LaunchpadImprovedMeToo

Synopsis

This blueprint addresses the pervasive and highly annoying Launchpad problem of "me-too storms" in two complementary fashions: First, by discouraging posting "me-too" comments to other people's bugs; second to instead encourage them to make use of the existing "This bug affects me (change)" function.

Design

1. Discouraging writing "me-too" comments.

There are good "me-too" comments and there are bad ones. The bad ones generally are short (a few sentences max), are the first thing they've posted to the given bug, and are posted by people unfamiliar with Launchpad (typically having <50 karma).

Thus, Launchpad should detect when a comment is posted which meets all of this criteria:

  1. At least 2 different people in addition to the reporter have commented on the bug already
  2. Reporter has not posted comments to this particular bug before

  3. Reporter has <= 50 karma

  4. Comment is less than about 3 sentences (250 characters)
  5. No attachments are being included with the comment

(The above numbers could be tweaked to tune it based on testing and feedback.)

When a comment meets the above criteria, Launchpad will display a message asking if the reporter really does want to post their comment, or instead would prefer setting the bug as "Affects me too".

Condition a is to ensure the feature doesn't become annoying for good samaritans who help on otherwise neglected bugs. Condition b prevents one-liner followups from triggering it. Condition c makes the feature leave bug triagers alone. Condition d ensures that people who are trying to give advice (such as upstream developers) or provide additional insights are not inadvertently turned away. Condition e helps prevent triggering when people are posting patches, backup data, evidence they're having the bug and so on - which are generally present for good "me-too" comments.

2. Encouraging using the "Affects me too" functionality.

Launchpad has an existing function which was introduced to help stem "me-too" comments, but it doesn't work as well as it should. This is the text "This bug doesn't affect me (*change*)". Several bug reports already identify the problems with this functionality, and resolving these bugs will sufficiently address the need (roughly in order of importance):

a. Make it easier to notice on the bug page and more discoverable:

  • 284256 - Make it more discoverable and improve the text

  • 370966 - "This bug affects me too" should be more prominent and have a visible effect

b. Make the UI simpler and less confusing:

  • 350502 - Use a checkbox or toggle rather than a hyperlink

  • 361097 - AJAX me too UI

  • 283540 - Just use "yes" button and "back" link

c. Acknowledge the user has completed the bug process:

  • stevea's comment #13 on 330550 summarizes this need nicely

  • 381612 - Marking a bug as affecting me lacks feedback and gratification

d. Improve usefulness to user by seeing bugs that affect them:

  • malone/+spec/per-user-bug-selection

  • 375337 - Add ability to search/list bugs you've marked as affecting you

  • 383330 - Provide a personal listing of bugs affecting a the user (and easier way to see the "hotness" of a bug)

  • 293812 - Display 'affects me' flame icon in personal bugs overview

e. Improve usefulness to user by telling them about status changes on bugs that affect them:

  • 323000 - Make "this bug affects me too" bugs visible from user profile

  • 330550 - Affects Me Too should also subscribe [for status changes]

f. Improve usefulness to developers for seeing #reporters affected:

  • 271332 - Display the number of affected users in bug listings

g. Dupes affect me too:

  • 343110 - The master of a dupe bug should be set as affecting you

  • 285679 - You shouldn't be able to say that a duplicate bug affects you

h. Don't ask if bugs I reported affect me. (Of course they do):

  • 383330 - This bug affects me too shouldn't appear to bug reporter

  • 361757 - "Me too" message should be de-emphasised if I reported the bug in question

  • 362830 - Launchpad tells me a bug I reported affects me "too"

The goal of the changes should result in driving up the quantity of users taking advantage of this functionality (and hopefully reduce the number setting "me-too" comments). Currently, even the top most popular bugs have only a few dozen "affects me too" counts:

Compare the "Affects me too" count with the number of dupes for bugs with most dupes:

I think if "Affects me too" is well tuned, its report should display higher totals than the dupes report.

Commentary

The ideas for this spec were floated and discussed at http://bryceharrington.org/drupal/me-too-storms and http://www2.bryceharrington.org:8080/drupal/me-too-storms-solutions . The above specification reflects a consensus view on what should be improved, but a number of other good ideas were discussed.

It's worth experimenting with letting users click "me too" without logging in. It might be that new users will think to themselves "I've spent the last ten minutes creating a user account, I might as well get my money's worth by leaving a comment". As well as reducing the number of useless user accounts, allowing guest me-too's should improve the data - as long as separate tallies are kept for logged in users.

LaunchpadImprovedMeToo (last edited 2009-07-23 08:51:11 by cpc5-hitc4-0-0-cust385)