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It’s odd to me how nontechnical people have migrated to GitHub to make bug reports on software they use. The other day, I was trying to use a Python library to

It’s odd to me how nontechnical people have migrated to GitHub to make bug reports on software they use. The other day, I was trying to use a Python library to scrape some stuff. It kept breaking. I looked on the issues page and there were many, essentially useless bug reports asking them to fix the issue. I opened up the script and changed about 7 lines and it worked fine.

BiteCode_dev 6y ago
Well, they look for a channel to communicate their frustration. Most are closed. This one is open. The water follows the path of least resistance.
chucky 6y ago
There are two factors at play here I think. The first is that Github has become quite popular. The second is that Github has worked a lot on usability - it's now very easy for users who are not very technical to create an account and report issues. At times I imagine there could be some kind of "I know how to report bugs"-certification that people could somehow earn. Projects could then use this as a barrier to prevent getting too many useless issue reports. The problem really goes both ways - as a software dev I'm disincentivized to report detailed bugs to projects, because there's a high risk it will get drowned out in the noise. Some projects have quite specific templates for reporting issues. This helps a bit, but you still need someone to go in and remove issues that don't match the template, and few people want to volunteer for that work.
- claudeganon 6y ago
  Yeah, I guess it’s just an entirely different kind of engagement. I mostly use GitHub to find off the shelf solutions to whatever problem I’m having or to avoid doing the work myself. If I run into any problems I have with something from there, I either try and fix it by tweaking the repository, using another, or just building the thing myself. I think the last time I reported an issue on an external repository was because of something I was made to use at work.
OzzyB 6y ago
I've noticed this trend too -- but I've also noticed people starting GitHub Repos for websites/apps just for the Issues. No code, no PRs, just a way for the public to create Issues. Not sure what this means for the "culture of code" other than things are blurring...
- claudeganon 6y ago
  I think a lot of it is maybe bleed over from gaming communities, especially emulators, maybe rom hacks too? I’ve noticed barrages of useless bug reports on those repositories. But I’ve been surprised to find them on far afield stuff as well.
- theidel 6y ago
  At least there is a feature called 'discussions' coming soon to github. That should hopefully minimize the abuse of issues. But that is also due to the fact of current github. Not everyone is displaying their email and there is no other communication channel.

BiteCode_dev 6y ago

Well, they look for a channel to communicate their frustration. Most are closed. This one is open. The water follows the path of least resistance.

chucky 6y ago

There are two factors at play here I think. The first is that Github has become quite popular. The second is that Github has worked a lot on usability - it's now very easy for users who are not very technical to create an account and report issues. At times I imagine there could be some kind of "I know how to report bugs"-certification that people could somehow earn. Projects could then use this as a barrier to prevent getting too many useless issue reports. The problem really goes both ways - as a software dev I'm disincentivized to report detailed bugs to projects, because there's a high risk it will get drowned out in the noise. Some projects have quite specific templates for reporting issues. This helps a bit, but you still need someone to go in and remove issues that don't match the template, and few people want to volunteer for that work.

claudeganon 6y ago
Yeah, I guess it’s just an entirely different kind of engagement. I mostly use GitHub to find off the shelf solutions to whatever problem I’m having or to avoid doing the work myself. If I run into any problems I have with something from there, I either try and fix it by tweaking the repository, using another, or just building the thing myself. I think the last time I reported an issue on an external repository was because of something I was made to use at work.

OzzyB 6y ago

I've noticed this trend too -- but I've also noticed people starting GitHub Repos for websites/apps just for the Issues. No code, no PRs, just a way for the public to create Issues. Not sure what this means for the "culture of code" other than things are blurring...

claudeganon 6y ago
I think a lot of it is maybe bleed over from gaming communities, especially emulators, maybe rom hacks too? I’ve noticed barrages of useless bug reports on those repositories. But I’ve been surprised to find them on far afield stuff as well.
theidel 6y ago
At least there is a feature called 'discussions' coming soon to github. That should hopefully minimize the abuse of issues. But that is also due to the fact of current github. Not everyone is displaying their email and there is no other communication channel.