PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU WRITE A BUGREPORT (was Re: [MPlayer-dev-eng] build error)

[Attila Kinali]

On Wed, 12 Nov 2003 14:57:17 +0100
Marcus Thiesen <marcus at thiesenweb.de> wrote:

> On Wednesday 12 November 2003 10:41, Attila Kinali wrote:
> > So, to put it short: Use mplayer-users or you will never get an answer!
> 
> Maybe you should just add a mplayer-bugs list and all the problems vanish....
> because I don't understand why the users list is for bug reports. If I have a 
> problem which is clearly a problem in the source, why shouldn't I tell the 
> developers and bother other users? 

Well, in the beging there was only one list. But as mplayer got more and more
popular it became hard to distinguish the development related mails from those
that are just mere bugreports. Thus we split it.
Now, why should bugreports go to the users and not to the developers list.
Because, 99% of those user bugs are just PEBCAK. Remember, mplayer is not
an avarage software, it's quite complicated and not easy to understand.
Even compiling it can be a lot of work.
Now, if you are really sure, that it's a bug in the source, and not
your own fault, then there is still the -advuser list. It's meant
for bugreports of people who know what they are doing, thus low
traffic and read by most developers (unlike the users list).
And mind you, it's mentioned in the bugreports section of the docs,
which you might have read.

 
> >PPS: If you think that we are obligated to read your bugreport
> >and fix it, you should learn how OSS development works.
> 
> The users list is the most unfriendly list I've ever seen in OSS development. 

Well, it's gotten a lot better.

> This auto-header thing is something I personally find very disencouraging and 
> newbie unfriendly.

Because it's true for 90% of the questions. The documentation is great,
thanks to Diego, Gabu, Jonas, Nico and all the others. It answers most
of the questiones, but noone takes the time to read it. That's why there
is a RTFM autoheader.

> Who wants to be part of a community that always tells you 
> that you're to stupid to look into the manual. As OSS is about community 
> maybe somebody else should learn how OSS development works.

Well, look around, there is quite some traffic on both, -users and -dev-eng.
MPlayer isn't a fresh born project anymore, it's alread quite mature.
Yes, there is a unfriendly atmosphere around it, but at least if you
can show that you know what you are doing or have a good idea you can
easily contribute.
If you think it's too hard, then have a look at the kernel development.
I know some very bright people who send patches now and then, devleop
great stuff, but still, they are not taken seriously because their names
are not known. THAT is what i call an unfriendly community and IMHO
it's a wonder that the kernel development still works.


> P.S.: If I was offending, I actually didn't intend to be so. But the way some 
> of the core developers talk to people who just want to be helpfull and 
> actually use the software gets me pissed. If you intend not to have less 
> skilled people use your software make it closed source and sell it for 50K 
> bugs. 

We already thought about that... but i that would mean we would have
accepted our defeat by xine ;)
No, seriously, there is beside the reactions to these "bugreports"
there is no unfriendlyness on -dev-eng (if there is, show me the mail).


Greetings

		Attila Kinali

-- 
egp ist vergleichbar mit einem ikea bausatz fuer flugzeugtraeger
			-- reeler in +kaosu