bug handling policy / interaction with users

[Guillaume Laurent]

On Sunday 16 March 2003 02:03, Roberto H. Alsina wrote:

> I am not talking about this specific instance. I was replying to what
> you wrote in general. Developers may be responsible, maybe even
> responsible to users, but they are not accountable to them, and they
> simply can not be ordered, or, as you said the will "go work  in
> the Hurd".

Indeed they can't. But I have to confess that, although long ago I used to 
think this was an advantage over the industry, now I'm not so sure anymore 
:-). But that's how things are and we have to make with anyway.

> Each person has different thresholds on how
> much they want to communicate with users, or in what ways they can
> bear such communication.

Agreed. But then if your threshold is really that low, working for KDE 
confines to masochim.

> You said something like "or else go work in the Hurd". I think any
> developer who helps KDE is valuable.

Define "help". If you merely mean "write code", then I disagree. Not all code 
contribution is valuable.

> If they prefer to work in a
> mad-scientist locked-in-the-attic fashion, maybe KDE as a project should
> take steps to allow them to contribute in a way they feel comfortable.

I agree, but this has its limits as well. KDE can't bend over backwards for 
users, neither can it for developers.

-- 
					Guillaume.
					http://www.telegraph-road.org