The Question: How does a novice distinguish a bug report from a question?
I approach this as a highly relevant practical question, since it will determine the venue of a pending query I have, but I would rather have this clarified for others as well.
That's the skinny. The rest is just justification for re-asking what seems to be a not-quite-clearly-asked-and-clearly-answered parliamentary question.
Thanks in advance!
Louis
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Motivations, in increasingly ranting order :
Jorge Castro suggested that the FAQ be updated to clarify the distinction between bug reports and questions. I agree, and believe that 'don't post bugs' needs some exposition for those who don't know the difference on their own (like me, or new users).
I do not want to accidentally waste anyone's time, be it the Ask community's or the Launchpad community's.
I assume Ask Ubuntu is a better first place to post than a program developer's bug site, when in doubt - but I don't know if this is strictly true, from a tech-forum cultural standpoint.
I often assume I don't know enough to 'make it work' rather than declare that I do know enough to pass judgement on one-in-particuar of a vast interrelated system of programs and then say it to an author's face, and usually find out that the former is true. My guess is, this is also the case for almost anyone beginning their walk with Ubuntu.
The original scope of a question may not suggest any one particular solution at all, such that what the community may at first see as 'that's how you do it, it's just broken' may become, to another subset, 'oh, I had that problem too. Here's a workaround', ultimately even, over time, to the community response being, 'That's already been asked and learn how to do a search,' thereby educating new users how simple the issue is, when two months ago it was an insurmountable bug.
The first time I was told I should report an issue as a bug, I felt all tingly. Think how exotic that idea must be to a non-tech user when they're told, "It's not you, it's your machine." Should it be an off-hand slap in the face, or an empowering liberation of the electromechanical soul? "If Desmond Tutu can do it, so can you! Ubuntu!"