Thus spake Manuel Bouyer ("MB> ") sometime Yesterday...

MB> On Fri, Jun 13, 2003 at 11:20:15PM -0700, Hisashi T Fujinaka wrote:
MB> > I am being personally flamed, via email, because I was under the
MB> > mistaken view that a non-booting kernel is a "HIGH" and "CRITICAL"
MB> > problem. I am a user, not a developer, so I just went by what the
MB> > descriptions in send-pr, and the man page, told me to do.
MB> >
MB> > The problem, I have later found, only affects certain Asus motherboards.
MB> > Since I only have one machine running current at this time, I was
MB> > unaware that other people didn't have the same problem. I've seen such
MB> > problems not get reported (people use older kernels, etc), so I just
MB> > took the intiative to send a pr. And now I see why I shouldn't, I get
MB> > email telling me that unless my machine is "hacked" or "went up in
MB> > flames" I shouldn't use "CRITICAL" as the problem level.
MB>
MB> Well, if you have a machine that used to boot, and no longer does because of
MB> a change in the OS, HIGH/CRITICAL is probably OK.

In any case, sending a FLAME for something like this is out of line.
One would hope that one would send a gentle but firm reminder that
HIGH/CRITICAL is inappropriate, IF it is inappropriate.

Otherwise, one is alienating one's userbase.

I have been flamed for finding problems and submitting fixes because
they have been deemed "egregious hacks" by someone more knowledgeable
than I.  Now this is not normally a big deal, but I was not offered
an explanation at the time.  I did not write this off as "NetBSD responsible-
people are jerks", but as "this person is less than helpful and I will
just ignore mail from this person."

MB> > I suppose I'll just quit sending prs and just hope Greg Woods doesn't
MB> > respond to this email.
MB>
MB> Greg Woods isn't more than a NetBSD user. If you got flammed by him, we
MB> (NetBSD developers) can't do much about this, and what he says isn't
MB> necesserely right (not to say what NetBSD developers says is
MB> always right either :)

/me chooses to remain thoughtfully silent on this note.

MB> Please keep sending PRs when you notice problems, it's almost the only way to
MB> get them corrected.

Agreed.

Oh, and some advice:

- if you have a definite fix and you're a sharp programmer, be prepared that
  the implementation of the fix may be different than what you submit.

- if you have suggestions for a fix, be sure you mark them as suggestions;
  there is always going to be someone who "knows better" who will implement
  the fix.  There is no getting around this.

- If you submit it at a lower priority, pray that someone will at least
  evaluate the priority and *elevate it* as needed, just as one seems so
  eager to *downgrade it* if the priority is too high.

				--*greywolf;
--
NetBSD: It keeps on going...and going...and going...