Comment Stopped due to ego issues (Score 2, Interesting) 244
I used to help find and fix bugs quite a lot. I'd write up the procedure, send screenshots, and then test the fix. About 5-6 years ago this worked well - I'd document and find bugs at essentially the same time and developers would be able to pinpoint code that needed to be updated or fixed and that was that.
Sometime in the last few years, however, it appears that code, whether correct or incorrect, well-written or hastily hacked together, is tied directly to the author's ego. Finding a bug became the same as criticizing their mother's birthright (and this is NOT just the open source community, where pride rarely goeth before a fall as it is, but most coders I know now fall into this category). Not only that, but most developers are so focused on Feature! Feature! Feature! that they let bug reports languish in some tracking software while, all the while, new Feature! Feature! Feature! is written and buggy as well. Thus the cycle is complete.
I've written poor code before and reacted poorly to criticism. The difference is, I stopped writing code and went into support and any criticism I get I use to try and improve myself (unless the criticism contains words which the filter won't allow me to type
A good follow-up poll should ask "What is the earliest bug filed in your favorite open source project?". I bet we tap back into the mid 90's on some long-running projects (not to mention pages and pages of developer vs. end user back-and-forth drivel in the often-futile world of "My idea is better than yours.")