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Some projects use issues to represent maintainer work items. So if no maintainer plans to work on something, why not close the issue? It can be reopened anytim

Some projects use issues to represent maintainer work items. So if no maintainer plans to work on something, why not close the issue? It can be reopened anytime. Locking is a whole different thing because it prevents people from commenting. In closed issues, commenting is allowed though. I think closing an issue with a “thanks, we don’t plan to work on this anytime soon but PRs are welcome” shouldn’t be frowned upon.

ocdtrekkie 6y ago
I disagree heavily because closed issues are less visible. An unresolved issue may be notable for other users to see and communicate about, a closed issue should be "done with". Either it is invalid or it is addressed or fixed. I'd argue developers who use the issues list as a personal todo list are using issues incorrectly.
- Hackbraten 6y ago
  > I'd argue developers who use the issues list as a personal todo list are using issues incorrectly. If that method helps maintainers run their projects efficiently, why would you call it incorrect?
  - ocdtrekkie 6y ago
    Because it is user hostile. Even if it is helpful for them, if it hurts their users, they probably should be doing something else. If you hate your users, why open source at all?
    - Hackbraten 6y ago
      > it hurts their users Please help me understand why you think it hurts users.
- Hackbraten 6y ago
  > I disagree heavily because closed issues are less visible. It takes one single extra click to include closed issues in a search. As a user/contributor, I’d figure that’s a rather small price to pay, given that it helps maintainers handle their workload.
  - ocdtrekkie 6y ago
    Sure, but now you're diving through an incredibly thick soup: Some of those issues might have been resolved/fixed, as closed issues should be. Others might be current issues obscured because the maintainer hates their users and closes issues that are not resolved. Instead of having a clear marker on whether or not an issue is still a problem or not, you have to read the full text of every one. It literally makes "issues" worthless as a tool for anyone but the one dude who has it in their head to do things focused solely on themselves and their needs and ignorant to everyone else. And frankly: Issues is a terrible way to manage your own workload, so doing it harms you and everyone else at the same time. Use a project board or something, there are tools designed for this. Even on GitHub itself, labels and milestones and projects all can be employed to enable reasonable project management... closing user issues without resolving them is definitely not one of them. Seriously, don't do this.
    - Hackbraten 6y ago
      > having a clear marker on whether or not an issue is still a problem or not Is that a goal worth pursuing? What problem would be solved by having such a “clear marker”? > you have to read the full text of every one. Even if “closed” meant “marked resolved”, wouldn’t you (mostly) still have to read the solution to get any benefit from it?
      - ocdtrekkie 6y ago
        So, let's say your project has a bug in a feature. Someone opened an issue about it, maybe even documented a workaround of some sort, but you didn't have time to fix it, and then you closed it because you hate your users. Now I experience the issue. First place I'm going to look is open GitHub issues. I find nothing, suffer more self-troubleshooting, maybe file an issue myself, because why would I look at closed issues... closed issues are generally resolved! I end up annoying you with an extra issue report, and wasting hours of my time. If I'm lucky enough I happen to run a search that shows me the other user's report, I have no way to reopen the issue. I can maybe "me too" it, but given that you closed it already, I know you don't care. More than likely, after wasting a bunch of time with your project, I'm going to find someone else's. Even if, again, even if, your non-standard way of abusing GitHub works for you, it's going to confuse, frustrate, and annoy everyone else you interact with. Which, if you don't hate your users, you should consider a big problem.

ocdtrekkie 6y ago

I disagree heavily because closed issues are less visible. An unresolved issue may be notable for other users to see and communicate about, a closed issue should be "done with". Either it is invalid or it is addressed or fixed. I'd argue developers who use the issues list as a personal todo list are using issues incorrectly.

Hackbraten 6y ago
> I'd argue developers who use the issues list as a personal todo list are using issues incorrectly. If that method helps maintainers run their projects efficiently, why would you call it incorrect?
- ocdtrekkie 6y ago
  Because it is user hostile. Even if it is helpful for them, if it hurts their users, they probably should be doing something else. If you hate your users, why open source at all?
  - Hackbraten 6y ago
    > it hurts their users Please help me understand why you think it hurts users.
Hackbraten 6y ago
> I disagree heavily because closed issues are less visible. It takes one single extra click to include closed issues in a search. As a user/contributor, I’d figure that’s a rather small price to pay, given that it helps maintainers handle their workload.
- ocdtrekkie 6y ago
  Sure, but now you're diving through an incredibly thick soup: Some of those issues might have been resolved/fixed, as closed issues should be. Others might be current issues obscured because the maintainer hates their users and closes issues that are not resolved. Instead of having a clear marker on whether or not an issue is still a problem or not, you have to read the full text of every one. It literally makes "issues" worthless as a tool for anyone but the one dude who has it in their head to do things focused solely on themselves and their needs and ignorant to everyone else. And frankly: Issues is a terrible way to manage your own workload, so doing it harms you and everyone else at the same time. Use a project board or something, there are tools designed for this. Even on GitHub itself, labels and milestones and projects all can be employed to enable reasonable project management... closing user issues without resolving them is definitely not one of them. Seriously, don't do this.
  - Hackbraten 6y ago
    > having a clear marker on whether or not an issue is still a problem or not Is that a goal worth pursuing? What problem would be solved by having such a “clear marker”? > you have to read the full text of every one. Even if “closed” meant “marked resolved”, wouldn’t you (mostly) still have to read the solution to get any benefit from it?
    - ocdtrekkie 6y ago
      So, let's say your project has a bug in a feature. Someone opened an issue about it, maybe even documented a workaround of some sort, but you didn't have time to fix it, and then you closed it because you hate your users. Now I experience the issue. First place I'm going to look is open GitHub issues. I find nothing, suffer more self-troubleshooting, maybe file an issue myself, because why would I look at closed issues... closed issues are generally resolved! I end up annoying you with an extra issue report, and wasting hours of my time. If I'm lucky enough I happen to run a search that shows me the other user's report, I have no way to reopen the issue. I can maybe "me too" it, but given that you closed it already, I know you don't care. More than likely, after wasting a bunch of time with your project, I'm going to find someone else's. Even if, again, even if, your non-standard way of abusing GitHub works for you, it's going to confuse, frustrate, and annoy everyone else you interact with. Which, if you don't hate your users, you should consider a big problem.