| Chris Valean I accept that many issues are not "step 1, 2, 3, repro", many environments are different, and that workarounds often help users find ways to avoid issues. I was trying to answer the question from Anargyros Tomaras. I'm open to any suggestions that a volunteer maintainer should do to fix a bug that can't be duplicated. What would persuade a volunteer maintainer to be more interested in this issue than the other issues they are investigating or the other features they are adding? I've spent many hours making guesses about bug reports, trying various experiments in hopes of seeing the problem that the user reported. The investigations are usually focused on helping a user find an alternative which will allow them to avoid an issue they have detected. Those investigations have the added hope that if I understand how to duplicate the problem, I can assess how many other users will see the problem. The investigations may also help me understand how to fix the problem. The investigations are done on personal time and for personal passion. I empathize with user frustration that the issue they are seeing is not visible to the maintainer. I don't see what maintainers can do to fix a problem they cannot see. I empathize with maintainers that don't receive enough information from submitters. I understand that users may not want to spend any more time reporting an issue than is absolutely necessary. I don't see a lot of benefit to leaving an issue open as a maintainer when I've tried my best to duplicate it and I cannot duplicate it. If it is left open, it may mislead users that someone might work on it. If I can't duplicate the problem, it is much less likely that I will work on the problem. I don't see any loss of information in marking an issue as "Cannot reproduce" and closing it. If others find a way to duplicate the problem, they can provide the detailed information to duplicate the problem and reopen the issue. |
