"Issues Knowledge Base", a better place to show common issues [Proposal and call for (little) help]

[Darío Andrés]

2010/3/14 Darío Andrés <andresbajotierra at gmail.com>:
> Dear KDE Team:
> [if you don't want to read all the mail, there is a short version in the end]
>
> In order to reduce the amount of incoming bug reports I planned to
> reorganize the Bugzilla Enter bug page.
> The overall idea is to:
> - Show a list of common, important or long-standing (and too much
> reported) bugs (*)
> - Redirect the user to places where they can ask for support / confirm
> it is a real/unknown bug (Forums, IRC/WebChat)
> - Show more ways to get support
> And, also show other valuable resources; like Brainstorm(@Forums) for
> ideas, and ReviewBoard for patches
>
> Here is a mockup: http://img381.imageshack.us/img381/299/59735617.png
> (it needs better wording)
>
> (*) The list of common bugs was born as "Issues Knowledge Base" (aka
> "IKB"), currently on UserBase:
> http://userbase.kde.org/Issues_Knowledge_Base
> The purpose of this base is to have a quick, clean, short, and
> user-friendly list of common bug reports. It shouldn't grow to much to
> become unmaintainable..
> You can find a reference on how to create the base items at
> http://userbase.kde.org/Issues_Knowledge_Base#References
> It should contain a brief and concise description of the bug, the
> affected versions, the version the bug is fixed, and a reference to
> (one or more) report(s) on bugzilla.
> If the bug doesn't have a centralized bugreport, but there is a
> solution or workaround, it may be added too. (example: "Plasma crashes
> when updating to KDE SC x.y if using unofficial widget Z. Solution:
> recompile/update the Z widget")
>
> Now, it is time to request a little help: I have already added the
> main issues I have encountered in my bugtriaging work in the past
> months (issues affecting KDE SC 4.3 and 4.4); both using my memory and
> the duplicates listing of bugzilla.
> I would like the developers (or specialized/advanced users) to check
> if any other important entry is missing, to add it to base.
>
> Also, this changes would include the removal of the bugzilla wizard
> (which was already planned before this) (replaced by a new entry form:
> https://bugs.kde.org/enter_bug.cgi?format=guided ,
> https://bugs.kde.org/enter_bug.cgi?format=guided&product=plasma ), and
> the rework of the "Report Bug" kdelibs dialog (to not use the wizard
> and to remove the, oftenly deprecated, applications list)
>
> I'm going to evaluate including a reference (or embedded browser
> version) of IKB inside DrKonqi too.
>
> That's all ...
>
> I would also like to get some feedback (several developers already
> told me it is an useful idea). The overall concept may be improved.
> I know this may involve a little information duplication, but,
> honestly, most of the bugzilla bug reports aren't human readable.
> There aren't explicit ways to show common bugs in an ordered way with
> explicit affected versions, or "fixed since ...". (may be tweaking the
> duplicates.cgi page....; but that will require more work and bothering
> mattr)
>
> Hope this can be useful, and I hope you can check the list.
>
> Sincerely,
> Darío Andrés R. (BugSquad, DrKonqi)
>
> ##Short version:
> Help filing the Issues Knowledge Base
> (http://userbase.kde.org/Issues_Knowledge_Base) with common/important
> bugs in a user-friendly fashion. Thanks in advance
>

Some extra details:
It is planned to only add important bugs or bug reports which have
more than 10~15 duplicates/CCs (which we could consider "massive" or
popular)