Re: Is bug report a contribution?

Yes, a bug report is a worthwhile contribution.

Yes, it is better to make a reasonable effort to prove there is a bug. Creating a small test case removes any ambiguity.

Bug reports serve two purposes:

They make the author aware of the bug.
They make users aware of the bug.

Even if the author does not fix the bug in a timely manner, perhaps one of the users may fix it by submitting a patch to the bug report.

Documentation bug reports are valid, whether they be for incorrect information, missing information, typos or spelling errors. Again, this clears up ambiguities.

Comment on Re: Is bug report a contribution?

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Re^2: Is bug report a contribution? by moritz (Cardinal) on Oct 06, 2013 at 14:48 UTC
There is actually a third purpose: Bug reports help the users who run into a problem to find out what circumstances trigger the bug. Often you google for an error message, and if the bug report states the preconditions/circumstances of the bug, that can often serve to find a workaround.	[reply]