Adding GitIssueBot to all repositories to force users using the issue template

[ghost]

Hi,

just have stumbled over a nice tool called "GitIssueBot" https://github.com/foosel/GitIssueBot which checks created issues for specific text phrases, can assign Labels like "Need info" and also can close issues after those additional infos are not provided within a specific time frame.

This could be very useful as so many users are not reading the guidelines for contributing and not using the issue template linked there.

Because of this so many time is wasted asking to fill out the issue template and providing more infos about the issue.

A "live" example is shown here:

OctoPrint/OctoPrint#545 (comment)

Any opinions about this? I think this could save a lot of time for all contributors.

[LukasReschke]

+1
@PVince81

[th3fallen]

+2

[DeepDiver1975]

Nice!

I guess we can run the bot on ci.owncloud.org

@karlitschek any objections

[ghost]

But no idea how "stable" this bot is at it seems new released when having a look at the repository.

[karlitschek]

good idea. The real question is of course how we use and configure it ;-)

[bantu]

The issue template is nice to have for bug reports, but does not really apply to other reports, e.g. Tech. Dept.

[LukasReschke]

The issue template is nice to have for bug reports, but does not really apply to other reports, e.g. Tech. Dept.

Which is configurable ;-)

[DeepDiver1975]

good idea. The real question is of course how we use and configure it ;-)

We can simply test this - no on owncloud/core for sure 😉

Let's see if there is some free time next week as we all meet ...

[schiessle]

I think posting a automated note pointing the user to the issue template might be a good thing. But I wouldn't close issues automatically.

[DeepDiver1975]

But I wouldn't close issues automatically.

If I understand the example correct the issue will be closed if there is no feedback after a two weeks period - which is fine from my perspective.

[ghost]

Thats just an example and freely configurable when reading the description of the bot.

[MorrisJobke]

👍

[schiessle]

If I understand the example correct the issue will be closed if there is no feedback after a two weeks period - which is fine from my perspective.

Often issues doesn't use the issue template but still provide all necessary informations. I wouldn't close issues just because nobody had the time to response within two weeks. Closing a issue is a final decisions which should be made with good reasons and not only because of a syntactic error followed by a timeout.

[blizzz]

Well, issues can be reopened and if the information given really is complete, closing can be overridden. More often than not I need to request further details, therefore i would really really appreciate to have a kind butler doing this stuff.

→ 👍

[DeepDiver1975]

The GitIssueBot is now running on the owncloud/mail repo. Let's see how it works out.

There is one test issue:https://github.com/owncloud/mail/issues/236

The bot is running once an hour and checks all new issues:
https://ci.owncloud.org/job/github-issues-bot/3/repo=mail/console

We can define labels and special strings in the subject which are treated as exception to the bot.
e.g. labels like enhancement

[DeepDiver1975]

In mail and music app we didn't see any benefit in using this bot

[ghost]

didn't see any benefit in using this bot

Not understandable from my side as the whole benefit of the bot was that people not using the issue template are automatically noted about the issue template.

I don't want to count my posts where i have pointed users to the issue template as the bugreport contained nearly zero info about the problem. This work is just a waste of time of the contributors and could be easily done by the bot.

But sure, its your decision. :-)

[DeepDiver1975]

I don't want to count my posts where i have pointed users to the issue template as the bugreport contained nearly zero info about the problem. This work is just a waste of time of the contributors and could be easily done by the bot.

I fully understand your concerns and I would love such a capability - I know the burden of crappy bug reports.

@jancborchardt was crying loudest about the bot to be annoying - speak up now

@MorrisJobke AFAIK you had your point as well on this topic

[jancborchardt]

Actually most reports which would have been remarked by the bot were perfectly usable as reports. Also it annoyed regular contributors who knew which info to provide because it just listened to a triggerword.

As @DeepDiver1975 said we testdrove this in the Mail and Music repo and it didn't really help. Sure oftentimes you might need to ask people to fill out the issue template, but in that case simply copy-paste a boilerplate text. In the end the issue will need to be handled by a real person anyway.

[DeepDiver1975]

Sure oftentimes you might need to ask people to fill out the issue template, but in that case simply copy-paste a boilerplate text.

I would even vote for closing insufficient issues to put more pressure on the reporter to get back with the proper information. Another benefit is that in case the reporter does not return we don't need to return to close the issue after some weeks/months/years

[ghost]

Also it annoyed regular contributors who knew which info to provide because it just listened to a triggerword.

Could be easily "circumvented" by a known keyword for contributors.

Sure oftentimes you might need to ask people to fill out the issue template, but in that case simply copy-paste a boilerplate text.

Which often just gets not read and the people never came back and the issue ended up as a dead issue without any useful infos.

In the end the issue will need to be handled by a real person anyway.

Which is also not happened that often from my experience. Quite often a "real person" asked for the issue template, the OP filled it out and had to wait month that a "real person" got back.

I would even vote for closing insufficient issues to put more pressure on the reporter to get back with the proper information. Another benefit is that in case the reporter does not return we don't need to return to close the issue after some weeks/months/years

Sound as the best alternative to the bot to have the open issues to an handleable amount.

[jancborchardt]

I would even vote for closing insufficient issues to put more pressure on the reporter to get back with the proper information. Another benefit is that in case the reporter does not return we don't need to return to close the issue after some weeks/months/years

@DeepDiver1975 I agree with that, yep. We can definitely close issues more liberally if the needed info is not present.

[schiessle]

I wouldn't close it right away. I can only tell this from myself when I report a issue to other project. Often I have neither enough knowledge nor enough time to deal with the internal details of a project. The only thing I want to do is to bring a issue to the attention of the developers (and this is often already a lot of work and only a tiny fraction of the user base does it at all). If someone would close my issue right away just because I didn't know about the existence of a issue template, I would probably not take the extra efforts to start from scratch and crate a new issue. On the other hand if someone ask me for additional information I would provide them happily.

We shouldn't scare users away who actually want to help us by reporting issues.

I don't know how hard it is to implement such a bot. But how about a automated two-step solution. First a bot ask for additional information and to use the issue template. Another bot (or the same) comes 4 weeks later back and check if there was a response, if not the issue gets closed.

But even then we have still this problem: #10554 (comment)

[ghost]

@schiesbn

I don't know how hard it is to implement such a bot. But how about a automated two-step solution. First a bot ask for additional information and to use the issue template. Another bot (or the same) comes 4 weeks later back and check if there was a response, if not the issue gets closed.

Exactly this is what the bot here is doing: Watching for a trigger word (found within the issue template), asking to fill out the issue template and set the "Needs info" label.

Its also configurable to close the issue if the issue template is not provided in a specific time.

[schiessle]

Exactly this is what the bot here is doing: Watching for a trigger
word (found within the issue template), asking to fill out the issue
template and set the "Needs info" label.

Its also configurable to close the issue if the issue template is not
provided in a specific time.

Thanks for clarification!

[DeepDiver1975]

Exactly this is what the bot here is doing: Watching for a trigger word (found within the issue template), asking to fill out the issue template and set the "Needs info" label.

Its also configurable to close the issue if the issue template is not provided in a specific time.

exactly - in addition the bot even does not touch issues under certain conditions (e.g. enhancment label attached)

[DeepDiver1975]

Let me reopen this - looks like we are not yet at the end of the line ....

[ghost]

...additionally the music and mail app trackers are probably also not that comparable with the core issue tracker. Both apps are very special apps where in core everyone is throwing some $random issue in.

[PVince81]

@DeepDiver1975 what to do with this ?

[MorrisJobke]

@DeepDiver1975 what to do with this ?

[DeepDiver1975]

@DeepDiver1975 what to do with this ?

To be honest: I don't care! Some like it others love it - we have no consenus.

[PVince81]

Move to backlog then ?

[ghost]

Can be closed now as the issue template is now "preloaded" into a new issue: dear-github/dear-github#125