Re: Unclear problem reports - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

On Fri, Feb 04, 2022 at 01:36:46PM -0500, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> On Wed, Feb  2, 2022 at 07:21:19PM -0700, David G. Johnston wrote:
> > On Wed, Feb 2, 2022 at 5:35 PM Bruce Momjian <bruce@momjian.us> wrote:
> > Have pg_lister queue up a check for, say, two or three days after the bug
> > reporting form is filled out.  If the report hasn't been responded to by
> > someone other than the OP send out a reply that basically says:
> > 
> > We're sorry your message hasn't yet attracted a response.  If your report falls
> > into the category of "tech support for a malfunctioning server", and this
> > includes error messages that are difficult or impossible to replicate in a
> > development environment (maybe give some examples), you may wish to consider
> > eliciting paid professional help.  Please see this page on our website for a
> > directory of companies that provide such services.  The PostgreSQL Core Project
> > itself refrains from making recommendations since many, if not all, of these
> > companies contribute back to the project in order to keep it both free and open
> > source.
> 
> Yes, that is an idea.  I have canned email responses for common issues
> like PGAdmin questions on the bugs list, but for these cases, I don't
> know if someone might actually know the answer, and I don't know how
> long to wait for an answer.  Should we be going the other way and state
> on the bugs submission page, https://www.postgresql.org/account/submitbug/:
> 
>     If you are having a serious problem with the software and do not
>     receive a reply, consider additional support channels, including
>     professional support (https://www.postgresql.org/support/).

https://www.postgresql.org/account/submitbug/ does say to "ensure you have
read" https://www.postgresql.org/docs/current/bug-reporting.html, which says,
"If you need help immediately, consider obtaining a commercial support
contract."  Hence, this expands on an existing message and makes it more
prominent.  I think that's reasonable, though I'm not sure it's a net win.
One could also edit the page that appears after submitting a bug.  Editing a
web page is superior to using canned email responses, for two reasons:

- Canned responses are noise to every list reader other than the OP.
- Canned responses make the list feel like a sales funnel rather than a normal
  free software mailing list.


It's safe to say $SUBJECT won't have a general solution.  There will always be
some vanguard of tough user experiences, each one implying a separate project.
For example, Julien replied to the "could not locate a valid checkpoint
record" -bugs thread with some followup questions, but one could improve the
log messages to answer those questions.  Where we don't know how to improve
the product enough, wiki pages (Julien suggested this) seem good.