Revised "Bug Writing Guidelines" available for review

[Eli Goldberg]

Hi, everyone --

    I wrote Bugzilla's bug writing guidelines eight years ago while I was a
software test engineer at Netscape. I've placed a revised copy for review
and possible check-in at:

    http://www.prometheus-music.com/gecko/bug-writing.html.tmpl

    Why update this tutorial?

    A lot has changed in eight years:

    * Many of the products I mentioned are obsolete (Mac OS 9, Internet
Explorer 5, Macsbug, etc.)

    * People have shrinking attention spans when reading web pages. We can't
count on people reading every single word and tangent. Content must be quick
to read or it will be ignored.

    (I receive monthly e-mails from annoyed people who won't report a bug
because the tutorial was too long to read.)

    * My own standards are higher -- I'm now a graduate student in technical
communications at the University of Washington.


    So, after talking with Max and Gandalf, I've updated the Bug Writing
Guidelines to better reflect the expectations of today's users.

    Most of these changes are from Vera Horiuchi, who wrote much of the
original Netscape/Mozilla documentation, and who presently oversees
documentation and instructional design for Apple's web browser.

    I hope you will find it to be more user friendly, easier to understand,
and -- surprise! -- shorter.
   
    If there's anyone who could let me know what to do next to get it
through the review cycle, I'll be available for one more week until the fall
semester starts.

    Eli Goldberg