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An open question is how the community should provide feedback. Perhaps if Github used their own issues system to gather feedback on Github itself, they'd more

An open question is how the community should provide feedback. Perhaps if Github used their own issues system to gather feedback on Github itself, they'd more rapidly improve it. I'm sure they'd feel a lot of these pain points in a far sharper, more visceral way if they were subjected to them daily.

jessaustin 11y ago
Yes it is fairly bizarre that Github don't dogfood the issues function. I'm sure they have an internal system that they prefer, but even that internal system could have a public interface. Also, if the internal system is superior then its superior features could be added to the public system so that we could all benefit.
- scrollaway 11y ago
  Where are you getting that they don't dogfood the issue tracker? It's a private tracker (private repository) but from what I've seen in the Github blog, they do... it wouldn't make much sense if they didn't.
  - jessaustin 11y ago
    If they're using it, they're doing so in completely different fashion than everyone else. That is, it's not public for viewing, submitting, commenting, etc. Indeed TFA indicates exactly the sorts of pain points that would be missed by those using the tool in such a radically different way than everyone else. If someone at GH had to wade through all the damn +1's then something would have been done about them years ago.
    - joelhooks 11y ago
      95% of all my github activity is in private repositories.
      - Splendor 11y ago
        Do you feel like your usage is typical?
      - jeddawson 11y ago
        Ditto. Maybe 98%. I think that's a big part of the disconnect I'm seeing here in the comments. Those of us that live in private repos are likely pretty happy with how things currently work especially since we're the ones paying to use the service. If it wasn't working well for our teams, we'd find somewhere else to spend our money. That being said, we're certainly the minority when it comes to users on the platform.
        cookiecaper 11y ago
        >That being said, we're certainly the minority when it comes to users on the platform. But you're the huge majority of people who give GitHub money. It makes sense not to prioritize the pain points of open-source projects when you lose money by hosting them.
        Kudos 11y ago
        I only pay Github money to host my private repos because their platform also hosts most of the open source projects I use. If enough of those projects leave for a service that does open source better, I'll be happy to follow them. Otherwise I may as well be using Bitbucket or Gitlab.
        fweespeech 11y ago
        We don't pay GitHub precisely because they lack features we can implement in GitLab. Much of that is due to the OP's requested features that are currently missing. But tbh, it is too late to get us to switch. > Issues are often filed missing crucial information like reproduction steps or version tested. We’d like issues to gain custom fields, along with a mechanism (such as a mandatory issue template, perhaps powered by a newissue.md in root as a likely-simple solution) for ensuring they are filled out in every issue. For instance, is something we basically implemented in our local version of GitLab but aren't sharing because our implementation pulls this from internal docs other people can't use. Our CSRs put issues into GitLab but they tend to forget steps while on the phone with a user. We wouldn't have bothered if we had something like this when I was evaluating GitLab vs. GitHub.
    - BinaryIdiot 11y ago
      > If they're using it, they're doing so in completely different fashion than everyone else. That is, it's not public for viewing, submitting, commenting, etc Huh? Github isn't opened sourced so how is a different fashion from anyone else using private repos?
    - donarb 11y ago
      I would guess that private repos have a much smaller user base, in that that they work for companies where they are trained in specific policies to submit issues and work with the repos. With public repos you're at the mercy of widely differing levels of user experience.
    - Kiro 11y ago
      I think you should chill down with all the speculations. I only use it for private repos.
      - kelseydh 11y ago
        Go look at a project like Rails where you can tell they need it.
  - johnmaguire2013 11y ago
    Plenty of private projects use a separate, public Github repository for community reporting of issues, and public tracking of those issues.
foota 11y ago
But then they'd be spammed with useless +1 comments
- donretag 11y ago
  +1
  - Rovanion 11y ago
    If one implemented issue voting then a +1 comment could automatically be converted into a vote.
    - DouweM 11y ago
      Which is almost exactly what happens on GitLab: https://twitter.com/gitlab/status/687930087057027073 https://twitter.com/gitlab/status/687930087057027073 Users can use those buttons to +1 or -1, and any comments that contain nothing but an emoji (like `:+1:`) are automatically converted to emoji awards, as we call them.

jessaustin 11y ago

Yes it is fairly bizarre that Github don't dogfood the issues function. I'm sure they have an internal system that they prefer, but even that internal system could have a public interface. Also, if the internal system is superior then its superior features could be added to the public system so that we could all benefit.

scrollaway 11y ago
Where are you getting that they don't dogfood the issue tracker? It's a private tracker (private repository) but from what I've seen in the Github blog, they do... it wouldn't make much sense if they didn't.
- jessaustin 11y ago
  If they're using it, they're doing so in completely different fashion than everyone else. That is, it's not public for viewing, submitting, commenting, etc. Indeed TFA indicates exactly the sorts of pain points that would be missed by those using the tool in such a radically different way than everyone else. If someone at GH had to wade through all the damn +1's then something would have been done about them years ago.
  - joelhooks 11y ago
    95% of all my github activity is in private repositories.
    - Splendor 11y ago
      Do you feel like your usage is typical?
    - jeddawson 11y ago
      Ditto. Maybe 98%. I think that's a big part of the disconnect I'm seeing here in the comments. Those of us that live in private repos are likely pretty happy with how things currently work especially since we're the ones paying to use the service. If it wasn't working well for our teams, we'd find somewhere else to spend our money. That being said, we're certainly the minority when it comes to users on the platform.
      - cookiecaper 11y ago
        >That being said, we're certainly the minority when it comes to users on the platform. But you're the huge majority of people who give GitHub money. It makes sense not to prioritize the pain points of open-source projects when you lose money by hosting them.
        Kudos 11y ago
        I only pay Github money to host my private repos because their platform also hosts most of the open source projects I use. If enough of those projects leave for a service that does open source better, I'll be happy to follow them. Otherwise I may as well be using Bitbucket or Gitlab.
        fweespeech 11y ago
        We don't pay GitHub precisely because they lack features we can implement in GitLab. Much of that is due to the OP's requested features that are currently missing. But tbh, it is too late to get us to switch. > Issues are often filed missing crucial information like reproduction steps or version tested. We’d like issues to gain custom fields, along with a mechanism (such as a mandatory issue template, perhaps powered by a newissue.md in root as a likely-simple solution) for ensuring they are filled out in every issue. For instance, is something we basically implemented in our local version of GitLab but aren't sharing because our implementation pulls this from internal docs other people can't use. Our CSRs put issues into GitLab but they tend to forget steps while on the phone with a user. We wouldn't have bothered if we had something like this when I was evaluating GitLab vs. GitHub.
  - BinaryIdiot 11y ago
    > If they're using it, they're doing so in completely different fashion than everyone else. That is, it's not public for viewing, submitting, commenting, etc Huh? Github isn't opened sourced so how is a different fashion from anyone else using private repos?
  - donarb 11y ago
    I would guess that private repos have a much smaller user base, in that that they work for companies where they are trained in specific policies to submit issues and work with the repos. With public repos you're at the mercy of widely differing levels of user experience.
  - Kiro 11y ago
    I think you should chill down with all the speculations. I only use it for private repos.
    - kelseydh 11y ago
      Go look at a project like Rails where you can tell they need it.
- johnmaguire2013 11y ago
  Plenty of private projects use a separate, public Github repository for community reporting of issues, and public tracking of those issues.

foota 11y ago

But then they'd be spammed with useless +1 comments

donretag 11y ago
+1
- Rovanion 11y ago
  If one implemented issue voting then a +1 comment could automatically be converted into a vote.
  - DouweM 11y ago
    Which is almost exactly what happens on GitLab: https://twitter.com/gitlab/status/687930087057027073 https://twitter.com/gitlab/status/687930087057027073 Users can use those buttons to +1 or -1, and any comments that contain nothing but an emoji (like `:+1:`) are automatically converted to emoji awards, as we call them.