Re: abandoned bug reports

[Graham Percival]

On Wed, Mar 02, 2011 at 07:44:13AM -0500, Ralph Palmer wrote:
>    Sorry - hit the wrong button. So, delete all bug-answer and bug-ignore
>    items. I then start with the oldest of the remaining emails. I delete
>    anything  with "issue nnnn" in the subject line. Anything else, I look to
>    see if it's a simple discussion or an actual bug (or issue). If it's an
>    issue, I try to add it as succinctly as I can as an issue. This morning,
>    in 15 minutes, I was able to get rid of bug-answers and bug-ignore, delete
>    about a half-dozen other emails from bug-current, submit one issue, start
>    catching up on this thread, and writing this reply. I've just passed 25
>    minutes.

Hmm.  How long did it take to delete the emails from bug-current?
I suspect that this is stumbling block.

Did you ever play "Hot Potato" as a child?  I did -- a group of
people stands in a circle, and one small ball (the "potato") is
tossed from one person to the next.  At some random point in time,
whoever is holding the ball loses.  So the object of the game is
to toss the "potato" to another person as soon as possible.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hot_Potato_%28game%29

I treat each email like "hot potato".  So when looking at emails
in bug-current, I would begin by looking for email threads which
include a "thanks, added as xyz".  By now, I would have memorized
the names of my fellow Bug Squad members.  So at the beginning of
my time, I would skip over any email not by a bug squad member,
and every time that I saw a "thanks, added as xyz" from a bug
squad member, I would instantly delete (or archive) that email
thread.

That should take about 60 seconds, and should remove 70%-90% of
the emails.

I would then make a "second pass" of remaning emails, where I
actually skimmed every email -- I might be able to delete more.

Only then would I begin my "third pass".  I will reply to every
single new email remaining.  My reply might be "please send a tiny
exmaple", or it might be "I don't understand, please explain", or
it might be "thanks, added as xyz".  The CG gives an exact list of
possibilities... but the only question in my mind is *which* reply
I'm going to give.

Deciding which reply to give: 30-60 seconds.  If I haven't
understood the issue within that time: if it's an email from a
name I don't recognize, use the "I don't understand".  If it's an
email from a developer, then just blindly copy&paste it into the
tracker.


Now, if I see that I only have two emails to deal with (after
deleting stuff), and I have 10 minutes remaining, then I might
spend more than 60 seconds trying to understand the issue.  But if
there's a lot of emails waiting for me, then I feel no qualms
whatsoever about demanding that the user explain himself better if
it takes me more than a mere 60 seconds to understand it.

>    I'm also often unsure whether to submit issues when there seems to be  an
>    ongoing discussion between two or more people. In that case, I usually cut
>    to the chase (check the later  emails in the thread) to see if it looks
>    like the problem should be submitted as an issue (yet).

Yes, that is correct.

Cheers,
- Graham