Changes to use of tracker, ideas, and reporting process

[Marc]

As some of you have already noticed all tickets which affected version 3.0.x were closed in the tracker. We declared bankrupcy on these issues meaning that we closed these issues without testing whether they are still present or not. If you think one of the bugs is still present in 3.2.x please feel free to recreate them.

This was neccessary due to the fact that the tracker had a bit over a thousand open issues which is unmanageable. If you opened a ticket for an improvement or new feature expect it to be closed in the near future.

We also discussed some new policies regarding the usage of the tracker while in Budapest. We would like to kindly ask you to read through the changes below:

• Only open bug tickets in the tracker unless you are working on a feature or improvement (you will shortly open a pull request). All new feature or improvement tickets will be closed, if there isn't a pull request belonging to that ticket.
• If you have an idea on how to improve phpBB but you don't know how to, or do not wish to implement it yourself, please use the ideas page on phpbb.com.
• If you would like to discuss technical details about a new feature or improvement to the core with the team or the community, feel free to open an RFC in the Area51 forums.

We appologize for the inconvenience these changes migth cause you, however, we feel that these changes were necessary to make the process of fixing bugs simpler thus possibly speeding up the process to get bugs fixed in the core.

Thanks
- The phpBB Team

[hubaishan]

Perfect changes!!

[AmigoJack]

No, by far not "perfect changes". Haven't noticed this until 2 days ago. Treating everyone the same when dumping contributions is one of the best reasons for me to never waste my time with tickets again. See Tracker tickets are disregarded

[Senky]

AmigoJack, it is not that easy. Many developers are now occupied with major rewrites of some parts of the code. Small bugs have less priority now. I am the one who (if time allows), browses the tracker and process those small issues that hang around for a long time. But you must understand that there are so many issues and so little developers that tickets just won't be solved the speed of some paid product.

[AmigoJack]

That's only one aspect - I'm angry because tickets got closed. Forever (as in: no action taken), and without further comment. You surely won't encounter those ever again.

I heard the "not that easy" part too often from others - apparently all of them still think they're better than me, but none of them know how many tickets I could have created if I would have spent more time with phpBB instead of having my own priorities where my work has been needed more. As if I would not understand that tickets can't be solved fast - surprise: I'm a programmer myself! Since 1995.

Rewrites of the code - I bet that's still the aftermath of interleaving phpBB with other frameworks. If the project is known for notoriously having too few developers then adding complexity and dependancy is never a good idea. And now nobody wants to go back.

[John P]

This is a bad idea.
I understand not all is easy but to just close them and forget is a bad idea. As AmigoJack said there are a lot more, no reported because of nothing happened with the already reported.
Going back to core edits now.