"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>:
> 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)
>

And if you hate the whole idea there is an alternative using bugzilla:

- Create a "commonPopularImportant" (or something like that) keyword...
- Clean the summaries of those bug reports... (to be concise and
self-explanatory enough)
- Add some custom field to show the affected and fixed versions..
(extend bugzilla)
- Annoy tons of users in the CC list
- IKB would only be a frontend to the bugzilla list of the reports
having that keyword

(thinking it that way it seems more maintainable, but it needs
extending bugzilla code (perl....), bothering mattr and users in the
CC; also a bug report will never be as much as easy to read than my
IKB proposal)