279696 - Please describe "what is bug" and "b.m.o is not Help center" in bug writing guidelines

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(bugzilla.mozilla.org :: General, enhancement)

Description

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

See Bug 264223 & Bug 275897 & Bug 279655.
Please consider about describing on nexts in "Bug writing guidelines".
 (A) What is bug
     (At least, "no user setup error" should be confirmed before open.)
 (B) b.m.o is NOT Q&A center nor Help center.
I know that many of current bug reporters already know on aboves.
But please note that people who is not familiar with software development usualy
doesn't know about "bug", even though any people can open b.m.o bug.
I'd like to say "Read thru bug writing guidelines" only to above bugs.

Comment 1

[Ben Fowler]

Bugzilla's primary role and value is to enable developers to communicate 
with one another and to record fixing or resolving bugs.

A bug is whenever the "observed behaviour" does not match the "expected
behaviour" owing to a defect in Firefox. Triaging bugs involves ascertaining
whether there is a gap between the observed and expected behaviour; and then
whether there actually is a defect in Firefox.

A guide to good bug handling (tracking) is 
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000029.html and
if you only have time to read part of it, please make it the 
section: Three Parts To Every Good Bug Report.

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/bugs.html is similar
but (if I might say so) slightly less technical. Moving on, 
http://zenii.linux.org.uk/~telsa/Bugs/bug-talk-notes.html is
also interesting, but probably only useful as background reading.
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/bugwritinghelp.html is useful for 
the section: No bug is too trivial to report.

http://www.ssw.com.au/ssw/Standards/Rules/RulestoSuccessfulProjects.aspx
has some backgound information, but there is a lot that probably of
much less relevance.

See http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue9_4/levesque/index.html which may
be of some help. 
 
It is hard to locate individual bug reports or determine that a report
is a duplicate, even for one au fait with Bugzilla, and so it is 
essential that reports of little, no or even negative value are removed
by triage http://developer.gnome.org/projects/bugsquad/triage/ .

I believe that we need a repository of Stock Responses: The only 
commonly seen one for Technical Evangelism. See 
http://freshmeat.net/articles/view/1082/ for other ways to make
Bugzilla more responsive.

To the best of my knowledge there are minimum requirements that ought
be met before adding a report to Bugzilla.

1. Demonstrable on a recent build
2. Using a clean profile
3. Having no extensions active loaded.

I may be slightly awry there as I don't see those stipulations
in the 'front door pages' to Bugzilla.

I have copied to a text file some brief reposnses that I have seen others
use, and I am happy to use these word for word where appropriate:
There may still be room for improvement as I think that we should be
scrupulously polite and only give appropriate feedback. Wearing my Sun Tzu
hat, I would say that bugzilla wins whenever we turn on the interest
of a reporter in solving his particular problems using Mozilla's tools.
He or she will soon come back to solve more problems for others. Are
you familiar with the book of Ecclesiastes? You will meet many people
in this earthy life who know the whole of it by heart -  
Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.

For example: Brief and to the point - 

    Reporter,
    Please read the bug writing guidelines document and give the 
    correct information.
    http://www.mozilla.org/quality/bug-writing-guidelines.html

for when one is sure that necessary information: What the reporter
was doing, observed behaviour, expected behaviour was missing in toto.


Head off multiple bugs/feature requests in one report - 

    Reporter: Please only file one bug per bug, or they become
    impossible to assign to the right developer. Mozilla.org have some
    guidelines on web to aid testers in creating good bug reports:
    http://www.mozilla.org/quality/bug-writing-guidelines.html


Like the first, but more detailled -

    Reporter, this bug report is incomplete. You have ommitted the
    ten-digit Build ID, and also the complete steps to reproduce. 
    Please review the Bug Writing Guidelines at
    [http://www.mozilla.org/quality/bug-writing- guidelines.html] and
    supply additional information.

As above, but with a specific request - 

    Reporter: You bug report is invalid because you build is too old.
    Please read
    http://www.mozilla.org/quality/bug-writing-guidelines.html. Please
    reopen this bug if you see this problem with a more recent build and
    you are sure that you have installed a PSM enabled build. (You can
    easy see if you have a PSM enabled build if you can see the SSL tab
    in the preferences : Edit/preferences/Privacy&Security/SSL)

(This sounds like one of mine, I give a precise URL where user support
can be found, and a little hint that there may be other resources findable
from the Firefox site) - 

    Reporter,
    For help in using Firefox, please see
    http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/ (linked from
    http://www.mozilla.org/products/firefox/ ).

    This is not a bug

Funnily enough I don't have to hand what is one of the more commonly
needed responses, something like - 

    Please be aware that bugzilla is not a support forum and you will 
    find more people willing to help in the forums, exempli gratia: 
    http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewforum.php?f=38 (linked from 
    the Firefox support page at http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/ )

Bug 277758 

See also Bug 275035 and Bug 277910 .

Comment 2

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

I'll never complain even if this bug will be closed as WONTFIX because I know
B.M.O is for development, but...
See Bug 285771, please.
Why does David have to do help center work in bugzilla.mozilla.org...

Comment 3

[Ben Fowler]

(In reply to comment #1)
> ...
> 
> I believe that we need a repository of Stock Responses: The only 
> commonly seen one is for Technical Evangelism. 

See http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=28772 for an example of a Stock
Response:

     Sorry, but your problem does not imply a bug in ...  For a
     list of more appropriate places to ask for help using ..., please
     visit ... as this bug system is not the appropriate forum for 
     asking support questions. 

     Thank you for your interest in ....

Comment 4

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

I want new [Reply with time bomb] function which automattilcaly fills choosed
comment from the "repository of Stock Responses" and starts timer for automatic
bug expiration...

Comment 5

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

(In reply to comment #4)
> I want new [Reply with time bomb] function which automattilcaly fills choosed
> comment from the "repository of Stock Responses" and starts timer for automatic
> bug expiration...

Seconded!!   But I don't think that's what this bug is about.

Comment 6

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

(In reply to comment #5)
> Seconded!!
Thanks.
> But I don't think that's what this bug is about.
I think so too  :-)
Which message in the "repository of Stock Responses" will follow?
Read bug writing guidline? One problem per bug? Not support forum?
(I cannot think "more detailed"/"too old build"/"see help docs" will follow.)

Comment 7

[Gervase Markham [:gerv]]

The front page now attempts to drive people in the correct direction. Is that sufficient?

Gerv

Comment 8

[WADA:World Anti-bad-Duping Agency]

JFY.
b.m.o has introduced RESOLVED/INCOMPLETE (Bug 180672 Comment #162 is an example).
This may be used for "bug report" of help request.