[simiones]

The problem is something like this: you develop packageA. A user of distroB is installing pacakgeA from distroB latest, and packageA is not working for them. distroB maintainers tell them to go ask packageA about the bug. So, the user comes and bothers packageA about this issue - even though packageA had no intention of distributing this in-progress version to users.

Now, of course, no one here is doing anything illegal. But, everything would be better for everyone if distroB, instead of taking packageA@master had taken packageA@1.0.1 or whatever the latest release is: better working software for distroB users, less support work (bug triage etc) for distroB, less work for packageA maintainers.

Since this is ultimately a social issue, I think an open letter seeking to convince the people involved to think about it and modify their behavior is the best way of going about improving this for everyone. Now, it may well be that the maintainers of distroB have valid reasons not to change their behavior and ignore this letter: all fine. Not saying we should tar and feather them, in any way shape or form. But if this is maybe a fixable problem, why not try to fix it?

[WesolyKubeczek]

If a user comes to me bothering me about some package some distro made of my software, I show the part that says NO WARRANTY and AS IS, and get on with my life.

Also, why should it “bother” anyone at all. You duke it out with whoever brought it to you.

It’s only a problem if you feel a need to please everyone knocking on your doors, which inevitably turns into burnout and you actually behaving harshly towards everyone in the end.

[immibis]

So your response to bug reports is to ignore them and tell the reporter to F off?