[TxMt] Re: github issues forum

[Meryn Stol]

Hi Allan,

On Sun, Mar 24, 2013 at 10:14 AM, Allan Odgaard <mailinglist at textmate.org>wrote:
>
>  Why has Github issues forum been removed?
>>
>
> It was not a forum.


Allright, maybe I should have said "board", or "reporting system" instead
of forum. I thought just calling it "github issues" was a bit weird because
it seemed to refer to "issues with github", or some "collection of issues"
or so.


>  previously I was forced to go to github.com roughly five times a day to
>> assign labels to issues, search for duplicates to properly link them,
>> engage in one-on-one troubleshooting, and for issues that got closed, try
>> to state why it was closed in a way that wouldn’t upset the submitter.
>>
>
No, you were not. You could easily ignore most  of what was posted there,
if you wished. It would just made you seem somewhat unresponsive /
inaccessible. Removing a place to submit issues to doesn't make the issues
go away. Perhaps they are never shared now.

I don't see how on this mailing list, you should be any less careful on
"not to upset" a submitter.
Chances are though, that you may receive less feedback you feel you ought
to respond too, which may be a good outcome for you. Perhaps, if you feel
totally swamped in work, the less communication you get the better. Then
any hurdles you set up would be good. Maybe ask people to solve some random
crossword before being able to submit an issue or feature suggestion? Then
you'll be sure to only get the most pressing ones, or those coming from the
most tenacious users. :)

Not saying there wasn’t value in the issue tracker, there certainly was,
> and part of me feels bad for having closed it, but it was just too much of
> a distraction.
>

I guess this is more closer to reality. I guess it could be a distraction.
It much depends on how capable you are in "fully" dealing with feedback.
Not only responding to it in word, but also fixing the bugs and
implementing the feature suggestions (if they make sense).


> Long-term it might be back, we may try another issue tracker, or maybe
> even a forum. But for now, I’ll just focus on development, and I can assure
> you, despite having closed the issue tracker, there is no scarcity of
> feedback :)
>
>  Is there any archive of the discussions in the github issues forum?
>> Currently, all urls currently resolve to 404. :(
>>
>
> Unfortunately GitHub does not have an option for that.
>

I'm sad to hear that. Do you think you can recover the data somehow in the
future, or will you just leave at it this? Maybe the "issues board" always
has been a sideshow? It wouldn't have occured me to ever check the Textmate
mailing list if you wouldn't have removed it. But maybe the discussions
contained are truly inconsequential compared to the info on the mailing
list. What I do know is that some github issue reports ranked quite high
when googling. I think I have found an answer to questions like this
multiple times. I do not recall ever stumbling upon threads on this mailing
list.

My preference would be to have the "github issues board" be reinstated. You
could add a note in the readme that you might not respond to most issues
posted, and that you'll be very aggressive in closing issues. This I fully
respect. Generally, I'm very happy that there's active development on
Textmate again, and I'm waiting for the time the "alpha" is over (it's
stable and functional enough for my purposes..) so I can hand you over some
money. :)

Generally, I think a database with unaddressed (or quickly closed) issue
reports is valuable in its own right. For example, a user can then realize
he's not alone experiencing a certain issue, or that a feature he/she
wishes for is just "not gonna happen", at least not until some kind soul
stands up and does it voluntarily.

Best,
Meryn
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