5 * Summary of approved methods for contacting the members of the
6 * MinGW.OSDN user and developer community.
11 * Written by Keith Marshall <keith@users.osdn.me>
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58 <dt id="page-title">Contacting MinGW.OSDN</dt>
59 <dt id="page-subtitle">When a Web-Search Fails to Resolve your Issue</dt>
60 </dl><!-- masthead -->
61 <p>If you have exhausted all of the web‑site resources,
62 and you have searched all of the
63 <a href="index.html?page=mailing.html"
64 >available mailing‑list archives</a>,
65 and all of the on‑line
66 <a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"
67 href="https://osdn.net/projects/mingw/ticket/"
68 >bug report and feature request tickets</a>,
69 then you may wish to contact MinGW.OSDN for assistance.
70 Please refer to the relevant sections below,
71 for guidance on <a href="#general-enquiry">making general enquiries</a>,
72 on <a href="#bug-report">filing bug reports</a>,
73 or on <a href="#feature-request">requesting new features</a>.
76 the mingw‑w64 and MSYS2 projects are <strong>not</strong>,
77 in any way, affiliated with MinGW.OSDN;
78 MinGW.OSDN <strong>does not</strong> support the products
79 of these projects.</em>
81 <div class="overlapped" id="general-enquiry">
82 <h3>General Enquiries</h3>
83 <p>If you encounter a problem using MinGW, or MSYS,
84 and you cannot find a satisfactory answer on our web‑site,
86 <a href="index.html?page=mailing.html">mailing‑list archives</a>,
87 or elsewhere on the internet,
88 or if you simply need some advice relating to MinGW, or MSYS,
90 <a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"
91 href="https://lists.osdn.me/mailman/listinfo/mingw-users"
92 >subscribe to the MinGW‑Users mailing‑list</a>,
95 <p><em>Do please note that, to help avoid spam,
96 this mailing‑list is open to subscribers only.
97 Please <strong>do not</strong>
98 attempt to circumvent the subscription process,
99 by sending mail to either the mingw-users-owner,
100 or the mingw-users-admin addresses.
101 Doing so will be of no benefit to you,
102 since subscription is free‑of‑charge in any case,
103 and you will get no reply from the former address,
104 while the latter is reserved for automated self‑help replies,
105 in response to specific subject keywords.</em>
107 <p>Before posting to this mailing‑list,
108 we <em>strongly</em> recommend that you acquaint yourself with
109 <a href="index.html?page=mailing.html#list-etiquette"
110 >the mailing‑list posting etiquette</a>;
111 compliance with this may improve your chances of receiving a response,
112 whereas non‑compliance may result in your post being ignored.
113 </p></div><!-- general-enquiry -->
114 <div class="overlapped" id="bug-report">
115 <h3>Reporting Bugs</h3>
116 <p>After discussing an issue on the mailing‑list,
117 as described above, you may be asked to file a formal bug report.
119 if you are certain that you have identified a bug in a MinGW.OSDN product,
120 you may choose to file such a bug report of your own volition;
121 however, if you choose this course of action,
122 please be aware that many bug reports,
123 which are filed <em>without</em> prior discussion,
124 are ultimately dismissed as user error).
126 <p><em>Before you even consider filing a bug report,
128 <a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"
129 href="https://osdn.net/projects/mingw/ticket/"
130 >the list of existing tickets</a>,
131 (<strong>including closed tickets</strong>
132 — ensure that the “Open” and “Closed”
133 status check‑boxes are <strong>both</strong> selected,
134 and click the “Search” button),
135 to ensure that the issue has not already been reported</em>.
137 <p><em>Please <strong>do not</strong> file a bug report,
138 if your issue relates to an unimplemented API feature;
139 it is more appropriate to file
140 a “<a href="#feature-request">Feature Request</a>” instead</em>.
142 <p><em>Please do not waste your time, (and ours),
143 reporting issues with your anti‑virus software;
144 the heuristic nature of such software, all too frequently,
145 results in false‑positive reports,
146 and in the absence of deterministic evidence of infection,
147 we will take no action in response.</em>
149 <p>Regardless of your motivation for filing a bug report,
150 you <em>must</em>, (unless you already have one),
151 <em><a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"
152 href="https://osdn.net/account/register.php"
153 >create a personal OSDN.net account</a></em>,
155 <em><a target="_blank" href="index.html?page=buginfo.html"
156 >acquaint yourself with the bug reporting guidelines</a></em>.
158 <em><a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"
159 href="https://osdn.net/account/login.php?return_to=/ticket/newticket.php?group_id=3917"
160 >log in to your OSDN.net account</a></em>,
162 <em><a rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"
163 href="https://osdn.net/ticket/newticket.php?group_id=3917"
164 >the bug report submission form</a></em>.
165 Please review the submission instructions,
166 (which appear at the top of the submission form),
167 then complete the form,
168 leaving the ticket type set to “Issue”.
170 <p><em>Please <strong>do not</strong> ignore the submission instructions.
171 In particular, note that,
172 unless you are a member of the MinGW.OSDN Project development team,
173 you are <strong>not</strong> authorized to assign a specific responder
174 for the ticket; nor are you authorized to assign an elevated priority
175 or severity attribute for your ticket.
176 If you exceed your authority,
177 your ticket <strong>will</strong> be reassigned to <strong>lowest</strong>
178 priority/severity, and may even be rejected altogether</em>.
180 <p>Before you finally submit your report,
181 please use the “Preview” facility to check for,
182 and correct, any markup errors;
183 (these are, alas, all too common,
184 and create a bad impression of the reporter).
185 Finally, when you are satisfied, click the “Submit” button
186 to complete the ticket submission process.
187 </p></div><!-- bug-report -->
188 <div class="overlapped" id="feature-request">
189 <h3>Feature Requests</h3>
190 <p>When you wish to request the implementation of a new feature,
191 (e.g. to support a currently unsupported MSVC or POSIX API function),
192 you should file a feature request ticket.
193 The procedure is effectively the same as that for
194 <a href="#bug-report">filing a bug report</a>,
195 <em>except</em> that you set the ticket type to “Feature Request”,
196 instead of leaving it as “Issue”.
198 <p><em>Please be aware that feature request submissions are subject
199 to the same restrictions on your authority,
200 as are applicable to <a href="#bug-report">bug reporting</a></em>.
202 <p>Before you submit a feature request,
203 it is recommended that you discuss the feasibility of implementing
204 the proposed feature, as a <a href="#general-enquiry">general enquiry topic</a>,
205 on the mailing‑list.
206 Additionally, <em>after</em> you have submitted such a request,
207 you should use the mailing‑list to bring it to the
208 attention of the MinGW user community,
209 and invite them to support your request,
210 by <em>voting</em> on your ticket;
211 (please note that MinGW developers will consider votes,
212 when prioritizing feature requests).
213 </p></div><!-- feature-request -->