[aur-general] Removing comments from AUR

[Xyne]

I agree with Heiko regarding the utility of the comments for
unsupported packages. They provide a single location for posting
caveats, updated PKGBUILDs, discussing the particulars of building the
PKG, etc. It would be sheer folly to remove them and expect users and
maintainers to hunt down this information elsewhere. The current
system works and it works well.

Xyne


> Hi,
> 
> I'm one of those "hobby maintainers", who maintain only a few packages
> on AUR.
> 
> And I agree with Gergely Imreh. Moving the AUR comments to the mailing
> list or to the bbs is not an option.
> 
> I'm only on this mailing list, because a while ago I had an orphan
> request.
> 
> I guess most maintainers like me are not on this mailing list. And
> finding comments on this mailing list, e.g. in the archive, is not
> really funny. I think many comments wouldn't be noticed by the
> appropriate maintainer. So moving the comments to the mailing list is
> definitely not an option.
> 
> Btw., the mailing list is called "aur-general", so I think, that this
> mailing list is about AUR itself rather than single AUR packages.
> 
> Moving the comments to the bbs is also not an option, because I don't
> look into the bbs every day. I usually only look into the bbs, if I've
> got a problem, which is not a bug, and need to find a solution. If the
> AUR comments would be moved to the bbs, I had to look into the bbs
> nearly every day, only because it could be, that there is a new thread
> regarding my packages. This is not practicable and too time consuming.
> 
> Sending mails to the maintainer directly is principally possible, but
> if a maintainer of a package is not reachable, either temporarily or
> permanently (mail server is down, e-mail account doesn't exist
> anymore, he switches to a new ISP, or whatever), those comments go to
> Nirvana. If a maintainer gets an issue by e-mail, but doesn't maintain
> the package anymore, doesn't orphan the package, and doesn't respond to
> such comments, which is unfortunately not so unusual, the comments are
> gone and a new maintainer can't work on these issues.
> 
> In the AUR I can set the notify option and get a mail as soon as a
> comment regarding one of my packages is posted, I know at once, which
> package is affected, and I can look at this comment at once. Also this
> way I can respond much faster. And I don't have to look every day for
> new possible comments.
> 
> Also the users, who are interested in an AUR package can see, if there
> are problems with a package, and can decide not to install a package.
> This also increases the security of the AUR packages, because if
> someone finds a security issue (see the "rm -f /*" example), he can
> send a warning to the comments, so that every user can see it at first
> glance. I guess not every user can read and understand shell scripts.
> 
> And I don't see, that the comments are misused as a forum in most
> cases. Usually there are only comments regarding bugs, feature request,
> etc. And for the cases, in which the AUR comments are misused as a
> forum, there could be the possibility for the maintainer to delete such
> comments.
> 
> With such a delete function the maintainer could also delete obsolete
> comments.
> 
> Another point is, that the maintainer can give important notes about
> his package, which need to be known before a package gets installed.
> See e.g. my comments regarding the renaming of the fbcondecor kernel
> from kernel26fbcondecor to kernel26-fbcondecor, or the hint, that two
> specific graphic cards, which are supported by kernel26 are not
> supported by kernel26-fbcondecor, etc.
> 
> I'm not sure, if it's useful to use the bug tracker for AUR packages,
> because I haven't used a bug tracker as a developer yet. If I have to
> look into the bug tracker every day to see, if there is a possible bug
> report for my package, then I don't think that this is an option,
> because I don't get so many comments for my packages.
> 
> I agree, that an issue, which needs a longer discussion, more testing
> or whatever should be moved from the AUR comments to private e-mails
> with the maintainer directly. But I haven't seen many of those cases in
> the AUR comments.
> 
> So I don't see an alternative for the AUR comments, but I also vote for
> a delete function for the maintainer.
> 
> Cheers,
> Heiko