A bug squashing party is a time in which many get together on IRC or in person (e.g. at a Linux conference) in order to find and fix as many software bugs as possible in a piece of open-source software. Download high resolution version (740x615, 93 KB)Photo of first Computer bug, public domain image from US Navy. ... Download high resolution version (740x615, 93 KB)Photo of first Computer bug, public domain image from US Navy. ... Internet Relay Chat (IRC) is a form of instant communication over the Internet. ... A Linux conference is a computer conference for people interested in Linux, BSD and open-source software. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ...
Bugs that have only recently been opened — non-maintainer uploads are encouraged, but we don't want to snatch bugs out from under a maintainer who was going to fix them anyway.
Bugs that are specific to hardware you don't have access to — this is not a hard and fast rule, as sometimes these bugs are fixable just from the information in the bug report, but it usually makes sense to avoid them at least on a first pass through the list.
Once you think you've squashed a bug — which usually means you've reproduced it in a controlled environment, made a change to the package, and confirmed that the bug went away — you're ready to submit a patch to the BTS.