Canned "this is a duplicate" response wastes time - launchpad itself could explain about the duplicate nature and process (and avoid storing the redundant copies of this message)

Bug #520405 reported by Matthew Paul Thomas
42
This bug affects 6 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Launchpad Greasemonkey Scripts
Triaged
Low
Unassigned
Launchpad itself
Triaged
Low
Unassigned

Bug Description

When marking a bug report as a duplicate, Ubuntu Bug Squad members copy and paste a canned response into a bug comment. You've probably seen it:
------------
Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug NUMBER, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.
------------

There are three problems with doing this:
* It makes marking a duplicate a two-step process -- mark duplicate, then comment -- rather than a one-step one. (Launchpad Greasemonkey Scripts automate this, but that slightly raises the barrier to entry for taking part in the Bug Squad.)
* The comment is directed only to the reporter, but it clutters the page for everyone who comes across it, and the e-mail notification for everyone who was subscribed.
* If you're unlucky enough to be searching Launchpad for text that happens to be in the canned response (e.g. the word "workaround"), you'll get lots of false positives.

None of these are huge problems, but still, it would be nice if they could be avoided.

Instead, I suggest that Launchpad itself display text similar to this canned response in two places: (1) in the mail notification sent to the reporter (but not the mail notification sent to anyone else), and (2) on the bug report page when you're logged in as the reporter (but not to anyone else). Launchpad already automates responses in a similar way in Answers: "Thanks ______, that solved my question."

To avoid duplication, three other things should happen immediately after this bug is fixed:
1. remove the canned response from <https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/HowToTriage>
2. remove the canned response from Launchpad Greasemonkey Scripts
3. mail the Bug Squad mailing list to let them know to update their copy of launchpad-gm-scripts.

(This is the first in a series of "Canned ______ response wastes time" bugs, which will need to be fixed separately, though they may share some infrastructure. Combined, they are mutually exclusive with bug 30655.)

description: updated
Deryck Hodge (deryck)
Changed in malone:
status: New → Triaged
importance: Undecided → Low
description: updated
tags: added: degreasing
Graham Binns (gmb)
tags: added: story-better-bug-notification
Changed in launchpad-gm-scripts:
importance: Undecided → Low
status: New → Triaged
Revision history for this message
era (era) wrote :

Additionally, that particular response is awkward and silly, but there is no defined process for updating or replacing it. Having it in Launchpad itself would make it easy to magically replace all instances of the text, and natural to file a bug against Launchpad if you think there is something wrong with it.

I don't think the first implementation needs to determine who to display the text to -- just add an explanation box for the statuses with the text in question, perhaps like (and replacing) the "Remember, this is a duplicate" box which is currently generated on duplicates.

Also, the canned responses seem to live in at least two places; https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Responses and https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/HowToTriage/

Revision history for this message
Brian Murray (brian-murray) wrote : Re: [Bug 520405] Re: Canned "this is a duplicate" response wastes time

On Tue, Oct 12, 2010 at 11:39:24AM -0000, era wrote:
> Additionally, that particular response is awkward and silly, but there
> is no defined process for updating or replacing it.

The response is in a wiki page which you could edit. Additionally, the
Bug Squad is subscribed to those wiki pages and will receive
notification of the change. This way if the change warrants discussion
it can happen on the bug squad mailing list.

--
Brian Murray

Revision history for this message
Robert Collins (lifeless) wrote : Re: Canned "this is a duplicate" response wastes time

This may be fixed; there is no reference CVE in this bug to tell - but we switched to a new mechanism for cve reports just recently. Marking incomplete - we need a cve that has duplicate bugs to tell.

Changed in launchpad:
status: Triaged → Incomplete
summary: - Canned "this is a duplicate" response wastes time
+ Canned "this is a duplicate" response wastes time - launchpad itself
+ could explain about the duplicate nature and process (and avoid storing
+ the redundant copies of this message)
Changed in launchpad:
status: Incomplete → Triaged
Revision history for this message
era (era) wrote :

Robert Collins: What's that about a CVE? Were you commenting on the wrong bug?

To post a comment you must log in.
This report contains Public information  
Everyone can see this information.

Duplicates of this bug

Other bug subscribers

Remote bug watches

Bug watches keep track of this bug in other bug trackers.