[Libreoffice-qa] Send Feedback...and BSA ideas

[Robinson Tryon]

On Mon, Jul 15, 2013 at 12:47 PM, Bjoern Michaelsen
<bjoern.michaelsen at canonical.com> wrote:
> Still that cant be learned by telling them "you should have filed the
> bug on that system which you dont understand"

Hmm...I think that if someone wants to report a bug, we should send
them to the bug tracker. I'd like to head them off before they've
already written up a question on the Ask site, but that's just my
suggestion.

> Instead let them use a system
> they feel they understand because its text only (askbot) and if they have
> provided all the info that is needed, create the bug on fdo for them and link
> to it.

I did that and I was told to stop.

One big problem with Ask admins reporting a bug for a user is that the
reporter is....the Ask admin. Do you run OSX 10.7? Do you run Windows
Vista?  I don't, so when a dev comes back and asks me for repro steps,
I have to shrug and say "Go talk to user XYZ on the Ask site".... and
as you said, the devs don't use the Ask site!

Another problem is that if they haven't provided enough information,
we can't tag the question as "NEEDINFO" and let the Ask system pester
them for more information (although this would be a *great*
improvement that I'd like to see!)

> This will show the user (and others walking by) how to file a bug
> properly with a real world example.

Many/most new users on the Ask site do not read old questions. Of the
small number that do, most of them either know how to file a bug or
learn very quickly. So I don't think that me filing bugs for people
will have much value in leading by example (but I could be wrong...).

> So: Give the people a smooth migration path towards bugzilla and allow them to
> test the waters on askbot, instead of a migration scenario that requires a
> sleep all-in learning curve, which will make a lot of them just turn away.

It's a novel idea, having people start on Askbot and then having them
learn how to use the bugtracker later, and it's not something I'm
entirely opposed to, but it's a very drastic change to how we've been
using FDO and the Ask site up until now.

One thing I've envisioned (and discussed with Joel) is an upgrade to
the BSA that would be as simple to an end-user as submitting a
Question on the Ask site. The user could submit just a bug
title/subject and a body, and then (optionally) submit OS information,
version #, etc. This solution would give them a submission "system
they feel they understand because its text only," and would solve my
concerns about the bug not being on FDO and not being submitted in
their name.

Unfortunately I don't have time right now to make a big upgrade to the
BSA (and neither does Rob), so that's why my suggestion is to start
with the differentiation page, which is something I could put together
this week.

Cheers,
--R