Part of my role at Canonical is to ensure that we Do The Right Thing(tm) when it comes to reporting bugs upstream.
This usually involves linking a bug report in Launchpad to the corresponding bug report in the upstream bug tracker. A good example is this gedit bug. What Seb has done here is gotten a bug report from a user, determined that it was not Ubuntu specific, and then opened a bug in the GNOME Bugzilla. Launchpad will track the progress of the upstream bug and when it gets resolved we have a method of tracking that to make sure the fix gets back to us.
These linkages are important so that we can have an efficient bug workflow between us and upstream. I’ve put together a small survey for upstream projects where you can give us information on how this workflow is (or isn’t) working for you. If you’re an upstream project, please take the time to fill it out!
I looked through the survey and it needs N/A options. In its current state, the only thing I can give you is information that will certainly be interpreted wrong. I’ll include it here.
I work on Miro. We use Launchpad primarily for translations which, because of your massive translation community, is fantastic! The problem I have is that I have no way that I can find to communicate with translators in regards to timelines and project releases. That makes things difficult. The ui for translations has gotten better in the last few months, particularly there’s now a search box–thank you (or whoever was responsible) for that!
I’ve been half-heartedly trying to get project information on Launchpad updated for a year now, but had no success. I haven’t figured out how to do it and haven’t spent a lot of time tracking down someone to explain it to me. I’d love to get someone to help me update the Security contact and fix the trunk mirror thing. The svn https url you have is correct–I have no clue what the problem is.
In terms of getting bug reports and patches, asac and friends seem really busy. I’m on the #ubuntu-mozilla IRC channel, but it’s rare that I get the kind of help I get from a different Alex with the Fedora packaging crowd. Generally, it seems the people on the Ubuntu side of the wall are really busy with whatever it is they’re doing and either Miro is low on their priority list or their list is too big to give enough attention to everyone. I’m running Ubuntu, so I look at the source deb every now and then to see what patches have been thrown in. I haven’t yet figured out how to figure out why some of those patches are there.
Could be my fault and that I’m not looking in the right place, but in that case, maybe there’s a problem of helping upstream folks like me know where the right places to look are. I know with Fedora, I ended up attending FUDCON 10 and talked with Karsten who helped me figure all the pieces out (which has been fantastic!). I haven’t been to an Ubuntu-related conference yet.
Beyond that, I think what you’ve built is really impressive. I listen to the LaunchPad podcast and the UbuntuDeveloper videocast and it’s clear that you folks are working towards building a better system and fixing the issues that exist. I heartily applaud you and the rest of the Ubuntu team for your efforts.
Thanks so much for providing this information here, I will incorporate this feedback.
I’ll look at your project page and see if I can get your SVN and security contact updated, I will send you a mail, thanks!