launchpad-dev team mailing list archive

[C de-Avillez <hggdh2@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On 05/26/2011 10:40 PM, Jeroen Vermeulen wrote:
> On 2011-05-27 03:58, Robert Collins wrote:
>> On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 3:02 AM, Paolo
>> Sammicheli<xdatap1@xxxxxxxxxx>  wrote:
>
>>> I agree with some comments that, at the end, having the
>>> workaround in the description is
>>> technically quite the same thing but it's not the same user
>>> experience for a new ubuntu
>>> user reporting its first bug. A separate workaround field would
>>> be easier to be
>>> recognized and founded with searches.
>
>> Firstly, our search is -hugely- complex. Adding another text
>> field is
>> doable, but adding a specific search on just that text field would
>> make a poor UI worse IMNSHO. So I would encourage significant user
>
>
> How important is it to be able to search a workaround though?  If
> you wanted to find a workaround, wouldn't you normally search for
> the problem?
>
`
This is a nice point. We do not really need to search for a
workaround. But I might want to search of all bugs that have a
workaround, or all bugs with a workaround for Lucid, or whatever
(and I agree, beforehand, that I really have no reason to do it
right now). Additionally, 'searching for the problem' is a
well-known sore point on any BTS, and not really doable by the
casual user (and I will get back to this in a few).

Also, I dispute that workarounds are only needed while there is no
fix. Workarounds are always needed: I may be unable to install a
fix, or upgrade, for example. OTOH, I can very much expect
workarounds to get less needed as time passes.

Now, Rob correctly points out:

"I'll note that some -very- big organisations, at least in their public
systems, don't expose workaround as a separate field - its just marked
up as a paragraph title."

But, on the other hand, most such systems have a formal layout for the _public_ text shown (as Microsoft, or as IBM -- of old -- APARs);it is rich text, not a sequence of comments and attachments.

And this is what we are trying to address: how to find a workaround in (potentially) tens of comments. Note, we have had [1] for quite a while -- and we still cannot get it to be really used.

So we get back to Rob's end point -- that we are already lost if we are going to expect 200M users to know what to do. I agree. But the only way to have this happen is if it is easier for the "we the people" part of the 200M -- the *vast* majority of them -- to reach someone that knows a bit more, and so on. Having a 'workaround' field is a _step_ to that.

If we are going to expand Ubuntu usage even more explosively, we need to think on how to help the non-technical folks out there. LP is a technical resource as far as the generic Ubuntu user is concerned.

..C..
[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Description

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