discuss: Dealing with poor maintenance by maintainers
Subject:
Re: Dealing with poor maintenance by maintainers
From:
Colin Watson ####@####.####
Date:
12 May 2002 17:50:15 -0000
Message-Id: <20020512175017.GA2681@arborlon.riva.ucam.org>
On Sun, May 12, 2002 at 10:05:23AM -0700, David Lawyer wrote:
> Unfortunately many of our HOWTOs (and other docs) are poorly maintained.
> It's something we need to deal with and find a new maintainer if the
> existing one doesn't have time to adequately do it. There are a couple of
> different aspects to maintaining a doc.
>
> One is fixing any real bugs people report (with bugs including lack of
> clarity). If a bug is important, it needs to be fixed fast. Other bugs
> can wait a while, sometimes a few months if it's just a typo where
> people can easily figure out what you really meant to say.
Although some may consider it an extra level of bureaucracy, perhaps it
would be useful to have a bug tracking system of some kind? As a
software maintainer, I know I find it substantially more difficult to
keep track of issues that just arrive in my mailbox versus issues I can
get a bug tracking system to remember for me, and the former often end
up getting dropped on the floor in favour of the latter. It would also
mean that feedback would no longer be lost when a new maintainer takes
over a hitherto poorly maintained document, and it might make it easier
to identify documents that have many unacknowledged bugs by making those
bug reports publicly accessible.
--
Colin Watson ####@####.####
