Hello,
just a random example: "# Maintainer: DuckSoft <realducksoft at gmail dot com> # Co-Maintainer: Mark Wagie <mark dot wagie at tutanota dot com> # Contributor: KokaKiwi <kokakiwi+aur@xxxxxxxxxxxx>" - https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/tree/PKGBUILD?h=ventoy-bin
So if we go on the statistics within this one PKGBUILD 2/3 emails are obfuscated which means approximately 66.67% of people obfuscate, although this is not representative of the entire AUR, we would need a bigger data set.
It does however highlight how easy it is to find a package with obfuscated email addresses, and the issue is the Maintainer and Co-Maintainer are the ones obfuscating their emails, they are the exact people you would want to email if there is an issue.
also can I highlight how easy it is for a bot to de-obfuscate these emails: 1. replace all "dot" with . 2. replace all "at" with @ 3. remove all whitespace 3 steps, and your "spam protection" has been completely invalidated.
However, depending on the kind of issue, I usually add a comment or very rarely click "Submit Request" or I report an issue against upstream.
Unfortunately, the number of AUR packagers which actually reply to the comments in their packages are few, but there are some out there who make it a habit to always try to respond to people who are commenting on their package.
The comment feature in AUR is less than ideal for conversations about issues though.
Related to issues with packages from official repositories I either senda request to this mailing list, or I report an issue to https://bugs.archlinux.org/ (and/or upstream) or I ask athttps://bbs.archlinux.org/ , for example, the coder/person who maintains ventoy upstream is subscribed as "longpanda" to the Arch forums and active, https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1948154#p1948154 .
Personally I just email the packager, I think a few of the TU's have seen my emails pop into their inbox asking when they are going to update a package within the community repository as it has been flagged out of date for over a month (little bit of a dick move, but I get worried if a package is not bumped after 1+ months as it commonly means the packager has lost interest in the package).
Assuming that some obfuscated email addresses should annoy some
neurodivergent users (e.g. individuals suffer from different symptoms of
dyslexia), it still rarely makes sense to send an email to a {Co-
,}Maintainer or Contributor mentioned by the PKGBUILD.
I disagree, email is more convenient to me, I rather discuss an issue over email than have to login to the bug tracker (in the case of official packages) or wait for an AUR packager to POSSIBLY reply or even read to my comment in the AUR, much rather just email, although I got a feeling a lot of people would not agree with this method of communication and state I am sending redundant or un-needed emails.
Thanks, -- Polarian GPG signature: 0770E5312238C760 Website: https://polarian.dev JID/XMPP: polarian@xxxxxxxxxxxx
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