Why we need to Radically Change Bugzilla, Part 2.1

Syndicator

Just a quick post to clear up something that I’ve noticed in the comments. I am not proposing that BMO be any more locked down than it is. I don’t want to make it less open to the public, and I feel that keeping BMO open is what will help drive Mozilla forward. That is why I am proposing this change. So then end-users who have legitimate bugs can have them put right in BMO, while those who just need support and help can get it without feeling that they are being brushed off. By treating EVERY report as important, we can go far in helping increase the goodwill of end-users towards Mozilla.

Also, the Staging area will not be required. I envision it as something like the Guided bug reporting form. Enabled by default for new users, but can be turned on and off at will. If someone who has been using BMO for years wants to enable/disable it, that is totally possible. Bugs can also be moved in and out of the staging area. For instance:

  1. Issue is reported to staging area. At first glance it is a support issue, triage kicks it to SUMO.
  2. Sumo works with the reporter and determines there is an underlying bug in Firefox that is causing the issue. SUMO moves the bug back into Staging.
  3. Triage determines the proper product and component to move the issue into, and does so.
  4. Developers in BMO Fix the bug.

In that case the bug went from Staging to SUMO, from SUMO to staging, and then from STAGING to BMO. If the SUMO people knew what component the bug could go into, they could have moved it directly there as well, skipping step 3.