Should I even bother posting 1.4x bugs?

[cryogenic]

I'm not a member of the dev team or anything, but I am running 1.4 as I like the added features and the work being done towards xhtml compliance. I've found a few bugs here and there, but as I'm not a developer, I dunno if the devs even really care too much about feedback from average everyday users. I'm fully aware that if I need help with something, I'm on my own; and I'm usually pretty good at figuring out what needs to be changed in order to fix something (I had to fix the update history mod posted, for example). Also, it kinda stinks not knowing the outcome of the bug I posted (aside from checking CVS religiously).

[Tarique Sani]

We do care about users giving us feedback on bugs even on the CVS version - all we say (and you understand) is do not expect support for the same nor a release date, bugs fixed are generally acknowledged in the CVS comments and changelog - beyond that nothing much can really be done

[Casper]

We have some users who have proved their value, who are not in the dev team, but are testers.  These users still do not have access to the 1.4 board either, but with a non-public beta due out soon, they will then have access.

As tarique said, we do value the input such as yours, and also understand the frustrations you feel when threads you started are placed on a board you cannot read.  Unfortunately, we don't have the facility to both move the thread to the correct board, and leave a copy where you can read our reply.

If you do find any further bugs, please continue to inform us, but as Kegobeer said, on this board not the 1.3 board, and we will react to it.  I suspect that when the board is opened to the testers group, you may well be on it  

Note to others.  Please do not ask for inclusion in the testers group.

[cryogenic]

Ah, well thanks for the kind words. GauGau at one point told me to post them in the 1.3 boards, but it does make slightly more sense to post them here. However, if it's 1.4-related I make a point to specify in the topic that it is a 1.4 bug. At any rate, I use my gallery almost daily and am one of those people that just can't leave welll-enough alone. I'm constantly tinkering with stuff, which is probably why I run into some oddball bugs at times. Obviously in doing so I tend to wonder whether it's a bug in the software or something that I've done myself to fudge things up.    Even more crazy is that I haven't been able to get any CVS clients to work properly so believe it or not, I've been manually downloading the entire tree by hand!

[Tarique Sani]

did you try Tortoise CVS - most Windows users find it a breeze

[cryogenic]

as a matter of fact, I tried it... still have it installed. Unfortunately, it seems to fail on username/password for whatever reason. I thought it was supposed to be anonymous, yet it still doesn't work. Oh well.

[Casper]

The first cuple of times I tried I failed miserably, still don't know why.  But once I got it going, it's very easy.  Keep trying with it, adrress is;

d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/coppermine

Module name is;

devel

[Tranz]

So we can look at the CVS and changelog to see what has been addressed, but there is no way for us to see unaddressed issues? I've installed 1.4 and see some issues and have some suggestions but I don't want to be repeating what others have already reported. :-\\

[Nibbler]

Just make a mental note of them, and if they are still present in the beta then you can report them then. Bugs in the dev version aren't doing anyone any harm, there is plenty of time to get things ironed out before any public release.

@cryogenic  - There is a screenshot in another thread that may help you.

[Casper]

When the non-public beta is released, soon, then those in the testing group (contributors, translators, vip's) will have access to the 1.4 board.  They will be expected to read the board to see what issues that have been posted are still open.  It is also hoped that some of them will be able to supply some of the fixes.
And those that show their value in any one of the ways Gaugau mentioned on another thread to cryogenic, may hopefully go on to become members of the dev team in the future.  I became a dev on the value of my support to other users, as I am no coder.

We have experienced before, when the 'testing/bugs' board was opened up too soon, we were inundated with support requests on a board that was not for support.

I would ask Gaugau one question though, which may ease some of your frustrations.  Is it possible on SMF to make a board 'read only' to some groups, so we could allow members of the testing group to see what is being posted, but not post themselves.  Would this be a viable option?

[Joachim Müller]

sure, this is possible - I'm just afraid that people will then start posting threads like "I can't post on the board X, what's wrong?" on other boards 

Joachim

[cryogenic]

I tend to agree there... but perhaps he was referring to the possibility to have a usergroup that would have read-only access to the 1.4 board? As in, the default would be "no access" but you could manually add people to the "read-only" usergroup and (possibly) eventually to the "full access" usergroup? Although now after typing that out, it seems like a bit of work to do. lol

[Casper]

Perhaps if Gaugau can send a group email, to all members of the testing groups, explaining the situation, and asking them to familiarise themselves with the current state of affairs, until they are able to get the beta version, and then start posting bugs/fixes, but no support.

I am just kite flying at the moment, as I don't know the best way forward with this, but know we need it to be better than before.

Anyway, the final say on this will lay with Gaugau and Tarique, as the top 2 honcho's.

[Joachim Müller]

Imo we shouldn't make the cpg1.4 bugs board open for the testers before we release the non-public beta, I can see little point in this, except a lot of questions we'd have to answer. I'd like to reduce the number of emails sent from this board to a very minimum, to keep molestation low and readiness for testing high.
It appears the new features introduced in cpg1.4 have ebbed, we will hopefully be able to release the said beta soon.

Joachim

[cryogenic]

Well, I've not run into any showstopping bugs in 1.4x that would require actual support as of yet. As such, it's not a huge deal that I don't have access to the 1.4 boards. At least you haven't taken the "you're running 1.4, screw off idiot" attitude.