this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2023

-63 points (13.8% liked)

Programming

17122 readers

170 users here now

Welcome to the main community in programming.dev! Feel free to post anything relating to programming here!

Cross posting is strongly encouraged in the instance. If you feel your post or another person's post makes sense in another community cross post into it.

Hope you enjoy the instance!

Rules

Follow the programming.dev instance rules
Keep content related to programming in some way
If you're posting long videos try to add in some form of tldr for those who don't want to watch videos

Wormhole

Follow the wormhole through a path of communities !webdev@programming.dev

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

snowe@programming.dev

Ategon@programming.dev

MaungaHikoi@lemmy.nz

-63

Watch out for devs trying trick bug reporters into doing work (slrpnk.net)

submitted 1 year ago by activistPnk@slrpnk.net to c/programming@programming.dev

19 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Sometimes I report a bug & the dev starts off asking for more details. But then there’s a kind of scope of effort creep where you start to realize you’re being tricked into finding where in the code the problem is so you can fix the bug.

It’s a bit of social engineering of sorts. When I post a bug, I do that from the back seat of the car. And it’s like the dev sits in the backseat as well while coercing me into the front seat. So sometimes there’s a bit of weasel words and nuances with sneaky wording that needs to be deployed in order to stay in the backseat while trying to get the dev into the front seat where they belong!

all 20 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] nous@programming.dev 59 points 1 year ago

Ok then.

Ticket marked as closed: won't fix, cannot reproduce, not enough details

[–] VonReposti@feddit.dk 47 points 1 year ago

where they belong!

Sounds like you take the generosity of open-source devs for granted.

[–] sorrybookbroke@sh.itjust.works 29 points 1 year ago

Yeah I don't know man, as a dev this sounds like you are finding things that cannot be reproduced and the dev can only get more information from your machine. It's like if you were calling up a mechanic on the phone. He can't take the wheel. Would you be ok with giving them access to your PC remotely to try and find the bug?

Nah man, we're not trying to weasle you into finding the bug yourself. We would very much prefer to interact with end users as little as possible.

[–] fubo@lemmy.world 24 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you're not paying that engineer, you have no good reason to form opinions about "where they belong" in terms of work they do that might benefit you.

[+] activistPnk@slrpnk.net -27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Someone tasking someone else without paying them is indeed being not where they belong. In the case of the OP, that’s the dev tasking the bug reporter.

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Are you a paying customer? If so, I understand completely.

Is this free software? The dev is a bigger volunteer than you.

[+] activistPnk@slrpnk.net -9 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Are you a paying customer?

Testers and bug reporters are not paying customers. They are volunteer CONTRIBUTORS.

If so, I understand completely.

Obviously not.

The dev is a bigger volunteer than you.

Nonsense. Contributors are equals. Exceptionally, devs who demand that testers also fix the software are notably smaller (managers, effectively).

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

So you did not pay, but you are BOLDFACING your volunteer contribution over the much larger contributions of the developers.

[+] activistPnk@slrpnk.net -8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

So you did not pay,

And? Of course testers do not pay money. Why would they? Devs do not pay for the tester’s work either. Both developers and testers are volunteers who do not pay the other for their work. On free software projects testers and devs pay with their own labor.

much larger contributions of the developers.

It is not “much larger” for a dev to task the tester to implement the fix. The dev is no more than a manager in this case.

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Programming contributions >> incomplete bug reports

[–] activistPnk@slrpnk.net -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Did I say incomplete? You’ll have to quote where you get that from.

Compare like with like. You can have incomplete code, and you can have incomplete bug reports. Neither are relevant here.

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This whole post is you defending a half assed bug report.

[–] activistPnk@slrpnk.net -4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

What bug report? There’s no bug single report in particular to speak of. I’ve filed hundreds if not thousands of bug reports over the years. The post is a reflection of a subset of those experiences.

When a developer asks a tester to look at a module in the source code, that is not a consequence of a “half assed bug report”. It’s the contrary. When a dev knows a particular module of code is suspect, the bug report served well in giving a detailed idea of what the issue is.

[–] GammaGames@beehaw.org 19 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If this is satire, it’s good

[+] activistPnk@slrpnk.net -14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Of course.. The reaction shows how seriously wound tight people are. Obviously not much sense of humor in this community.

There are a couple rare cases where devs have tried to coerce me into a fix. Sometimes they outright say they expect the bug reporter to fix it, strangely enough. It never happened in a language that I knew, and weird that bug reporters would be expected to know how to program at all. But it’s far from the norm.

[–] thingsiplay@kbin.social 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

While I understand this is humorous post, it's not crystal clear. That does not mean people lack humor, that only means we encounter a lot of trolls or idiots in the forums, that we no longer know if someone is joking or is being serious. So you should not call people being seriously wounded, if your joke didn't come as you wish it was.

In short, if it's not 100% clear (and it's not), then marking it as "sarcasm" is not a bad idea if you just making a joke without trolling or flamewar. That's just my thumb of rule. It helps you not get misunderstood.

[–] flubba86@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

That last sentence makes me think this is a tonge-in-cheek post, sarcastic and looking for a reaction. Subtle trolling. Ignore it and move on.

[–] Sigmatics@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago

God forbid you actually help out with the software you're using at absolutely no cost to you.