Private driver support emails should be avoided.

Private driver support emails should be avoided.

[Jeff Garzik]

Just a reminder to folks out there...  Don't send private driver support 
emails.

I receive a lot of email.  A lot.  Not as much as Linus or Andrew 
probably, but still sizable.  And quite regularly, I will receive a 
private email asking for help on a SATA or net driver problem.  The 
poster will include various details on their problem, and ask for help 
debugging the problem.  While the email will indeed be skimmed -- 
looking at a mass of bug reports, one can better detect patterns -- the 
people seeking support privately will almost NEVER RECEIVE A RESPONSE.

Unless there is a security issue (email security@kernel.org), posters 
should ALWAYS email their report(s) to one or more mailing lists.

Private email
* is not archived publicly
* is not Google-able
* restricts the sharing of knowledge
* prevents other users from responding to your email

Feel free to CC me on problems you think should warrant my attention.  A 
carbon copy is acceptable to almost all regular kernel contributors.


As another tip, if a kernel bug or annoyance persists, people are 
encouraged to maintain wiki and web pages describing the behavior, and 
discussed problem history.  Maintaining "SATA sucks on ThinkPad" style 
web pages is always a good way to shame kernel hackers into action ;-) 
Maintaining such web pages is a good way for a group of affected users 
to pool common information, and suggested workarounds.

Ensuring the freshness of bugzilla.kernel.org information is also a 
great way for non-kernel hackers to help out.  Sometimes a bug is only 
solved after a pattern emerges from a group of problem reports.  Even 
"me too!" bugzilla reports are helpful...  if they are followed by 
highly detailed hardware and kernel information.

	Jeff

Re: Private driver support emails should be avoided.

[Jes Sorensen]

>>>>> "Jeff" == Jeff Garzik <jeff@garzik.org> writes:

Jeff> Just a reminder to folks out there...  Don't send private driver
Jeff> support emails.

Jeff> I receive a lot of email.  A lot.  Not as much as Linus or
Jeff> Andrew probably, but still sizable.  And quite regularly, I will
Jeff> receive a private email asking for help on a SATA or net driver
Jeff> problem.  The poster will include various details on their
Jeff> problem, and ask for help debugging the problem.  While the
Jeff> email will indeed be skimmed -- looking at a mass of bug
Jeff> reports, one can better detect patterns -- the people seeking
Jeff> support privately will almost NEVER RECEIVE A RESPONSE.

Jeff,

Very sane - I get some of it too, though less so these days :)

What about writing this up and sticking it under
Documentation/Reporting-Bugs or something so there's an easy reference
to it?

Cheers,
Jes

Re: Private driver support emails should be avoided.

[Erik Mouw]

On Fri, Aug 04, 2006 at 10:46:03AM -0400, Jes Sorensen wrote:
> >>>>> "Jeff" == Jeff Garzik <jeff@garzik.org> writes:
> 
> Jeff> Just a reminder to folks out there...  Don't send private driver
> Jeff> support emails.
> 
> Jeff> I receive a lot of email.  A lot.  Not as much as Linus or
> Jeff> Andrew probably, but still sizable.  And quite regularly, I will
> Jeff> receive a private email asking for help on a SATA or net driver
> Jeff> problem.  The poster will include various details on their
> Jeff> problem, and ask for help debugging the problem.  While the
> Jeff> email will indeed be skimmed -- looking at a mass of bug
> Jeff> reports, one can better detect patterns -- the people seeking
> Jeff> support privately will almost NEVER RECEIVE A RESPONSE.
> 
> Very sane - I get some of it too, though less so these days :)
> 
> What about writing this up and sticking it under
> Documentation/Reporting-Bugs or something so there's an easy reference
> to it?

The question came up on the linux-arm-kernel list as well. In

  http://lists.arm.linux.org.uk/pipermail/linux-arm-kernel/2006-August/035259.html

Daniel Jacobowitz came up with this URL which could be uses as a
starting point:

  http://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/faqs/questions.html


Erik

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