Why is this list so quiet?

[Jeff Ratliff]

On Sun, Jul 18, 2004 at 01:21:52PM -0500, Gerry Tool wrote:
> I have been testing RH/Fedora releases since RHL 7.3.  The mailing lists 
> for testing have always been very lively, until this release.  There 
> seem to be very few testers posting, and even fewer community developers 
> responding.  Is that just my false impression?
> 
> I'm concerned that this release and its successors will not receive 
> enough criticism to fix bugs that should be caught before the final 
> release of FC3.
> 
Seems to be that way. I'd like to think that people are so busy testing
they don't have time to post, or maybe there just aren't any bugs yet.
I have a feeling that's not the case. 

This is the first time I've run a test release (at least for the 
purpose of testing it). Although I'm trying to go about it in a 
systematic way, and have installed on 2 boxes ( one a bare install,
one an upgrade), I admit that I don't know what I'm doing. There
is actually some pretty lively discussion on fedora-list right now 
about this. Some people complain that FC2 wasn't tested enough, but
don't really seem willing to test FC3. 

I think people don't realize how important testing is, and are just 
waiting for other people to do the work so they can benefit. I also
think a big part is people don't know what to do or how to go
about it. With something like Debian, you have to run a test release
just to get modern software, but with Fedora there's much less 
incentive.

Here's what I suggest:

1) Promote testing. As part of the test release announcment, give
something quick on how important testing is, and give a link to 
somewhere with more info. Put it on fedora.redhat.com. Advertise 
through every reasonable channel that testers are valuable and 
testing is needed. 

2) Educate people on what to do so the testers we have are more 
effective. Either produce a document on how to do testing or point
to something that already exists. Give a tutorial on bugzilla:
how do you know what's a bug? How do you report it? What info do
you need in order to give a good report? A significant amount of
traffic on this list is "here's my problem, is this a bug? should
I bugzilla this?" I'd love to be able to actually do some good,
rather than just running this thing to see what it looks like. 


I'm not saying someone should just go make all this happen. I'd
be willing to give input and help out. I'm sure others have 
better ideas, and maybe there's a simple solution. I think people
just aren't used to really being able to get involved and make a 
deifference. People complain plenty after the fact, we need to 
motivate and teach them to complain in a way that does some good.