developer side of the fence, a hit and run bug
report may deserve about as much attention.  I can see both sides of the
argument.  Knowing what I now know from being on the dev side of things,
I am much more willing to do whatever registration is required to submit
a bug report and follow up with the maintainer/developer.  Admittedly,
even doing so doesn't always resolve things on my schedule.  Still, the
tools and responses out here in free software land far exceed any of my
experiences with proprietary software years ago.

If I were in a position to choose, I would choose user registration as I
think the benefits for all concerned outweigh any inconvenience.  OTOH,
"registration" can be as simple as the Debian BTS where all is required
is a "from" email address to submit the report using reportbug.  I
suppose a fake address has been used, but I suspect most reporters use a
valid address to remain in the response loop.

- Nate

-- 

"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all
possible worlds.  The pessimist fears this is true."

Ham radio, Linux, bikes, and more: http://www.n0nb.us