Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 21:28:22 +0100
From: "Jeroen T. Vermeulen" <jtv@xs4all.nl>
To: Peter Eisentraut <peter_e@gmx.net>
Cc: josh@agliodbs.com, pgsql-www@postgresql.org, pgsql-hackers@postgresql.org
Subject: Re: [HACKERS] Collaboration Tool Proposal
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	<200402262116.38479.peter_e@gmx.net>
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On Thu, Feb 26, 2004 at 09:16:38PM +0100, Peter Eisentraut wrote:
> 
> In terms of improving the hosting infrastructure, this would surely be a 
> step forward, but the problem with "collaboration" is not that the 
> tools are missing, it's that people are unwilling to use any tools for 
> issue tracking, etc.  This is in fact a near-universal problem.  If you 
> look at sourceforge, very few projects actually use any of the 
> "collaboration" tools.  If you want to get the project to do something, 
> you still have to use email and CVS.  And with those projects (not 
> necessarily on sourceforge) that have a sophisticated bug tracking 
> structure, the sheer number of filed bugs is so large and irregular in 
> quality that the bugs are in fact meaningless.  (Oddly enough, the 
> projects I have in mind here do *not* use a full-service collaboration 
> tool, just a bug tracker.  Make of that what you will.)  So yes, I 
> think this is a reasonable plan, just don't expect "collaboration" to 
> suddenly appear out of nowhere.

One thing that helps a lot in my experience is the ability to manage bug
reports.  On gborg, for instance, I'm stuck with several dozen duplicates
from a time there were technical problems with the site; lots of "semantic
garbage" in the form of people making silly assumptions, not reading
earlier bug reports, or asking generic C++ questions; requests for features
that are already there; support requests and other irrelevant issues; and
multiple reports covering the same underlying problem.

If I could merge, delete, categorize & group these requests the list would
be a lot easier to manage.


Jeroen