Re: Call to NOT move to github or gitlab

[Steve Litt]

Dennis Clarke said on Fri, 10 Jun 2022 09:36:37 -0400


>
>     4) Documentation has been updated to claim that ordinary users
>        should report any problems via a "trouble ticket" on GitHub.
>
>        Really?

Trouble ticket systems are where problems go to die. Priority: Minor.
WONTFIX.

Every trouble ticket system works a little differently. I heavily use
about 30 Open Source programs. I don't have the time to learn and
remember 30 trouble ticket systems.

Invariably, trouble ticket systems have required fields that do not
apply or cannot be known by the reporter. So you have to put in phony
info just to continue.

Trouble ticket systems slow down dialog to the extent that by the time
you hear back, you've forgotten the details and must either take time
to re-familiarize yourself, or just forget the whole thing.

Nothing is more insulting than to post a problem or suggestion, based
on hours of research and/or experimentation and/or troubleshooting, on a
mailing list, with your email complying fully with "How To Ask Questions
The Smart Way" at http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html ,
only to be told "Please fill out a trouble ticket". You took the time
to formulate a full symptom description or solution, which should merit
a "thank you". But noooo, they want to consume even more of your time
on a secretarial task almost guaranteed to be ignored.

I had this problem with the Bluefish editor, so after a few months of
them making lack of zen-coding *my* problem, I switched to VSCode. I've
had this problem on the LyX list, and am continuing to try to create a
LyX alternative.

When I was in charge of the VimOutliner project, we did all
troubleshooting by email, and problems were resolved in days, not years.

Trouble ticket systems --- my aunt's hat!

One more thing. In the past Troubleshooters.Com had a "Symptom
Description Wizard" that asked several questions and spit out a symptom
description ready for copy and paste into anything, or for printing. No
required fields, completely obvious how to use. It went away when Java
Applets stopped being supported. If this is something that could be an
asset to the world, I can recreate it with a modern web application.
Any opinions on this?

Thanks,

SteveT

Steve Litt 
Spring 2022 featured book: Making Mental Models: Advanced Edition
http://www.troubleshooters.com/mmm