asterisk users - Mar 2004 - Important: The Asterisk Bug Tracker

Okay fellow Asterisk users...  Listen up (or perhaps more appropriately,
"read down").

The Asterisk community is growing at a remarkable pace.  I know there are
thousands of you out there -- in fact there are over eight *thousand*
subscribers to asterisk-users alone, and almost one *thousand* registered
users on the bug tracker.  The #asterisk IRC channel is consistently in
the top 10 channels on freenode.  There is even an Asterisk community on
Orkut with at least 170 members in it.

However, even as large as Asterisk's community is, you may be shocked to
discover that we've got *five* -- that's right *five*, as in you can
count
them on one hand, bug marshals who are trying to help coordinate the bug
tracking.

That means that less than 1/10th of 1% of all subscribed asterisk users,
and about 1/2 of 1% of all registered bug reports are participating in the
bug resolution process itself.

In spite of the time that I spend, and those of the other marshals, on the
bugs, due to Asterisk's tremendous growth, bugs and feature requests are
coming in faster than they can be resolved, and we're facing an critical
dilemma, which is that if we don't get the direction of bugs going the
other way, the bug tracker will effectively become useless.

Open Source software does not require that everyone participate in every
project, but it *does* require that *some* number of people take an active
role in supporting the project if it is to succeed.  I've tried with
varying success to get more Asterisk users to participate in this critical
portion of development, and have dedicated 5-10 hours of my time per week
to work on the bug tracker -- only a small portion of which has been used
by the bug marshals.

So, I'm facing an important decision point, and I'm giving you all a
little bit of heads up notice.  We're either going to have to get more
Asterisk users to participate as bug marshals, or at some point we're
going to have to close the bug tracker to new bugs.  I've decided to draw
that line in the sand at 300 bugs.  That is to say, if we are unable to
get enough bug marshals to assist with the process to turn this tide
around, when the bug tracker shows 300 outstanding bugs (there are
currently 279), I will have the bug tracker shut down for new bugs until
the ones currently in it are digested so that it can retain some semblance
of usefulness.

So, what is involved in being a bug marshal, and what are the benefits you
might wonder.  Being a bug marshal requires:

 1) A serious time commitment of a few hours a week.

 2) An understanding of the bug tracker, the importance and method for
    doing backtraces and coredump analysis.  If you don't know this, we
    can teach you, it's not very hard.

 3) The personal discipline to follow through with bugs and see them to
    completion, including testing, making sure disclaimers are on file,
    and getting someone with commit access to apply the fixes.

And what are the benefits?

 1) It's one of the best ways to contribute to the community and the
    project at large.

 2) You get to select (within some basic guidelines) which bugs and
    features are important to you.

 3) You get direct access to high level Asterisk developers, including
    myself, for the purpose of working on these bugs.

 4) Brian K. West probably won't be as rude to you as he normally is.

Not to mention, I would appreciate it.  If you want to be a bug marshal,
do NOT reply to this e-mail, just find bkw_ or one of the other bug
marshals on #asterisk on irc.freenode.net and let them know you're ready
to participate, and they'll give you the information you need.

Thanks to all of you who have supported Asterisk through Digium hardware
purchases, code contributions, being bug marshals, writing documentation,
notating things in the wiki, donating bandwidth, and so much more.  And as
for the rest of you out there, I hope to see some of you come forward to
support and work to improve the project that you use and (hopefully)
value.

Mark

Mark Spencer wrote:
> The Asterisk community is growing at a remarkable pace.  I know there are
> thousands of you out there -- in fact there are over eight *thousand*
> subscribers to asterisk-users alone, and almost one *thousand* registered
> users on the bug tracker.  
> 
This means that everything anyone write to this mailing list, is sent to over
8.000 mailboxes that is already flowing over with messages.

I would like to stress the fact that you have to think before you send a
message to such a big list. Do *not* send out personal replies on the list.
If you offer services to someone, do *not* CC: or reply to the list, it
will annoy more potential customers than get you new customers. If you
send out a message by mistake, you don't have to apologize to all of us,
we understand you're embarassed. We will get more annoyed by your apology
than over your first message.

Because of the traffic, I'm several weeks behind of reading all messages,
and I'm consider this a very important list for me. We need to get the
volume down and quality up. I'm at loss on how.

* Advice for the archives and for newbies to the list *

The wiki project have grown into an important knowledge base for the project,
with several contributors and a few "wiki marshals" that clear up the
layout,
add links and remove duplicates. Go there to find your answer first, then
search the mailing list archives (http://search.voip-forum.com) and then
go to the IRC channel. Finally, if you don't find the answer elsewhere, try
the
list.

* More todo's *

There was a handbook-next-generation project that is now hibernating. We need
that project to move forward. More contributors, more editors.

Coming back to my favorite subject: The asterisk.org web site needs to
be changed so we can point to all resources in a better way and guide
the members to the community in a nice and friendly way.

Maybe there's other ideas out there that we need to discuss again.
And no, web-based-forums has already been proved to be of no help and has
been discussed several times.

To make all the mistakes at one time:
* Sorry for this message, I've sent several similar messages before.
* My apologies for the apology to the list
* Please help me configure a SIP URI in the Zap channel over MGCP trunks, with
   optional early-dial musiconhold and Enum support for my www address,
anyone!!!??

/O

a news group could be less flood

Miguel
On Fri, 2004-03-19 at 19:00, Andrew Kohlsmith wrote:
> > How about using a web form for posts instead of replying to an e-mail?
A
> 
> How about not.
> 
> Regards,
> Andrew
> _______________________________________________
> Asterisk-Users mailing list
> Asterisk-Users@lists.digium.com
> http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users
> To UNSUBSCRIBE or update options visit:
>    http://lists.digium.com/mailman/listinfo/asterisk-users

Folks,

I strongly support removing the current reply-to-list setting, and you
should too.

Like many new list admins, I once thought the reply-to was kewel. Requests
to remove it kept coming up, ... usually around the same time someone
embarrassed themselves by posting a personal reply/flame to the list.
Someone, in frustration, finally pointed me to the following URL:

       http://www.unicom.com/pw/reply-to-harmful.html

I saw the light.

Please can the list admin step in and end this thread by either:

   a) announcing that the reply-to override has been removed
   b) announcing their resignation ;-)

-Darren

-- 
Darren Nickerson
Senior Sales & Support Engineer
iFAX Solutions, Inc. www.ifax.com
darren.nickerson@ifax.com
+1.215.438.4638 ext 8106 office
+1.215.243.8335 fax

On Fri, Mar 19, 2004 at 11:23:53PM -0500, Darren Nickerson wrote:
> I strongly support removing the current reply-to-list setting, and you
> should too.
I would agree with this too, when replying to a post, the reply should
be to the sender, if the receipient wants to reply to everyone, then
they should specifically request that. Most sensible mail user agents
have mechanisms for specificially replying to lists.

Also mail addresses from this list are being SPAM harvested (just FYI).

Steve

-- 
NetTek Ltd Phone/Fax +44-(0)20 7483 2455
SMS steve-epage (at) gbnet.net [body] gpg 1024D/468952DB 2001-09-19

David Krider [david@davidkrider.com] wrote:
> On Sun, 2004-03-21 at 20:48, Jon Myers wrote:
> > "Online" since 1985 (I know, not longer than alot of prople,
but more
> > than a couple years).
> >
> But apparently not long enough to know that top posting and not trimming
> quotes are both just as bad as reply-to-sender.
> 
You beat me to that one. :-)

-- 
   _/   _/  _/_/_/_/  _/    _/  _/_/_/  _/    _/
  _/_/_/   _/_/      _/    _/    _/    _/_/  _/   K e v i n   W a l s h
 _/ _/    _/          _/ _/     _/    _/  _/_/    kevin@cursor.biz
_/   _/  _/_/_/_/      _/    _/_/_/  _/    _/

Welcome to the Asterisk users community!
----------------------------------------

It's great to have you participating in this Open Source project
- building an Open Source PBX. Here are a few things to know and
remember while working with the project.

** The mailing list is growing

The lead programmer of Asterisk, Mark Spencer at Digium, inc,
writes:
> The Asterisk community is growing at a remarkable pace.  I know there are
> thousands of you out there -- in fact there are over eight *thousand*
> subscribers to asterisk-users alone, and almost one *thousand* registered
> users on the bug tracker.  
This means that everything anyone write to this mailing list, is sent to over
8.000 mailboxes that is already flowing over with messages.

I would like to stress the fact that you have to think before you send a
message to such a big list. Do *not* send out personal replies on the list.
If you offer services to someone, do *not* CC: or reply to the list, it
will annoy more potential customers than get you new customers. If you
send out a message by mistake, you don't have to apologize to all of us,
we understand you're embarassed. We will get more annoyed by your apology
than over your first message.

** Try finding the answer first, then ask the list

The Asterisk Wiki at http://www.voip-info.org project is an important
knowledge base for the project.

Go there to find your answer first, then search the mailing list
archives (Google or http://search.voip-forum.com) and then
go to the IRC channel. The IRC channel is populated with Asterisk gurus
around the clock (literally) and they'll help you move forward.

* IRC info: http://www.asterisk.org/index.php?menu=support#irc
* There's many links to Asterisk web pages on the documentation
   page at http://www.asterisk.org
* The Asterisk FAQ is found on the wiki
   http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+FAQ
* The Asterisk documentation project (which needs your help)
   is at http://www.asteriskdocs.org

Finally, if you don't find the answer elsewhere, try the list.

** Mailing lists
For developers, there is a developer's list. You'll find it
on http://lists.digium.com, which is the address where you manage
your subscription to this list as well.

** Reporting bugs
If you think you have found a bug, report it. We need bug reports.
Read this document http://www.digium.com/bugtracker.html and then
go to the bugtracker http://bugs.digium.com to file a report.
If you are unsure, find a bug marshal on the IRC channel to help
you. They're appointed to support you with how to handle bugs.

The bug tracker is also a place where you add your contribution
to Asterisk. If you have coded extra functionality, make sure you
give it back to the project so it can be added to the code base.
This is how Asterisk grows, free contributions and consultants
that are paid to add functionality on a case by case basis.

** Remember: It's Open Source, it's volountary
Asterisk.org is a Open Source project. This means you can't request
help from people, demand new functions or support. However, there
are many individuals and companies out there that are offering
services based on Asterisk, from VoIP service providers to
consultants all over the world.

Of course, this is also part of Digiums business, so you have
plenty of help if your willing to pay. Digium is to be found at
http://www.digium.com. Service providers and consultants are
listed on the wiki, where you'll find companies all over the globe
that are willing to set up your PBX and get you connected to either
the PSTN or the growing telephony network on the Internet.

Again, welcome to the Asterisk.org Open Source PBX Project!

Meet you on the IRC channel :-)

/oej

-------------------------------------------------------------
PS. This message will be sent regurlarly. If you have any
corrections or additional information that needs to be
included, mail me * off list *. Thank you!

Welcome to the Asterisk users community!
----------------------------------------

It's great to have you participating in this Open Source project
- building an Open Source PBX. Here are a few things to know and
remember while working with the project.

** The mailing list is growing

The lead programmer of Asterisk, Mark Spencer at Digium, inc,
writes:
> The Asterisk community is growing at a remarkable pace.  I know there are
> thousands of you out there -- in fact there are over eight *thousand*
> subscribers to asterisk-users alone, and almost one *thousand* registered
> users on the bug tracker.  
This means that everything anyone write to this mailing list, is sent to over
8.000 mailboxes that is already flowing over with messages.

I would like to stress the fact that you have to think before you send a
message to such a big list. Do *not* send out personal replies on the list.
If you offer services to someone, do *not* CC: or reply to the list, it
will annoy more potential customers than get you new customers. If you
send out a message by mistake, you don't have to apologize to all of us,
we understand you're embarassed. We will get more annoyed by your apology
than over your first message.

** Try finding the answer first, then ask the list

The Asterisk Wiki at http://www.voip-info.org project is an important
knowledge base for the project.

Go there to find your answer first, then search the mailing list
archives (Google or http://search.voip-forum.com) and then
go to the IRC channel. The IRC channel is populated with Asterisk gurus
around the clock (literally) and they'll help you move forward.

* IRC info: http://www.asterisk.org/index.php?menu=support#irc
* There's many links to Asterisk web pages on the documentation
   page at http://www.asterisk.org
* The Asterisk FAQ is found on the wiki
   http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+FAQ
* The Asterisk documentation project (which needs your help)
   is at http://www.asteriskdocs.org

Finally, if you don't find the answer elsewhere, try the list.

** Mailing lists
For developers, there is a developer's list. You'll find it
on http://lists.digium.com, which is the address where you manage
your subscription to this list as well.

** Reporting bugs
If you think you have found a bug, report it. We need bug reports.
Read this document http://www.digium.com/bugtracker.html and then
go to the bugtracker http://bugs.digium.com to file a report.
If you are unsure, find a bug marshal on the IRC channel to help
you. They're appointed to support you with how to handle bugs.

The bug tracker is also a place where you add your contribution
to Asterisk. If you have coded extra functionality, make sure you
give it back to the project so it can be added to the code base.
This is how Asterisk grows, free contributions and consultants
that are paid to add functionality on a case by case basis.

** Remember: It's Open Source, it's volountary
Asterisk.org is a Open Source project. This means you can't request
help from people, demand new functions or support. However, there
are many individuals and companies out there that are offering
services based on Asterisk, from VoIP service providers to
consultants all over the world.

Of course, this is also part of Digiums business, so you have
plenty of help if your willing to pay. Digium is to be found at
http://www.digium.com. Service providers and consultants are
listed on the wiki, where you'll find companies all over the globe
that are willing to set up your PBX and get you connected to either
the PSTN or the growing telephony network on the Internet.

Again, welcome to the Asterisk.org Open Source PBX Project!

Meet you on the IRC channel :-)

/oej

-------------------------------------------------------------
PS. This message will be sent regurlarly. If you have any
corrections or additional information that needs to be
included, mail me * off list *. Thank you!

Welcome to the Asterisk users community!
----------------------------------------

These are exiting times for Asterisk.org. We're getting close to a
1.0 release, working hard to fix all reported bugs in Asterisk.
At the same time, the community is growing and we're having a lot
of interaction, on the IRC and on the mailing lists.

It's great to have you participating in this Open Source project
- building an Open Source PBX. Here are a few things to know and
remember while working with the project.

** The mailing list is growing

The lead programmer of Asterisk, Mark Spencer at Digium, inc,
writes:
> The Asterisk community is growing at a remarkable pace.  I know there are
> thousands of you out there -- in fact there are over eight *thousand*
> subscribers to asterisk-users alone, and almost one *thousand* registered
> users on the bug tracker.  
This means that everything anyone write to this mailing list, is sent to over
8.000 mailboxes that is already flowing over with messages.

I would like to stress the fact that you have to think before you send a
message to such a big list. Do *not* send out personal replies on the list.
If you offer services to someone, do *not* CC: or reply to the list, it
will annoy more potential customers than get you new customers. If you
send out a message by mistake, you don't have to apologize to all of us,
we understand you're embarassed. We will get more annoyed by your apology
than over your first message.

** Try finding the answer first, then ask the list

The Asterisk Wiki at http://www.voip-info.org project is an important
knowledge base for the project.

Go there to find your answer first, then search the mailing list
archives (Google or http://search.voip-forum.com) and then
go to the IRC channel. The IRC channel is populated with Asterisk gurus
around the clock (literally) and they'll help you move forward.

* IRC info: http://www.asterisk.org/index.php?menu=support#irc
* There's many links to Asterisk web pages on the documentation
   page at http://www.asterisk.org
* The Asterisk FAQ is found on the wiki
   http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+FAQ
* The Asterisk documentation project (which needs your help)
   is at http://www.asteriskdocs.org

Finally, if you don't find the answer elsewhere, try the list.

** Mailing lists
For developers, there is a developer's list. You'll find it
on http://lists.digium.com, which is the address where you manage
your subscription to this list as well.

** Reporting bugs
If you think you have found a bug, report it. We need bug reports.
Read this document http://www.digium.com/bugtracker.html and then
go to the bugtracker http://bugs.digium.com to file a report.
If you are unsure, find a bug marshal on the IRC channel to help
you. They're appointed to support you with how to handle bugs.

Please check the bugtracker thoroughly before posting a new bug;
often, your bug or feature already exists but is simply slowly
making it's way through the system.  Duplicate reports slow things
down for everyone, so please spend a few minutes searching first.

The bug tracker is also a place where you add your contribution
to Asterisk. If you have coded extra functionality, make sure you
give it back to the project so it can be added to the code base.
This is how Asterisk grows, free contributions and consultants
that are paid to add functionality on a case by case basis.

** Remember: It's Open Source, it's voluntary
Asterisk.org is a Open Source project. This means you can't request
help from people, demand new functions or support. However, there
are many individuals and companies out there that are offering
services based on Asterisk, from VoIP service providers to
consultants all over the world.

* See http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk%20consultants

Of course, this is also part of Digium's business, so you have
plenty of help if your willing to pay. Digium is to be found at
http://www.digium.com. Service providers and consultants are
listed on the wiki, where you'll find companies all over the globe
that are willing to set up your PBX and get you connected to either
the PSTN or the growing telephony network on the Internet.

Again, welcome to the Asterisk.org Open Source PBX Project!

Meet you on the IRC channel :-)

/oej

-------------------------------------------------------------
PS. This message will be sent regularly. If you have any
corrections or additional information that needs to be
included, mail me * off list *. Thank you!

Welcome to the Asterisk users community!
----------------------------------------

Asterisk.org is a fast moving project. New code is added every day.
Asterisk is the leading Open Source Telephony platform,
with support both for classical telephony and IP telephony.

Our community is also growing fast and we're having a lot
of interaction, on the IRC and on the mailing lists.

It's great to have you participating in this Open Source project
- building an Open Source PBX. Here are a few things to know and
remember while working with the project.

** The mailing list is growing

The lead programmer of Asterisk, Mark Spencer at Digium, inc,
writes:
> The Asterisk community is growing at a remarkable pace.  I know there are
> thousands of you out there -- in fact there are over eight *thousand*
> subscribers to asterisk-users alone, and almost one *thousand* registered
> users on the bug tracker.  
This means that everything anyone write to this mailing list, is sent to over
8.000 mailboxes that is already flowing over with messages.

I would like to stress the fact that you have to think before you send a
message to such a big list. Do *not* send out personal replies on the list.
If you offer services to someone, do *not* CC: or reply to the list, it
will annoy more potential customers than get you new customers. If you
send out a message by mistake, you don't have to apologize to all of us,
we understand you're embarassed. We will get more annoyed by your apology
than over your first message.

** Try finding the answer first, then ask the list

The Asterisk Wiki at http://www.voip-info.org project is an important
knowledge base for the project.

Go there to find your answer first, then search the mailing list
archives (Google or http://search.voip-forum.com) and then
go to the IRC channel. The IRC channel is populated with Asterisk gurus
around the clock (literally) and they'll help you move forward.

* IRC info: http://www.asterisk.org/index.php?menu=support#irc
* There's many links to Asterisk web pages on the documentation
   page at http://www.asterisk.org
* The Asterisk FAQ is found on the wiki
   http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk+FAQ
* The Asterisk documentation project (which needs your help)
   is at http://www.asteriskdocs.org
   Their handbook "The hitchhiker's guide to Asterisk" is already
   well worth reading.

Finally, if you don't find the answer elsewhere, try the list.

** Mailing lists
For developers, there is a developer's list. You'll find it
on http://lists.digium.com, which is the address where you manage
your subscription to this list as well.

** Reporting bugs
If you think you have found a bug, report it. We need bug reports.
Read this document http://www.digium.com/bugtracker.html and then
go to the bugtracker http://bugs.digium.com to file a report.
If you are unsure, find a bug marshal on the IRC channel to help
you. They're appointed to support you with how to handle bugs.

Please check the bugtracker thoroughly before posting a new bug;
often, your bug or feature already exists but is simply slowly
making it's way through the system.  Duplicate reports slow things
down for everyone, so please spend a few minutes searching first.

The bug tracker is also a place where you add your contribution
to Asterisk. If you have coded extra functionality, make sure you
give it back to the project so it can be added to the code base.
This is how Asterisk grows, free contributions and consultants
that are paid to add functionality on a case by case basis.

** Remember: It's Open Source, it's voluntary
Asterisk.org is a Open Source project. This means you can't request
help from people, demand new functions or support. However, there
are many individuals and companies out there that are offering
services based on Asterisk, from VoIP service providers to
consultants all over the world.

Of course, this is also part of Digium's business, so you have
plenty of help if your willing to pay. Digium is to be found at
http://www.digium.com. Service providers and consultants are
listed on the wiki, where you'll find companies all over the globe
that are willing to set up your PBX and get you connected to either
the PSTN or the growing telephony network on the Internet.

* See http://www.voip-info.org/wiki-Asterisk%20consultants


Again, welcome to the Asterisk.org Open Source PBX Project!

Meet you on the IRC channel :-)

/oej

-------------------------------------------------------------
PS. This message will be sent regularly. If you have any
corrections or additional information that needs to be
included, mail me * off list *. Thank you!