Nobody wants to "Subscribe to bug mail"

Bug #193873 reported by Matthew Paul Thomas
12
This bug affects 1 person
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Launchpad itself
Won't Fix
Low
Eleanor Berger

Bug Description

The "Overview" page (at least until bug 193872 is fixed) for a project, milestone, package, or distribution contains a "Subscribe to bug mail" link. But that's synecdoche, confusing the object with the mechanism (like calling a telephone, or writing to a mailbox).

The link should be reworded to refer to a user goal. What people want to do, if they click this link intentionally, is subscribe to all bug reports. So the link should be "Subscribe to all bug reports", or (if that doesn't fit while the Actions menu still exists, a slighter synecdoche) "Subscribe to all bugs".

Changed in launchpad:
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Duncan Lithgow (duncan-lithgow) wrote :

+1

Revision history for this message
Deryck Hodge (deryck) wrote :

This can (and will) be fixed (for bugs, anyway) in the redesign of the project bugs home for 3.0.

Changed in malone:
importance: Undecided → Low
milestone: none → 3.0
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Deryck Hodge (deryck)
Changed in malone:
assignee: nobody → Tom Berger (intellectronica)
Deryck Hodge (deryck)
Changed in malone:
milestone: 3.0 → 3.1.10
Revision history for this message
Eleanor Berger (intellectronica) wrote :

I'm not sure the proposed change will result in better user experience. To me, 'subscribe to bug mail' better describes what I can expect (all mail pertaining to bugs) than 'subscribe to all bugs' (will I receive comments? metadata changes?)

Either this is one of those cases where a recognizable 'mistake' is better than an obscure but correct form, or I've used the function for long enough that I am longer capable of judging.

Revision history for this message
Eleanor Berger (intellectronica) wrote :

How about 'Subscribe to all bug notifications'?

Revision history for this message
Eleanor Berger (intellectronica) wrote :

My fix for bug #419965 makes the link sensitive to existing subscription (so you are offered to subscribe if there are no subscriptions and to edit if there are). I'm inclined to continue using the term bug mail, though. It's 'wrong' but very familiar, and any of the alternative terms I've heard strike me as less recognizable.

If there's agreement on that, this bug can be marked WONTFIX.

Revision history for this message
Martin Pool (mbp) wrote :

In my opinion this is not worth doing anything more on at this time. The phrase is not precise but I doubt it causes much pain: people who want all mail can get it, and people who're getting lots of mail but don't want it probably need a larger story considered. (Like a "notification manager" type screen showing all the reasons they're getting mail.)

Revision history for this message
Deryck Hodge (deryck) wrote :

Agreed with the comments here.

Changed in malone:
status: Triaged → Won't Fix
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