Would it be possible to add a line to the text above the comment entry box (by the "do not paste logs" warning) telling people more explicitly what sorts of comments are appropriate, and directing them to the forum for user support? Yes, I know some people will ignore it anyway, but it might help cut down on the noise.
As you point out, people don't read... it might be more useful to put a length limit check so that posting a long comment requires privileges. Maybe that could be done as simply as "if this is user's first bug, don't let him post more than ten lines".
Dan:
Rosanne and you have a good point, but I would restrict it the limit to four lines. You should be able to describe a valid bug in that space. Anything more, and it becomes an attachement.
This would take care of the log file that was dropped in one bug and the 'I can't figure this out so here's five screenshots' in another.
+1 to the limit for my vote.
James McKenzie
On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 16:23, James Mckenzie jjmckenzie51@earthlink.net wrote:
Rosanne and you have a good point, but I would restrict it the limit to four lines. You should be able to describe a valid bug in that space. Anything more, and it becomes an attachement.
4 lines is horribly short... Especially for posting instructions to reproduce problems, an overview of your system configuration, etc...
If bugzilla supports word-based filtering, looking for words commonly present in logs and not present in most posts ("fixme:"?) to try and prevent users from posting logs as comments... (Quoting parts of a log might be useful at times?)
Gert
On Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:08:30 +0200 Gert van den Berg wine-devel@mohag.net wrote:
On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 16:23, James Mckenzie jjmckenzie51@earthlink.net wrote:
Rosanne and you have a good point, but I would restrict it the limit to four lines. You should be able to describe a valid bug in that space. Anything more, and it becomes an attachement.
4 lines is horribly short... Especially for posting instructions to reproduce problems, an overview of your system configuration, etc...
I agree. I've often exceeded 4 lines in comments.
Rosanne DiMesio wrote:
On Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:08:30 +0200 Gert van den Berg wine-devel@mohag.net wrote:
On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 16:23, James Mckenzie jjmckenzie51@earthlink.net wrote:
Rosanne and you have a good point, but I would restrict it the limit to four lines. You should be able to describe a valid bug in that space. Anything more, and it becomes an attachement.
4 lines is horribly short... Especially for posting instructions to reproduce problems, an overview of your system configuration, etc...
I agree. I've often exceeded 4 lines in comments.
I see your point. However, should it not be sufficient to state a problem in ten lines or less? This prevents pasting lengthy logs, statements, etc. in bugzilla? I'll go with that number then.
James McKenzie
On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 9:30 PM, James McKenzie jjmckenzie51@earthlink.net wrote:
Rosanne DiMesio wrote:
On Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:08:30 +0200 Gert van den Berg wine-devel@mohag.net wrote:
On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 16:23, James Mckenzie jjmckenzie51@earthlink.net wrote:
Rosanne and you have a good point, but I would restrict it the limit to four lines. You should be able to describe a valid bug in that space. Anything more, and it becomes an attachement.
4 lines is horribly short... Especially for posting instructions to reproduce problems, an overview of your system configuration, etc...
I agree. I've often exceeded 4 lines in comments.
I see your point. However, should it not be sufficient to state a problem in ten lines or less? This prevents pasting lengthy logs, statements, etc. in bugzilla? I'll go with that number then.
I've often seen 10 exceeded as well. Like earlier discussed, a regex for fixme/err/etc. would be more useful.
Austin English wrote:
On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 9:30 PM, James McKenzie jjmckenzie51@earthlink.net wrote:
Rosanne DiMesio wrote:
On Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:08:30 +0200 Gert van den Berg wine-devel@mohag.net wrote:
On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 16:23, James Mckenzie jjmckenzie51@earthlink.net wrote:
Rosanne and you have a good point, but I would restrict it the limit to four lines. You should be able to describe a valid bug in that space. Anything more, and it becomes an attachement.
4 lines is horribly short... Especially for posting instructions to reproduce problems, an overview of your system configuration, etc...
I agree. I've often exceeded 4 lines in comments.
I see your point. However, should it not be sufficient to state a problem in ten lines or less? This prevents pasting lengthy logs, statements, etc. in bugzilla? I'll go with that number then.
I've often seen 10 exceeded as well. Like earlier discussed, a regex for fixme/err/etc. would be more useful.
What Austin says. E.g. a git bisect result is at minimum 9 lines long, with more than 1 line of changelog it gets longer. And we do want those pasted into the comment and not attached.
bye michael
Michael Stefaniuc wrote:
Austin English wrote:
On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 9:30 PM, James McKenzie jjmckenzie51@earthlink.net wrote:
Rosanne DiMesio wrote:
On Thu, 15 Jul 2010 17:08:30 +0200 Gert van den Berg wine-devel@mohag.net wrote:
On Thu, Jul 15, 2010 at 16:23, James Mckenzie jjmckenzie51@earthlink.net wrote:
Rosanne and you have a good point, but I would restrict it the limit to four lines. You should be able to describe a valid bug in that space. Anything more, and it becomes an attachement.
4 lines is horribly short... Especially for posting instructions to reproduce problems, an overview of your system configuration, etc...
I agree. I've often exceeded 4 lines in comments.
I see your point. However, should it not be sufficient to state a problem in ten lines or less? This prevents pasting lengthy logs, statements, etc. in bugzilla? I'll go with that number then.
I've often seen 10 exceeded as well. Like earlier discussed, a regex for fixme/err/etc. would be more useful.
What Austin says. E.g. a git bisect result is at minimum 9 lines long, with more than 1 line of changelog it gets longer. And we do want those pasted into the comment and not attached.
Again, I agree. What method do we want to use to prevent the post that started this long conversation, that is the posting of a 'broken' patch sequence?
I would say look for "what file to patch" or the actual wording used by the patch program to state I cannot find the file to patch.
As to the catching of 'fixme/error/trace/etc. I'm for this as well using regex. Capture it and post a warning. Flag the account. Give a set number of warnings in a certain time period. Then lock the account. The poster will have to ask permission to be allowed to post again.
Does this sound doable and is it permissible? I don't want folks walking away because they cannot post, but if they are posting garbage it doesn't help us. Also, give them a posting link if they cannot, for some reason, add attachments. Sort of like a bugzilla for the Bugzilla thing. If something is broken with Bugzilla we certainly should be interested.
James McKenzie
On 17 July 2010 03:56, James McKenzie jjmckenzie51@earthlink.net wrote:
Does this sound doable and is it permissible? I don't want folks walking away because they cannot post, but if they are posting garbage it doesn't help us.
It depends also on the balance you want between
(a) the possibility of a bad comment on Bugzilla (b) lots of people being unable to post their bugs.
(b) will get the bug count down nicely, but rather misses the point of having a bug tracker.
You are going to get noise. Stopping people reporting bugs is probably not the answer. It's hard enough to get bug reports out of people already.
- d.
On Sat, Jul 17, 2010 at 10:27, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
You are going to get noise. Stopping people reporting bugs is probably not the answer. It's hard enough to get bug reports out of people already.
A "Where do I...." (of "What do I do when...") section in the FAQ might help in some cases? (with a link near the bug comment box)
Some suggested sub-questions: "Have trouble applying a bug" "Have trouble compiling Wine" "Have problems with PlayOnLinux" "Tested an application and it doesn't work" "MY application crashes"
It might be a good idea to try and get most potential bug reports discussed on the forum first?
A link to the "patch problems" question one near the attachment list might work as well.
Regexp searches with "You seem to be doing something bad (see _here_), are you sure you want to post this comment?" confirmation for dodgy comments might help pointing users in the right direction in the most obvious cases.. (and it won't keep comments from being posted by the persistent/ in case of false positives...)
Gert
On Sat, 17 Jul 2010 10:43:00 +0200 Gert van den Berg wine-devel@mohag.net wrote:
It might be a good idea to try and get most potential bug reports discussed on the forum first?
That's what I meant when I suggested adding a line above the comment box (or anywhere on the page that seems suitable). Some users come straight to bugzilla from a Google search, and don't even know about the forum, FAQ, etc. It's true some people don't read, but that's not a reason not to put clearer instructions for people who do.
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Austin English -
David Gerard -
Gert van den Berg -
James Mckenzie -
Michael Stefaniuc -
Rosanne DiMesio