x/build/cmd/gopherbot: reply to commit comments saying we do not monitor them

[FiloSottile]

We get from time to time a comment on a commit in the main repo. We do not monitor those and nobody gets a ping for them (except the author of the commit who might or might not check GitHub notifications and does not have to). gopherbot should reply automatically pointing them towards the issue tracker and https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/Questions.

(Almost sure there was an issue for this, but couldn't find it. Please close as dup if anyone does.)

[AlexRouSg]

I think it should be expanded to include closed issues too.

[gopherbot]

Change https://golang.org/cl/145238 mentions this issue: cmd/gopherbot: redirect comments on closed issues

[adamdecaf]

The CL mentioned lowering our freeze timeout for closed issues instead. Right now the timeout is 365 days. 30 days? 90?

[ianlancetaylor]

I say 30 days, and make sure that the freeze notice mentions https://golang.org/wiki/Questions .

[gopherbot]

Change https://golang.org/cl/145658 mentions this issue: cmd/gopherbot: freeze issues after 30 days, link to Questions wiki page

[FiloSottile]

There is no freeze notice currently, and I think sending a comment on all issues 30 days after closing would be extremely spammy. Did you mean something different? We could put it in the description of the FrozenDueToAge label although that’s not very discoverable.

[ianlancetaylor]

Good point. I was thinking that there was a notice on the issue when we freeze it, but of course you're right that there isn't. In that case, sure, 90 days seems plausible to me.

Sorry for the runaround.

[adamdecaf]

What about adding the freeze notice only to issues that have had a comment after the issue is closed?

[andybons]

So 90 days without a comment on the issue?

[dmitshur]

(Almost sure there was an issue for this, but couldn't find it. Please close as dup if anyone does.)

@FiloSottile That issue is #25450. It was a proposal to tackle this problem, and it was approved.

It's currently tracking a slightly different implementation approach to solve the same problem: to lock the conversations on commits, so that people can't spend time writing up a comment only to have it ignored.

However, the implementation is blocked on GitHub exposing a programmatic way to lock conversation on comments. Both GitHub API v3 and v4 currently only allow locking conversations on issues and PRs, but not yet on commits. See #25450 (comment) for more details about that. I tried pinging GitHub asking if this will be done, and got the usual "it'll be done when it's done" reply. As soon as GitHub exposes such an API, I can implement the fix.