Bodhi updates-testing Autopush, Anonymous Commenting

[Christopher Aillon]

Warren Togami wrote:
> This thread contains only strawman ideas to solicit ideas and opinions 
> for Bodhi.
> 
> NOTE: This mail talks only about how updates-testing tickets in bodhi 
> behave after they become updates-testing.  The controversial matter of 
> whether a package is required to go into updates-testing is a separate 
> matter to be discussed and ratified during Thursday's FESCo meeting.
> 
> Idea: updates-testing Autopush after Timeout
> ============================================
> 1) Bodhi should auto-push updates-testing after a time-out period.

No.  I want to push out RCs from time to time.  I do not ever want an RC 
to make it out of testing.  No matter how long it has been sitting there.

> 2) Bodhi interface allows others to comment on the goodness/badness of a 
> test update.
> 3) Bodhi interface allows others to declare a test update broken, which 
> freezes the auto-push after timeout.
> 4) Package maintainer or admins can override this and push anyway.
> 
> Idea: Timeout Default, Configurable?
> ====================================
> Default updates-testing timeout is 7 days.  Package maintainer may set a 
> different timeout period (i.e. 4, 9 or 14 days), or turn off the timeout 
> entirely.

Default should be off, IMO.  Maintainer should have to set a timeout IMO 
if they want it.  I don't know that in 7 days I will have enough 
feedback in all cases.  Trying to get feedback on a hard-to-reproduce 
bug might take 8 days.  And if I forget to turn off the default timeout, 
users will get a needless update if the fix doesn't actually work.

I am okay with configuring the timeout as long as the default is off.


> Idea: Anonymous Commenting
> ==========================
> Update and updates-testing announcement mail will have links to the 
> Bodhi ticket where users can comment on their experiences with that 
> package.  This should do good to improve communications between users 
> and developers, and also be handy for users to know more details about 
> the effect an updated package will have on their system.
> 
> (Perhaps not a link to the Bodhi ticket, but a separate comment-and-view 
> URL... lmacken can decide on this as an implementation detail.)
> 
> Currently commenting on an update in bodhi requires you to have a FAS 
> account, which can be inconvenient for the majority of Fedora users.  We 
> could potentially allow more convenient commenting to the public through 
>  some other means.
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captcha
> Users not authenticated through FAS are given the option to type in a 
> CAPTCHA string, which allows them to comment without authenticating.  A 
> CAPTCHA should be sufficient to control spam.

Yuck.  If we have to do this, please let's not go overboard. 
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/11/technology/11code.html?_r=2&pagewanted=1&oref=slogin


Furthermore:
Idea: implement some sort of voting mechanism.  That way users can 
simply do a vote for yes or no.  (if it needs to have captcha, so be 
it).  Having more than N number of nos might stop the autopush.  We 
should highly encourage comments on "no" votes so we can determine 
whether to push or not.  If after a timeout, all we have are "yes" 
votes, continue with the autopush if there was one selected before.