Ubuntu Wiki

This is a draft and not an official statement from the Ubuntu community or from the Ubuntu developers. Comments about disabling of accounts may not in fact correspond to reality. This is based heavily on Mozilla's excellent Bugzilla Etiquette document.

There are a number of faux pas you can commit when using Launchpad. At the very least, these will make contributors upset at you; if committed enough times they will cause those contributors to demand the disabling of your Launchpad account. So, ignore this advice at your peril.

That said, developers are generally a friendly bunch, and will be towards you as long as you follow these guidelines.

This complements the Code of Conduct. If you follow the Code of Conduct perfectly, then you likely have nothing to worry about. However, this document spells out certain things that people tend to find inconsiderate or disrespectful.

Commenting

This is the most important section.

1. No pointless comments. Unless you have something constructive and helpful to say, do not add a comment to a bug. In bugs where there is a heated debate going on, you should be even more inclined not to add a comment. Unless you have something new to contribute, then the bug supervisor is aware of all the issues, and will make a judgement as to what to do. Additional "I see this too" or "It works for me" comments are unnecessary unless they are on a different platform or a significantly different build. Constructive and helpful thoughts unrelated to the topic of the bug should go in the appropriate mailing list.
2. No obligation. "Open Source" is not the same as "the developers must do my bidding." The only person who has any obligation to fix the bugs you want fixed is you. Never act as if you expect someone to fix a bug by a particular date or release. This is merely obnoxious, and is likely to get the bug ignored.
3. No personal abuse. Launchpad is a window into the world of open source development. The fact that we permit anyone with an account to add a comment does not mean you may harass, harangue or otherwise hassle contributors. Do not make weak threats like "I won't use Ubuntu until this bug is fixed!" If a respected project contributor complains about your Launchpad attitude, then you may have your account disabled. If you don't like this possibility, become a respected project contributor.
4. No private email. Unless the bug assignee or another respected project contributor has asked you to email them with specific information, please place all information relating to bugs in the bug itself. Do not send them by private email; no-one else can read them if you do that, and they'll probably just get ignored. If a file is too big for Launchpad, add a comment giving the file size and contents and ask what to do.

Changing Fields

1. No messing with other people's bugs. Unless you are the bug assignee, or have some say over the use of their time, never change the Milestone field. If in doubt, do not change the fields of bugs you do not own - add a comment instead, suggesting the change. (But see Commenting 1.)

2. No whining about decisions. If a respected project contributor has marked a bug as Invalid, then it is invalid. Someone filing another duplicate of it does not change this. Unless you have further important evidence, do not post a comment arguing that an Invalid or Won't Fix bug should be reopened. (Hmm. I think this is sketchier for us than it is for Mozilla. --ColinWatson)

Applicability

1. Some of these rules may not apply to you. If they do not, you will know exactly which ones do not, and why they do not apply. If you are not sure, then they definitely all apply to you.

If you see someone not following these rules, the first step is, as an exception to guideline 1.4, to make them aware of this document by private mail. Flaming people publicly in bugs violates guidelines 1.1 and 1.3. In the case of persistent offending you should report the matter to the Launchpad administrators.

This entire document can be summed up in one sentence: do unto others as you would have them do unto you.