This is a reply to Thunderbird prompting me to 'tell us what you think' - and it is about updating Thunderbird
Thunderbird shows me a message containing the following text (which this form - the form into which I type now - appears not to let me quote properly).
Start of quoted text ----
Check out "What’s New" and "Known Issues" for this version of Thunderbird below. As always, you’re encouraged to tell us what you think, or file a bug in Bugzilla
Thunderbird version 68.8.0 provides an automatic update from Thunderbird version 60. If you have installed Lightning, Thunderbird's calendar add-on, it will automatically be updated to match the new version of Thunderbird. Refer to this Calendar troubleshooting article in case of problems.
System Requirements: • Window: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 or later • Mac: Mac OS X 10.9 or later • Linux: GTK+ 3.4 or higher. Details here.
Please refer to Release Notes for version 68.0 to see the list of improvements and fixed issues.
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That text is a verbose way of conveying one thing that the 60 to 68 upgrade does. That information is of little use. For, I want the full change log of what is new with 68.8, i.e. the full change log for the particular version that I am upgrading too. (For, I had 68., er, something, before - the Thunderbird 'about' dialogue now shows the new version number, even though I have yet to restart Thunderbird.) In short: *if you are going to make the user read about changes, actually tell the reader what those changes are.* It is just *obvious* that that is what should happen (for one sees the text when clicking something called . . 'release notes') or at the least it is obvious that you should provide a link to a proper change log.
Also, it is a little bit stupid for a 'tell us what you think' link to lead to a webpage soliciting a *question*.
All Replies (1)
Two items.
There is current discussion of a proper feedback mechanism. I have for years argued that the support forum of NOT a feedback venue. Perhaps we will get something I don't have to read from it because I find the repeated requests for the same thing simply tiresome.
Most users simply don't read anything, so a little verbose note about the fact a change occurred is actually more than most people will read. But it meets the implied obligation to inform them change has occurred.
As for a full change log. I am sure someone with sufficient search skills in Bugzilla could determine which bugs were included in the current build that were not in the previous one, but a doubt seriously that anyone actually has a complete change log. Basically Thunderbird is built on what is not quaintly called the Mozilla platform (used to be called Geko). The four weekly updates are almost exclusively changes to that platform, not Thunderbird. As those cumulative changes would form part of a change log your asking for a huge list of changes. Most of which will have not relevance to anyone at all. There used to be a web site rumbling edge that documented all of the bugs in each release, but the site owner was not able to find anyone to take it over when he could no longer maintain it.
To provide just a little insight on just how much information a complete change log would need to contain, this is the latest changeset for mozilla central Sat, 23 May 2020 00:36:38 +0300 (5 hours ago) https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/ or the Thunderbird repository change set Tue, 05 May 2020 13:01:07 +0100 (2 weeks ago) here https://hg.mozilla.org/comm-central/