Contributing bug reports

[Anthony Vanelverdinghe]

Hi all

I have 2 questions related to contributing bug reports:

- What are the current plans for externalizing the JIRA system?

Around JavaOne 2012, Joseph D. Darcy made some blog posts about it, one 
of which says "We don't currently have a firm timeline for 
externalization of the JIRA system. Updates will be provided as they 
become available." [1] However, that's almost 2 years ago, so I'm 
wondering if there haven't been any updates since, or if I missed something.

- In the meantime, what is the preferred way of contributing bug reports?

Personally, I feel a big hindrance in contributing to the OpenJDK is the 
total lack of feedback with the current bug system [2]. As an example: 
about 2 months ago I submitted 2 bug reports. But aside from the 
automatic e-mail I received upon submission, I have received no feedback 
since. Moreover, as far as I know, there is no way for me to find out 
the current status of my reports: were they already processed? If not, 
where in the "queue" are they? If so, what are the corresponding bug IDs 
or why were they rejected? ... So if anyone with access to the current 
system would like to enlighten me, I'd really appreciate it. The review 
IDs are JI-9012057 and JI-9012058.

While I was subscribed to lambda-dev, I witnessed an alternative: post 
bugs to the appropriate OpenJDK mailing list, after which an Oracle 
employee files a bug report for it (e.g. [3]). Maybe lambda-dev isn't 
the best example, so: what are the accepted practices here? Can the 
mailing lists be used as an alternative to the current bug system while 
we wait for externalization of the JIRA system? or would it be deemed 
inappropriate?

There is also the forum at java.net, pointed to by the JDK snapshot 
releases page [4], but in my opinion it's not very inviting. It contains 
spam posts & there's no consistency: some posts get answered immediately 
by Oracle employees, while other seemingly legitimate bug reports stay 
unanswered for months [5].

Thanks in advance for any feedback

Kind regards, Anthony

[1] https://blogs.oracle.com/darcy/entry/milestone_jira_system_of_record
[2] http://bugs.java.com
[3] http://mail.openjdk.java.net/pipermail/lambda-dev/2014-March/011945.html
[4] https://jdk9.java.net/download/
[5] 
https://www.java.net/forum/topic/jdk/java-se-snapshots-project-feedback/possible-bug-jre7u60-ea-b13-javaxswingjfilechooser