[Python-Dev] Closing old bugs

[Michael Chermside]

Raymond writes:
> Is there anyone else on python-dev who thinks it's a bad idea to automatically
> close reports without checking whether the issue is real?

Raymond:

I'm speaking up with some trepidation here, since I am NOT one of those
who frequently closes bugs. But I think that at least sometimes there
IS an advantage to closing old bugs.

I can envision a world in which there would be only 5-10 open bug reports
at any given time, with enough developer volunteers available to respond
to new reports as they come in. And I realize that we are nowhere near
such a world and we're not going to be getting there anytime soon.

But it is still the case that MOST people are intimidated by the enormous
stack of open bugs. Perhaps "intimidated" is the wrong word... what I want
to convey is that most people have no idea what's important or where to
start -- it's just too big a pile. Perhaps all of the people who would
actually work to close Python bugs are perfectly happy with the existing
system. Or perhaps we scare off some potential volunteers because they
have no idea where to start.

I've seen some systems that solve this problem by allowing users to "vote"
for favorite bugs... then you can tell the "important" bugs because they
are more likely to have lots of votes. As I see it, Facundo is using a
variant of that system. He is asking whether there is *ONE PERSON* out
there who cares enough about a bug to subscribe to it and then to respond
to his inquiry. If there's not even one such person, then he's closing
the bug (but if one such person comes along later, they can re-report it).

Sure, we may be throwing away some useful information by closing a bug
report without proper investigation. But we're not in a situation where
we are short of information... we've got plenty of information (bug
reports), what we lack is developer time. If throwing away information
helps to better focus the developer time we have, then it may be a
useful process!

And someday when nirvana arrives and there are only 5-10 open bugs, we
can send intrepid volunteers digging through the archives to examine
bugs that got closed without proper investigation. I'm not holding my
breath.

-- Michael Chermside