[Python-Dev] No response to posts

[Terry Reedy]

On 8/2/2010 12:54 PM, Brian Curtin wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 2, 2010 at 11:39, Ralf Schmitt <ralf at brainbot.com
> <mailto:ralf at brainbot.com>> wrote:
>
>     Benjamin Peterson <benjamin at python.org <mailto:benjamin at python.org>>
>     writes:
>
>      > Please, let's stop messing with the tracker for everything. I think
>      > the current set up works reasonably well, and we should focus on the
>      > real problem: manpower

Two months ago, I discovered and reported that about 1/5 of open issues 
had no responses. Is that 'reasonably well'? I do not remember other 
reports on that, at least not for a few years. A 'show unanswered' link 
might make it easier to recruit people to be first-responders by making 
it easier to do first response. This hardly amounts to 'messing with the 
tracker'. Rather, it is using the current mechanism by adding a link.

>     Ignoring issues (probably even with some patches attached) will drive
>     contributors away. That's not the way to increase manpower.

As a said before, I think people who have posted, certainly people who 
have had fixes committed, should get an invitation letter. One 
suggestion on that could be to click 'show unanswered' if that were 
available.

> Overall the "no response" query just passes the buck. Let's say we get
> that query down to zero issues. What does that give us? Now we have 500
> issues with 2 responses. Sure, it makes further correspondence more
> likely, but it's not solving any real issues and making any measurably
> significant impact.

If a question response elicits no answer, the issue can be closed as 
out-of-date. But several times in the past two months, first responses 
have lead to more responses from both OP and developers who watch the 
tracker message list. Some have been closed as fixed already. Example:
    http://bugs.python.org/issue3874
The OP's first response was to gripe about no response earlier. His 
second was to write an entry that Georg could cut, paste, format, and 
commit.

-- 
Terry Jan Reedy