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I'd like to comment here that issue trackers are tools for maintainers, not for users. A maintainer doesn't owe you any response to issues, nor do they owe you

I'd like to comment here that issue trackers are tools for maintainers, not for users. A maintainer doesn't owe you any response to issues, nor do they owe you any way to report them. The maintainer has the right to stop working on their code at any point and completely take it off GitHub at their own discretion, should they want to. (If you think that issue trackers should be for users to be able to tell each other if they've experienced the issue too, then that's part of the problem with "+1", "Me too", "fix this please", and other useless comments. That's what a forum is for, and today they're super-easy to create. You don't even have to host them yourself, nor do you need to be affiliated with the project!) Lesson: if you don't trust the maintainers, you can't trust the software. Keep your own fork and issue tracker if this is a problem, but don't force maintainers, many of whom are not acting in a professional product management capacity, to do extra work for your benefit.

rleigh 8y ago
Most bugtrackers don't allow outright deletion of tickets. They allow closing them as invalid/irrelevant/offtopic or whatever tagging metadata that particular system allows, but they don't allow for deletion. There's a permanent public record and audit trail. I feel that most of your comments are misdirected here. GitHub issues already allowed "+1" and other markers on the issue or its comments. That's not really germane to deleting an issue completely. And regarding trackers being for maintainers, that's not strictly correct. They are for end use by maintainers durig the course of their work, but they are in many projects the interface between users and developers for officially reporting problems, including outright bugs to usability concerns and feature requests. Part of the unwritten contract here is that users will use the system for its intended purpose. But the other side is that developers will take that feedback seriously and use it appropriately. Censoring by deletion is a rather dramatic change, and not one I'm sure is for the best. There have been many instances where unprofessional behaviour has been visible because of the public audit trail, as well as where controversial issues have been openly discussed. Allowing any dissenting opinions to be silenced is not necessarily for the greater good.

rleigh 8y ago

Most bugtrackers don't allow outright deletion of tickets. They allow closing them as invalid/irrelevant/offtopic or whatever tagging metadata that particular system allows, but they don't allow for deletion. There's a permanent public record and audit trail. I feel that most of your comments are misdirected here. GitHub issues already allowed "+1" and other markers on the issue or its comments. That's not really germane to deleting an issue completely. And regarding trackers being for maintainers, that's not strictly correct. They are for end use by maintainers durig the course of their work, but they are in many projects the interface between users and developers for officially reporting problems, including outright bugs to usability concerns and feature requests. Part of the unwritten contract here is that users will use the system for its intended purpose. But the other side is that developers will take that feedback seriously and use it appropriately. Censoring by deletion is a rather dramatic change, and not one I'm sure is for the best. There have been many instances where unprofessional behaviour has been visible because of the public audit trail, as well as where controversial issues have been openly discussed. Allowing any dissenting opinions to be silenced is not necessarily for the greater good.