linux-kernel - Tracking and crediting bug reporters

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Message-ID: <4388.1210613272@vena.lwn.net>
Date:	Mon, 12 May 2008 11:27:52 -0600
From:	Jonathan Corbet <corbet@....net>
To:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Tracking and crediting bug reporters

Several members of the Linux Foundation's Technical Advisory Board recently
got together with Andrew Morton to talk about kernel quality issues.  One
of the things which came out of that meeting was a desire to improve
incentives for people who report bugs.  Clearly, actually fixing those bugs
would qualify; nobody has lost sight of that.  But it was suggested that
the creation and publication of statistics on bug reporting would also
help.

One way to do this might be for Andrew (being the only one who actually
reads every message posted on the list) to keep a spreadsheet along with
everything else he does.  That idea did not go over very well.

So here's what we would like to try instead.  Whenever somebody sends up a
patch fixing a reported bug, the name of the person who reported the bug
would be immortalized with this tag:

	Reported-by: A. Bug Reporter <email@...s.here>

In particular, reporters who work with the developers toward the resolution
of the bug should be thanked in this way.  If we wanted to take things
further, perhaps we could add a Bisected-by: tag for really hard-core
helpers. 

If these tags go into the commit messages in any sort of consistent way, it
should be possible generate the usual sort of statistics from them.  I'll
then happily publicize them next to the traditional lists of people who are
adding new bugs.  The result will certainly be fame, fortune, and job
offers for the people at the top of the list.  Or something like that.

If the rest of the community is agreeable, it would be nice to make an
immediate start on this; it's not yet too late to get reasonable data for
the 2.6.26 kernel, and to have the habits well ingrained for 2.6.27.

Thoughts?

jon
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