Re: issue tracker?

[Bob Newell]

Aloha everyone,

Sometimes a "lower tech" solution is best, or at least offers
a lot of advantages.

What I see as the advantages of resolving issues through a
mailing list are:

* Minimal barriers to entry. If you have an email client of
  ANY type, you're in. No need for anything more. I think this
  is a very big deal, the merits of which can easily be
  underestimated.

* Distributed data. No one has to be responsible for
  maintaining a central database, keeping it secure and
  updated, etc. (except, of course, for the list server but
  that's a different matter). Changes in policy on the
  bug-tracker host don't matter because there is no host.

* A permanent record maintained and replicated widely.
  Everyone who saves their mail from the list has a copy.

I'm certainly not saying that a formal project-management
style issue tracking system is a bad thing; in many use cases,
it can be quite important. But this is an open-source,
distributed effort, non-commercial endeavor, not beholden to a
specific client (the clients are all of us) and clearly not
for profit. The requirements are not the same.

I can't cite statistics, but I wonder if more gets "lost" on
the mailing list than in a formal bug tracking system, where
things do get buried and may not surface for a long time if
ever.

Another big enabling factor is that (as others have mentioned)
this list is very responsive, very open and welcoming, and
almost always courteous and respectful (rather a big thing on
today's internet).

I've posted various things and gotten various replies and
results. When I've reported problems, they've been addressed,
generally quickly and effectively. When I talk about
nice-to-haves, some get responses and some don't, which is
exactly what I'd expect.

I'm very pleased with the way things are working and would
hate to add another layer of complexity without being sure the
upsides were greater than the downsides.

-- 
Bob Newell
Honolulu, Hawai`i

- Via GNU/Linux/Emacs/Gnus/BBDB