95609 - Be more forceful in requiring users to fix their votes.

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Bugzilla :: Creating/Changing Bugs, enhancement, P4)

Description

[Matthew Tuck [:CodeMachine]]

In the 2.13 cycle we made it so all votes aren't automatically removed whenever
you change a product's voting pereferences or moved a bug between products.

As a result it is possible that a user will have more votes toward a product
than is allowed.  The user will need to fix this the next time they update their
votes, but there's no guarantee they'll ever update them.

We should be more forceful about this to give the administrator a guarantee this
will be fixed within a specific transition period.  If people don't fix the
votes within that time, we should forcefully fix them.

Assumedly we'd send out mail letting the user know of the situation, but I think
we should also give a whining message on every page (just above the footer). 
There might be scope to add all sorts of messages there in future so we might
try to make it reusable.

To forcefully fix the votes, we could either remove all the user's votes from
the product, or probably better, try to reduce some of them.  It would be nice
to preserve the fractions if possible, but that might be too hard.  Reducing a
vote should always be done in preference to removing them all.  In the case we
can't decide, we could pick random votes or try to use some other technique
(oldest, most voted, etc.)

Comment 1

[Matthew Tuck [:CodeMachine]]

Moving to new Bugzilla product ...

Comment 2

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

We are currently trying to wrap up Bugzilla 2.16.  We are now close enough to
release time that anything that wasn't already ranked at P1 isn't going to make
the cut.  Thus this is being retargetted at 2.18.  If you strongly disagree with
this retargetting, please comment, however, be aware that we only have about 2
weeks left to review and test anything at this point, and we intend to devote
this time to the remaining bugs that were designated as release blockers.

Comment 3

[Jason Bassford]

I'm pretty sure I disagree with this bug as it stands (although I understand
where it's coming from).

I recently became the "proud owner" of having 12 votes in the Browser product.
I'd voted for 10 Browser bugs (my maximum) but had two of my other voted bugs
change product to Browser.  I then discovered that I now actually have 12 votes
against Browser products (over the maximum) when I went to "un-vote" for one of
the bugs that had been resolved FIXED.

I can't stop voting for it, however, because Bugzilla won't let me keep the
(then) existing 11 votes which would be over the limit.  I'd actually just been
about to file a bug for letting Bugzilla let me do this anyway (even though I'd
still be over my limit) because it wasn't my fault that the products changed on
me.  (Bugzilla shouldn't do a voting count check when *removing* a bug, only
when *adding* one.)

In my case I'm not forgetting to fix my votes, or being sloppy or lazy in
leaving things as they are (in fact I'm trying to be conscientious by removing
that vote for a bug that's now fixed) - I'm deliberately keeping them as they
are because it's Bugzilla itself that's causing me to be over my limit.

In one sense, this is a loophole in the system, and I could look at it as being
privileged to currently enjoy having more votes than I should be allowed.  But,
in another sense, my thinking is that having this kind of automatic change
happen to me is almost like a bait and switch tactic because I can't now clean
up my votes properly without being penalized for doing so (by losing a vote that
I previously enjoyed).

> If people don't fix the votes within that time, we should
> forcefully fix them.

No doubt by arbitrarily removing certain votes.  But forcing such a change on
somebody (unless these votes are for resolved bugs, and even then it's still a
bit true) seems rather high-handed and wrong.  (Even though I do understand that
perceived necessity.)

Surely there must be a better way of handling this situation...

Comment 4

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

Enhancements which don't currently have patches on them which are targetted at
2.18 are being retargetted to 2.20 because we're about to freeze for 2.18. 
Consideration will be taken for moving items back to 2.18 on a case-by-case
basis (but is unlikely for enhancements)

Comment 5

[Dave Miller [:justdave]]

Bugzilla 2.20 feature set is now frozen as of 15 Sept 2004.  Anything flagged
enhancement that hasn't already landed is being pushed out.  If this bug is
otherwise ready to land, we'll handle it on a case-by-case basis, please set the
blocking2.20 flag to '?' if you think it qualifies.

Comment 6

[Frédéric Buclin]

We don't want such a complex infrastructure for such a minor issue.