ubuntu-bugcontrol team mailing list archive

[Paul White <mail@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

I'm Paul White, known as PaulW2U within the Ubuntu community. This is my application to join the Bug Control team.

I first joined the Bug Squad in July 2013, initially checking that newly created bug reports were assigned to the correct package. In June of this year I answered a call out to the community from Canonical's Desktop team for help in reviewing old untouched Firefox bugs with the aim of removing as many invalid and out of date bugs as possible. I have since looked at other desktop applications and estimate that by the end of 2018 over 2000 bug reports will have either been removed as obsolete, marked as fixed or as a duplicate, or confirmed as still being current. It is due to the questions raised by reporters and the help that I have given them that has prompted me to make this application.

1) Do you promise to be polite to bug reporters even if they are rude to you or Ubuntu? Have you signed the Ubuntu Code of Conduct?

Yes I promise to be polite to all bug reporters. I signed the CoC in 2010.

2) Have you read Bugs/Triage, Bugs/Assignment, Bugs/Status and Bugs/Importance? Do you have any questions about that documentation?

Yes. I refer to them often when unsure of which of which option to take. I have various wiki pages bookmarked on my web browser tool bar and a number of items copied into my scratch pad for easy reference.

My only question: Is there a reason why the Google Translate service is not recommended as a quick method of obtaining a translation?

3) What sensitive data should you look for in a private Apport crash report bug before making it public? See Bugs/Triage for more information.

I've have always been aware that a bug report should not be made public if it contains any personal information that a bug reporter would never want to be made public such as passwords, bank details or encryption keys. Before making any of my own bug reports public I always ensure that any core dump file has been removed and have checked the stack traces for any text strings containing personal or private information.

4) Is there a particular package or group of packages that you are interested in helping out with?

Desktop applications such as Firefox, Chromium, Synaptic, Thunderbird, FileZilla and Geany.

5) Please list five or more bug reports which you have triaged and include an explanation of your decisions. Please note that these bugs should be representative of your very best work and they should demonstrate your understanding of the triage process and how to properly handle bugs. For all the bugs in the list, please indicate what importance you would give it and explain the reasoning. Please use urls in your list of bugs.

a.  text within address bar is not automatically selected when I click in the address bar
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1677641

    Checked my own Firefox installation against the information given
    Suspected there was a configuration option to enable expected behaviour
    Searched through Mozilla documentation and advised reporter of appropriate article
    Marked "Invalid" as Firefox is working as designed in Ubuntu

b.  Firefox stops loading Farmville 2 and hangs
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1740180

    Asked reporter if problem still exists with latest Firefox release
    Found upstream bug and added to report
    Bug status changed to "Confirmed" as many other reports found on web regarding this issue
    Corrected spelling of "Farmville"
    Would mark with "Low" importance as the bug affects a single non-essential use of Firefox

    Note:
    Updated apport information was asked for as that was what I was initially asked to do. Experience has shown that it is best to check for an upstream or duplicate bug first and just ask if the bug is still being seen in a currently supported release of Ubuntu. I would generally ask for apport information if it has never been submitted and it would help to confirm version information and the desktop environment, kernel etc. If anyone fixing the bug needs to ask for it then they can at a more appropriate time.

c.  Firefox 57 ignores package on halt
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1732946

    Ascertained not a Firefox bug
    Found similar synaptic bug report
    Marked as duplicate after asking reporter to confirm both bug reports referred to the same issue
    I was involved in confirming the synaptic bug and marking it with "Low" importance as synaptic is no longer officially supported
    Subsequently marked the synaptic bug a duplicate of 12-year old bug #42178 which I hadn't previously been aware of. This bug was also marked with "Low" importance.

d.  Thunderbird asks three times for my master password
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/940631

    Established bug report still valid after six years
    Looked for upstream reports
    Worked with reporter to establish which report best described his issue
    Linked appropriate report and updated bug description
    Added some info to upstream report
    Informed reporter that bug should be fixed with an upcoming releaser
    Arranged to be marked with "Low" importance as there is an easy workaround of pressing escape key twice after the first password prompt completed.

e.  Thunderbird hogs CPU while waiting for master password
    https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1209095

    Reproduced bug using current versions of Ubuntu and Thunderbird
    Looked for an upstream report but didn't find one
    Updated bug report to confirm bug still current
    Created upstream report and linked report ID
    Would mark with "Low" importance as affects limited scope of an application
    Updated with revised Mozilla bug as my report was a duplicate of an existing report that had not found when searching

I thank you all for any time that you spend on reviewing and assessing my application.

-- 
Paul White