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WasteBug is a minimalistic and usable developer-oriented free software bug tracker. It was originally written by Pihlaja Voipio in 2004 and later used, extended, partly lost and restored within the work of ASK-Solutions.
WasteBug has historical roots, but it is still a working tool within ASK-Solutions. It is used for Nocterra, Bookkeeping, system administration and other internal processes, and it continues to be maintained and developed where practical needs arise. That makes the project both part of the foundation’s software history and part of its current working infrastructure: minimalistic software where that is useful, free software, control over one’s own systems, preservation of source code and respect for the people behind the work.
WasteBug is a minimalistic web-based bug-tracking tool. Its original design favoured simplicity and usability over large management frameworks, heavy workflows or project-management systems built around control and reporting. It was meant for developers who needed a practical way to record bugs, feature requests and work items without turning the tool itself into the centre of the project.
That made WasteBug attractive to ASK-Solutions. The tool was minimalistic in the useful sense: focused on bugs, tasks and development work without turning itself into a large management framework. It could be adapted and hosted independently, while still being practical for real work. It fitted the foundation’s preference for software that supports cooperation, responsibility and technical control instead of imposing unnecessary process, ownership barriers or administrative overhead.
WasteBug was originally written by Pihlaja Voipio in 2004. Older release material and archives may show the original author under earlier historical names or references. The restored project uses the current public credit Pihlaja Voipio / signaldust where possible, while keeping the technical and licence history understandable for people who need to trace the source code.
ASK-Solutions treats the restored project as a continuation and preservation of the original work, not as a replacement of its authorship. The current project history therefore distinguishes between the original WasteBug code, later ASK-Solutions changes, recovered material and parts that are still missing.
WasteBug entered the ASK-Solutions working practice through Laura, one of the founders of the IRADIS Foundation and later one of the WasteBug maintainers within ASK-Solutions. Before WasteBug was used by the foundation, Laura encountered it in an external work setting where development activities had moved from a highly structured ISO-based work environment into a setting where little development infrastructure, project tracking or process support was present. RV, a colleague of Laura in that work setting, found WasteBug as a practical tool for recording bugs, tasks and development work.
In the earlier environment, development was not only documented after the fact. Work processes, requirement specifications, memos, project plans, document structures, planning, code reviews, operational testing, vulnerability and penetration testing were organised around ISO-based procedures. Team leads could define milestones, project settings and tasks, assign work, review progress and adjust planning, while team members could see assigned tasks and report starts, stops and completion. In the new setting, that wider development structure was largely absent.
WasteBug became a practical answer to that gap. It was installed on a Linux server that had come from the earlier environment and gave the team a simple way to record bugs, tasks and development work without introducing a large management system. Because it worked well in that setting, it was later brought into the foundation’s own work and became part of the ASK-Solutions toolchain.
ASK-Solutions still uses WasteBug internally to track Nocterra development, Bookkeeping development, system administration work and other internal processes. That current use is part of why the project is preserved as more than a historical archive. WasteBug remains a practical working tool within the foundation, while also serving as a recovered free software project with a documented history.
Over time, ASK-Solutions extended WasteBug for its own needs. The added work included support for a MySQL database backend, Task Units for grouping related tasks together, and time-tracking features under the name WasteTime.
WasteTime focused on the time between discovering a bug or receiving a feature request, starting the work and finishing it. The intention was not to create a managerial surveillance tool, but to understand practical response time, workload and planning. The available data could be used to show patterns, estimate when work might be handled and understand how priority, team size and available time affected actual progress.
These additions show why WasteBug belongs in the ASK-Solutions project history. It was not only an imported tool. It became part of a wider working practice around adaptable software, practical planning and tools that can be changed when the people using them need something different.
Part of the later WasteBug and WasteTime work was lost during The Great Server Crash™. With help from Pihlaja and RV, the original WasteBug code was recovered, together with some of the code connected to MySQL support.
The Task Unit code is still missing, and so is the graphing capability that belonged to WasteTime. The restored project is therefore both a free software project and a preservation effort. It keeps a minimalistic, practical bug tracker available, while also documenting which parts of the original and ASK-Solutions history survived, which parts were recovered and which parts are still missing.
In 2022, ASK-Solutions contacted Pihlaja about the surviving WasteBug material. That contact was not only technical. The original project had become inactive in a wider human-rights context involving dignity, safety, recognition and control over one’s own life. The recovery of the software therefore had to be handled with care, consent and respect for authorship.
Pihlaja confirmed the project history, the original authorship and the preferred current crediting. She also gave permission for ASK-Solutions to preserve and continue the project. The restored repository should therefore be read as a continuation and preservation of the original WasteBug project, not as a replacement of its authorship.
The current project credits both the original work and the later ASK-Solutions work. Older release material may contain historical names or archive references. The restored project uses current public crediting where possible, while keeping the technical and licence history understandable for people who need to trace the source code.
WasteBug fits the ASK-Solutions line of work because it connects free software, practical control and software preservation. A bug tracker may look like a limited-purpose tool, but the questions behind it are larger: who controls the tools used to organise work, can those tools be studied and adapted, and what happens when useful software disappears because a website, server, company, platform or personal project vanishes?
For ASK-Solutions, preserving WasteBug is part of the same practical philosophy that appears in Nocterra, repair work, free hardware, documentation and Right to Ownership. Tools should not become black boxes that people can only rent, consume or abandon. They should remain available to study, repair, adapt, reinstall, preserve and share.
In that sense, WasteBug is minimalistic yet usable. It is a restored free software tool, a recovered piece of project history and a reminder that source code is also human work. Preserving and continuing it means preserving authorship, context, licence history and the ability for others to continue using and learning from it.
WasteBug is currently maintained as an active free software project with historical roots. The available code can be used, studied and adapted under the licence terms included with the project. The current restored version is usable within ASK-Solutions, but does not yet contain all later ASK-Solutions additions.
Known missing parts include the Task Unit code and the WasteTime graphing capability. Additional old copies, patches, screenshots, documentation or database exports may help complete the archive and reconstruct the project history more accurately.
ASK-Solutions is trying to preserve historical WasteBug and WasteTime material. If you still have an old release, source archive, patch, screenshot, database schema, documentation, example installation or related file, please contact the foundation.
Recovered material may help complete the archive, document the missing Task Unit and WasteTime features, and preserve the project as a free software and software-history artifact.
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