it2000 wrote:
But one should look in the log files before reporting a bug, or at least upload them.
I just remember when few times i had problems with Spark and i have checked the logs, they were months old.
And if a customer wants a fix then a testcase is also required.
I agree greatly with that. Reports should be clear, detailed and with steps to reproduce. Though we cant expect this from the most of the community.
Do you want to add a second icon below the status bar to users which successfully report a bug as mentioned in http://wiki.igniterealtime.org/display/NINJA/HowtoBecomeaNinja to tag them as “Ninja Initiate” 
?
I hate to be the one negative voice here but…
No amount of outlining a process is going to magically turn forum software into bug tracking and reporting software. Forum software is just too free form. You can write up a process document that outlines that all bug reports need to be tagged a certain way and should include version of software in use, how to reproduce, error messages, platforms affected, severity level, etc BUT unless you actually use an html form that requires all these fields then it will never be done correctly.
It’s also way too easy for the developers to become busy and miss a bug reporting thread. Why should the reporter have to track down one Jive employee to bug another one in order to get the bug noticed? With real bug reporting software you can schedule report generation and automatically nag the developers. The Smack forum seems to be only loosely monitored as I’ve had to send emails in the past to get my threads noticed.
I fail to see why the community shouldn’t have the ability to directly file bug reports.
I think Jive needs more man-power. Spark forum is dead (speaking about developers involvement). Derek is not enough and actually i dont see him much lately. LG is filling some bug reports in JIRA sometimes, but even those dont get attention. Everything started from my thread which i have posted few months ago (about getting tired of unactive community/developers). Process outlining is done, tags are discussed and that’s all. Nothing is changing.
There probably is a lot of man-power that can be tapped just by lowering the barriers for helping. The top of this page says “A Jive Software COMMUNITY”. Why not actually allow the community to be more involved? Not only with bug reports but by creating documents too. Take Smack for example, there isn’t a single online doc at http://www.igniterealtime.org/community/community/developers/smack?view=document s. I’d create some if I could. The downloadable Smack docs don’t actually come with a runnable example. Guess what a lot of the questions are about on the Smack form… I’ve posted examples but they just get buried after a while.
Hey Jive! You’ve created something we like, now let us help already. And not just a few of us, all of us.
Hey Chase,
Those are excellent points. We are going to have a meeting to discuss these and other ideas. Stay tuned for some news.
Thanks,
– Gato