[Matplotlib-devel] please be slower to close bug reports from first-time reporters

[Eric Firing]

Good points.

I have no objection to a moderate slowing down of closing new issues, to 
give the submitter time to respond and to reduce the likelihood of 
closing an issue based on a misunderstanding.

Nevertheless, the basic point remains: we need ways of focusing 
attention and reducing the distraction, distress, and wasted time caused 
by the excessively long list of open issues.

Eric

On 2018/11/02 7:58 AM, Benjamin Root wrote:
> I think part of the issue is literally how quickly some of these issues 
> are being closed, not so much that they are being closed. I have seen 
> issues get closed within minutes of being opened up, and even as a 
> long-time contributor, that has come across as jarring to me. I worry 
> that it may convey a lack of consideration of the issue. Even if we know 
> 100% that the issue should be closed, closing within just a few minutes 
> might make submitters feel like their issue wasn't fully absorbed. If 
> they spent 10 minutes or more writing up their issue, and it gets closed 
> in 2 minutes, they might feel like there was a net negative amount of 
> effort in the discussion. Maybe the problem is totally on their end and 
> they are doing something wrong, but closing the issue so quickly may 
> make them feel like they are left adrift.
> 
> I especially worry about the issues that get closed and redirected to 
> the mailing list or stackoverflow. In the past few months, I think I 
> have only seen one issue get re-raised on the mailing list. I don't 
> follow stackoverflow, so I don't know if those issues are getting 
> discussed there or not. Does anybody have a sense for that?
> 
> And finally, we need to remember that we may indeed be misreading some 
> issues. I accidentally closed an issue too quickly last week, too, 
> because I thought it was the same-old mplot3d can't render things right 
> problem. Turns out it was much more nuanced, and while we couldn't 
> really solve the problem anyway, I think I did pounce too quickly on 
> that close button.
> 
> Cheers!
> Ben Root
> 
> 
> On Fri, Nov 2, 2018 at 1:41 PM OceanWolf via Matplotlib-devel 
> <matplotlib-devel at python.org <mailto:matplotlib-devel at python.org>> wrote:
> 
>     But doesn't the issue of triage mean we distinguish between
>     issues/PRs based on severity e.g. ranging from critical to
>     wishlist.  To me at least open suggests that the issue still exists
>     and closed means that it doesn't exist as a issue for us, either
>     because we don't see it as an issue, or because it has been fixed,
>     and thus says nothing about triage state.
>     In terms of workflow I see the difference as if something has been
>     marked closed and someone comes along with the same issue, it can
>     give the suggestion that we don't value the reopening the issue/PR,
>     and thus it indicates that we value it a waste of time for anyone to
>     spend their time on it, and for some issues that might exist as the
>     case seeing something as out of scope for MPL, but for others we
>     should just assign a low triage status to it so that if we get
>     people super keen about a particular issue then we let them know
>     that we welcome their input on it :).
> 
>     ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>     *From:* Eric Firing <efiring at hawaii.edu <mailto:efiring at hawaii.edu>>
>     *To:* matplotlib-devel at python.org <mailto:matplotlib-devel at python.org>
>     *Sent:* Friday, 2 November 2018, 18:14
>     *Subject:* Re: [Matplotlib-devel] please be slower to close bug
>     reports from first-time reporters
> 
>     On 2018/11/02 5:03 AM, Thomas Caswell wrote:
>      > The backlog problem is also real, however I am not sure that just
>      > closing old issues / PRs and rapidly closing new issues will
>     actually
>      > make it better.  It will make the number smaller, but the underlying
>      > issues (either the bugs or documentation deficiencies) will still
>     be there.
>      >
> 
>     Tom,
> 
>     It is a matter of triage.  I think you are missing a critical point:
>     closing issues *can* make the situation better by reducing the time
>     that
>     is lost on scanning them, or diving into them, when that time would be
>     better spent actually fixing something.  Furthermore, the list of open
>     issues can simply be overwhelming, discouraging work by existing
>     developers, and probably also discouraging potential developers from
>     joining us.
> 
>     It is not a tragedy if a genuine issue is closed.  If it is reporting a
>     major problem, it will crop up again, and eventually get the necessary
>     attention.
> 
>     There will *always* be bugs and documentation deficiencies; the
>     question
>     is how to maximize available developer time and attention, and how to
>     make the best use of it.
> 
>     Eric
> 
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