[Asterisk-Dev] Bug Tracker / Feature Requests (my take)

[Michael Giagnocavo]

>> >So, generally I guess, my overall feeling is that the bug tracker should

>> >primarily be focused around things which are active -- primarily bugs
>and 
>> >feature requests with patches.  It also seems like a good starting place

>> >for features even without patches in case they're very easy....
>> 
>> But does that help Asterisk respond to end-user needs? Some of the people
>> who might most need features (and be willing to buy hardware, services,
>> whatever) might not even know what C is.
>
>Then one of the services they are willing to buy should be programming
>by someone who can do what they need. 

Definitely. But that doesn't mean they shouldn't participate in the
community. 

>Voting by end users would be bad. End users would vote for redundant
>features as they don't understand how to use what is already available
>to them. If you chose to limit it to developers, then you run into the

If many users vote for a feature that already exists, then that shows a
weakness in discoverability in the product. The 'solution' can be documented
there. How is that a bad thing?

>> I think Asterisk needs to have a system that's designed for *community*,
>>not
>> just a bug tracker (which are usually designed for a development team).

>The trouble being which part of the community is important right now.
>The developer community is most important to most of us as they make
>sure we get new features at all. The end user community is more of a
>drain the a contribution. Even Mark has mentioned how disproportionate
>our developers to users ratio is to most other projects.  

Well, perhaps some more effort should be put on developer education, so as
to enable more people to develop. If the answer to "how can I figure out
what's going on with this SIP conversation" is "Hmm, study the code for a
year", then you'll get little uptake. 

At any rate, I don't see how that's related to "not caring" about the actual
users of software. If Digium (as compared to one dev here or there) sees
end-users as a drain, do you think that'd be any cause for concern at all? 

At any rate, my goal is to try to use the end-users energy to actually make
them help contribute. If Asterisk users are too stupid to be of any value,
well, I suppose I misread the Asterisk community. I don't believe that the
case, considering that the MSDN Product Feedback is a huge success, even for
the ... Visual Basic ... product group. :)

-Michael