[Python-Dev] No response to posts

["Martin v. Löwis"]

> Sure it could make a difference. People who submit issues will
> appreciate *some* response a great deal more than no response.

That depends. Sometimes, people post to the bug tracker to get help,
and they will get sad/driven away/angry when they get no response;
sometimes, if they get a response but no help, they will still get
sad/driven away/angry. Driving them away pointing out that the bug
tracker is not a place to obtain help might be as much help as "we"
can offer.

Other people post to the tracker to offer help. Those are the ones
that should not be driven away. Unfortunately, just responding to
them doesn't improve anything, IMO. If people only post to the issue
without any plan of actually doing something about the issue likely
still drives people away.

> Sure. *Part* of drawing in more manpower can be engaging with those
> submitting issues and seeing if we can get them to post patches and / or
> tests - and suck them as far into Python development as we possibly can.
> ;-) 

I think it's important to find out what people expect when posting
to the tracker. Maybe a mandatory radio list with these options
would help:

- I post this to get help from you
- I'm willing to work on other issues to expedite processing of this one
- The issue is not urgent, take your time

Regards,
Martin