Bug report: Take bug reporting off the mailing list

[Eyal Rozenberg]

On 08/02/2024 16:13, Norbert Preining wrote:
>> I claim that having bug reports go through the main / a main mailing
>> list of the project's is, well, a bug. Why?
>
> Disagree.
 >
 > ...>
> That brings me back to WHY the mailing is 100times better than a bug
> reporting system:
> A dedicate bug reporting system will be flodded with bugs we will close
> without even looking at them for more than 5 seconds, because they fall
> into the above categories -- nothing we as TeX Live team can fix.
 >
> On the other hand, posting bug reports here will often generate response
> from other list readers that help with user failures, or upstream bugs.

Ah, but this can be readily achieved with a separate bug reporting
system! Anyone who may want to offer such assistance can simply
subscribe to a feed of all the reports of new bugs. And given a new bug
- they can decide whether they want to just ignore it, reply via the bug
tracking system only, or bring a bug up for public discussion.

And those who don't, would be oblivious to the bug feed.

> So all in all, the idea to have a separate bug reporting venue is bound
> to fail badly - as we have seen with the bug tracker we have.

Actually, Karl just mentioned the web-based system to me after I posted
my message. I didn't know it existed because the TeXLive page on
reporting bugs doesn't mention it. It basically tells you to subscribe
to tex-live... I've asked Karl to consider specifying that as an option,
so people can at least make a choice.


Eyal