BMO/Handling Requests
Bugzilla has a system of "request flags" for asking someone else to take action on a bug or attachment - e.g. to review it or to provide feedback on it. Mozilla has a community expectation that such requests will be handled within two weeks at the most, and normally much quicker than that. Bugzilla will remind you if you have any requests outstanding for more than 7 days. This page gives guidance on how you can handle such a request if one is made of you.
The mechanism is that a flag, such as "review", is set to "?", and a requestee's name is associated with it. The requestee is then notified, and can either unset the request (decline to fulfil it), or set it to "+" (request granted) or "-" (request not granted).
If a request is made of you, your options are:
Fulfil It
The best thing to do, if you have the time, skill and (if necessary) authority, is to fulfil the request - perform the review, or give the feedback. This does not mean necessarily giving it a "+" - giving a "-" also counts as fulfilling the request.
Redirect It
If you know you are not the right person for the request, but you know who is, please change the requestee from yourself to the correct person.
The sooner you can do this, the better. It is most frustrating for a contributor to see their request outstanding for weeks and then to hear that they've been waiting for the wrong person.
Refuse It
If you know you are not the right person for the request, but don't know who is, please refuse it (by unsetting the flag, rather than giving it a "-") and explain in a comment why you are not the right person. To help others in the community, it is recommended that you at least provide some guidance as to how to find out who the right person might be.
The sooner you can do this, the better. It is most frustrating for a contributor to see their request outstanding for weeks and then to hear that they've been waiting for the wrong person.
Request More Info
It may be that the bug does not contain enough information to easily fulfil the request. For example, patch reviewers often wish to have:
- A succinct summary of what the change is expected to achieve
- Large patches split into manageable chunks
- Commit comments present in the patch
If information you need is missing, it is generally OK to decline to do the review until the patch submitter provides it. (If the patch submitter is a new contributor, it would be good to give them a little more leeway than a seasoned veteran.) You can either do this just by asking for the information in a comment, or by formally refusing (unsetting) the request and asking the submitter to re-request the flag when the information has been provided.
Cancel It
If the request was made a long time ago and it's clear to you that the patch is no longer suitable as it stands, the right thing it to cancel (remove) the request, with an apologetic note. If you think an updated patch would still be useful, ask the patch owner to refresh the patch and re-request review. If such a patch does get refreshed, you should make such a review a high priority - no-one likes to be ignored once, let alone twice.
