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by skeptrune 624 days ago
Biggest issue with GitHub issues is that large open source projects can't easily signal to viewers which issues are a priority and which are dead or spam. Anytime I see a project with a bazillion issues (like Element), I worry about it's health when maybe I shouldn't because the project is actually fine and the maintainers just use some other ticketing system outside of GitHub.

Aggressive moderation to keep the # open is possible, but not ideal because it causes anxiety for issue-creators and prevents maintainers from finding out about bugs and feature reqs. Some first-class way to differentiate between backlog and todo on the repo would be my #1 request.
2 comments
franga2000 623 days ago
I guess a big part of the problem is the name "issues". A lot of large projects have dozens or even close to a hundred feature requests and other non-issue "issues" that they keep around until they are implemented and use to discuss the details of the new feature. Seeing a big number next to the issues tab looks scary, even if most of those are non-issue tickets.

Discussions looked like a good solution for that, but the adoption seems slow...

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mckn1ght 623 days ago
> Some first-class way to differentiate between backlog and todo

That sounds like projects and statuses/milestones. Then the issue list becomes the backlog.

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skeptrune 623 days ago
Those work from a functional perspective, but don't solve the sticker shock of seeing "issues (852)".
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ProxCoques 623 days ago
Element is a great example with well over 3,000 open issues, most of which would be far better worked out in Discussions from which the maintainers could raise issues or PRs from whatever the outcome of the conversation was (if any). But they don't have Discussions because...
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mckn1ght 623 days ago
Yes, I mentioned Discussions in another comment, and that’s the other piece that makes Issues more usable, by siphoning away a lot of the noise that masks the signal. Take away all the me-toos, requests for updates, and discussions of similar phenomena that should be different issues, and Issues would get a lot better. An Issue should be: problem, forensic information, root cause analysis, solution, and record of work.
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