Here is a proposed addition to the devguide talking about the buildbot console interface (which I find far more useful than the waterfall view), and mentioning the notifications posted to #python-dev (which is a good way to find out if you broke the buildbots).

Due to lack of Rietveld, comments in-line (? lines) below:



@@ -42,6 +42,24 @@
 
       bbreport.py -q 3.x
 
+* The buildbot "console" interface at http://buildbot.python.org/all/console
+  (this link will take a while to load), which provides a summary view of all

? I think it can be assumed that most pages from buildbot.python.org will be slow to load :)
? Perhaps add that comment in the 'The Web interface...' paragraph above?

+  builders and all branches.  This works best on a wide, high resolution
+  monitor.  You can enter the your mercurial username ("your name

? s/the your/your/

+  <your@email>") in the 'personalized for' box in the upper right corner to see
+  the results just for changesets submitted by you.  Clicking on the colored
+  circles will allow you to open a new page containing whatever information
+  about that particular build is of interest to you.  You can also access
+  builder information by clicking on the builder status bubbles in the top
+  line.
+
+If you like IRC, having an irc client open to the #python-dev channel on

? Should 'irc' be capitalized?

+irc.freenode.net is useful.  If a build fails (and the previous build by the
+same builder did not) then a message is posted to the channel.  Likewise if a
+build passes when the previous one did not, a message is posted.  Keeping an

? I think this could be simplified to 'Any time a builder switches from passing
? to failing (or vice versa), a message is posted to the channel.'

? 'switches from passing to failing' is still a bit iffy, though. Maybe 
? 'fails a build after a successful build'?  Or a simpler 'switches from green to red'?
? That could be construed as color-blind-ist, though :)

+eye on the channel after pushing a changeset is a simple way to get notified
+that there is something you should look in to.
+
 Some buildbots are much faster than others.  Over time, you will learn which
 ones produce the quickest results after a build, and which ones take the
 longest time.



I had not used the console view before, that's pretty nice!

Thanks for the review.  Here is an updated patch.

LGTM.

Thank you R. David and Zach. The patch looks good to me too, and the info will be helpful to others.

Please commit and let's get this good info out to others :)
(I don't have privileges or I would do so.)

Oops, forgot to put the issue number in the commit message:

    bff43c5c8c4f