Revised: The dark side of Ubuntu Launchpad bugs: mail till you die

I was all chuffed with myself for participating in the Ubuntu process through commenting on bugs in Launchpad.

Then the e-mail started to annoy me.

I unsubscribed to the bugs.

The mail kept coming.

It seems you don't have to actually be subscribed to a bug in Launchpad in order to be bombarded with mail. The bug I initially subscribed to had to do with xserver-xorg-video-intel.

That means a lot of mail.

Why doesn't unsubscribing stop the mail?

It turns out that participating in the bug meant I was in the "also notified" list. I was getting dozens of e-mails a day that I wished to stop.

Yes, I filtered the mail into its own folder. But who needs it?

I found the answer, I think.

You sign in to Launchpad and sort of act like you're subscribing to the bug, but this supposedly has the effect of removing you from the "also notified" list. For xserver-xorg-video-intel, I entered this URL:

https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+subscribe

Yeah, it's says "+subscribe" but it gives this output on the next HTML page:

You have unsubscribed from "xserver-xorg-video-intel in ubuntu". You will no longer automatically receive e-mail about changes to its public bugs.

Will the "also notified" e-mail stop? I'll report back.

What do I think about this? The "also notified" mail feature is a nuisance, and I consider it a bug in Launchpad itself. It makes me not want to participate in Launchpad.

If/when I start using Ubuntu again, I'll try Launchpad again, but only if I can do it without getting e-mail on the bugs I report/comment on.

Update: This hack works. I was able to stop the "also notified" mail related to the Intel X driver with this counterintuitive command while logged into Launchpad:

https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-intel/+subscribe

So yes, "+subscribe" has the effect of unsubscribing you to things you already aren't subscribed to but which you're getting anyway.

Analysis: While I appreciate the hack, Launchpad should a) let users know about "also notified" mail and b) allow them to manage it on a bug-by-bug basis.