Bug#545996: #545996: please inform submitters they need to subs cribe

[Frans Pop-3]

Holger Levsen wrote:
> But I also think the acknowledgement mail should contain the information
> that the submitter is not being subscribed by default and how s/he can
> subscribe.

IMHO this is very wrong: the user has already taken the trouble to report
the bug. We should not make him/her jump through extra hoops just so he
can participate in the resolution of the bug. And he should also not run
the risk of missing requests for additional information from the package
maintainer if he fails to subscribe.

Therefore I think the title of this BR "inform submitters they *need* to
subscribe" is horribly wrong.
Submitters should not have to do anything to get informed when they should
be. As long as CCing (or subscribing) submitters is NOT the default, the
burden is on _us_, the Debian Developers, to get it right.

My personal opinion is that there is only one valid use case for opting
out of getting CCed as subscriber, and that is when the submitter is also
receiving follow-ups because he's a member of the packaging team and thus
already subscribed to the maintainer mailing list or PTS for the package.

I'm very much in favor of having submitters receive mails by default, at
least for follow-ups, but IMO also for status changes.

Only too often have I missed the fact that a maintainer silently changed
the priority of a bug I thought was RC. That should not happen. The
submitter should be informed so he can argue against the change if he
feels it's wrong.

Cheers,
FJP



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[Johannes Wiedersich]

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Frans Pop wrote:

> Holger Levsen wrote:
>> But I also think the acknowledgement mail should contain the information
>> that the submitter is not being subscribed by default and how s/he can
>> subscribe.
>
> IMHO this is very wrong: the user has already taken the trouble to report
> the bug. We should not make him/her jump through extra hoops just so he
> can participate in the resolution of the bug. And he should also not run
> the risk of missing requests for additional information from the package
> maintainer if he fails to subscribe.

[...]

> I'm very much in favor of having submitters receive mails by default, at
> least for follow-ups, but IMO also for status changes.
>
> Only too often have I missed the fact that a maintainer silently changed
> the priority of a bug I thought was RC. That should not happen. The
> submitter should be informed so he can argue against the change if he
> feels it's wrong.

I fully agree. IMHO, the sane default action on part of the BTS is to
automatically subscribe the the OP of the bug report and to provide a
simple means to unsubscribe. Ie., the acknowledgement mail should
contain the information of how to *un*subscribe from the report.

Speaking just for myself, I have too often not received follow up
questions to a bug report or only found them at a much later time and
'by accident' via the web interface. I don't blame this on the
developers though, because I happen to forget to set the right cc's or
to's of a mail rather to often myself.

I think the BTS should make it as simple as possible to 'do the right
thing', ie. keep the maintainer and the reporter of a bug informed.

Cheers,
Johannes
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