Re: Why Django Sucks

I recently came across this presentation on 'Why Django Sucks' and the associated discussion in Hacker News.

One of the key points raised was the perceived insularity of Django's core development community. In this context I have an anecdote to share about the core community or rather how the core community is frequently sloppy with the triage process.

I reported a Django bug and more importantly submitted tests for it. The bug languished for a while and eventually got fixed as a side effect of some changes. I reported this when I found out and a month later someone closed it. The regression tests, however, never made it to the test suite.

I believe that (1) people who take their time to give you a test are doing you a favor (2) one should never miss a chance to add a valid regression test to the suite.

I don't think there was any malice or hubris but the closed nature of the community did have something to do with this. I suspect that how fast and how thoroughly a bug is accepted and processed depends on who submits it. This will prove unhealthy in the long run.

So what can be done to address this? I believe that the bug triage process will benefit from more eyes. These don't have to be those of core developers but of people with the authority to take decisions on bugs. The community should also actively encourage people to submit more tests. Spread the word that this is as important as submitting patches.