Proposal - Improving Github Issues Experience via Templates and Pruning Stale Issues

[Kyle Bendickson <ky...@tabular.io>]

We receive positive feedback for being a project that does a lot of its
work on Github, but there are tools we could use to make certain processes
more efficient for both people reporting issues and those who respond to
issues.

For Github issues, we don't have a template. I often find we ask people who
report issues the same questions; such as "what version of Iceberg?",
"which engine?", "what's your configuration?" etc.

Discussing the problem with @Fokko Driesprong <fo...@tabular.io>, he
proposed that we use Github Issue Templates
<https://docs.github.com/en/communities/using-templates-to-encourage-useful-issues-and-pull-requests/about-issue-and-pull-request-templates>
as
a way to direct users to submit a structured report for their specific
needs, such as reporting a bug or requesting help.

This would also provide tags added automatically to help search through
issues. We'd still have the option of a blank issue just like we have now.

The Apache Airflow project makes heavy use of issue templates and opening
an issue there is quite a nice experience.
<https://github.com/apache/airflow/issues/new/choose>

Fokko has opened a PR with an initial set of templates based on his
experience in Apache Airflow: https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/4867

------

We also have a number of somewhat older issues. This is not uncommon in
open source, as sometimes issues are abandoned or people don't close them
once they're resolved.

As a way to keep issues relevant, I'm proposing a stale issues bot,

The bot will monitor for issues that have not had any interaction after
some configurable time. Issues can be exempted from the bot via a tag,
Commenting on the issue would also restart the timer until it's considered
stale.

Removing stale issues would help us focus on new issues that arise and be
more diligent in supporting the community, plus helping ensure we don't
miss any bug reports.

I've opened a PR to add Stale Bot for issues only:
https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/4949

*To summarize:*
To improve user reporting through Github Issues, I propose that we:
1. Add Github Issue templates to collect the necessary information for
common cases, such as bug reports:
https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/4867
2. Add a Stale Bot for Github Issues which will tag issues as "stale", with
a comment to the user, after N days that the issue will be closed if
there's no activity (currently 180 days). After an additional time period
of X days (currently 14), if no activity occurs on the issue, it would be
closed: https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/4949
<https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/4867>

Let me know what you think
- Kyle


-- 

Kyle Bendickson

OSS Developer  |  Tabular <https://tabular.io/>

kyle@tabular.io

Re: [DISCUSS] Improving Github Issues Experience via Templates and Pruning Stale Issues

[Yufei Gu <fl...@gmail.com>]

+1 for the proposal. I like the idea to create templates especially. Can we
also have a template for the PR like what Spark project does? That will
make the review a bit easier IMO.

Best,

Yufei

`This is not a contribution`


On Thu, Jul 21, 2022 at 2:53 PM Ryan Blue <bl...@tabular.io> wrote:

> Hey everyone,
>
> I just want to bump this to make sure people have seen it.
>
> There are two proposals here:
> 1. Add issue templates to the project (see Airflow for an example
> <https://github.com/apache/airflow/issues/new/choose>)
> 2. Turn on a "stale issue" bot to close inactive issues after 180 days
>
> I'm going to merge the PRs in the next couple of days if there isn't any
> more discussion. Thanks!
>
> Ryan
>
> On Tue, Jul 12, 2022 at 11:26 PM Kyle Bendickson <ky...@tabular.io> wrote:
>
>> We receive positive feedback for being a project that does a lot of its
>> work on Github, but there are tools we could use to make certain processes
>> more efficient for both people reporting issues and those who respond to
>> issues.
>>
>> For Github issues, we don't have a template. I often find we ask people
>> who report issues the same questions; such as "what version of Iceberg?",
>> "which engine?", "what's your configuration?" etc.
>>
>> Discussing the problem with @Fokko Driesprong <fo...@tabular.io>, he
>> proposed that we use Github Issue Templates
>> <https://docs.github.com/en/communities/using-templates-to-encourage-useful-issues-and-pull-requests/about-issue-and-pull-request-templates> as
>> a way to direct users to submit a structured report for their specific
>> needs, such as reporting a bug or requesting help.
>>
>> This would also provide tags added automatically to help search through
>> issues. We'd still have the option of a blank issue just like we have now.
>>
>> The Apache Airflow project makes heavy use of issue templates and opening
>> an issue there is quite a nice experience.
>> <https://github.com/apache/airflow/issues/new/choose>
>>
>> Fokko has opened a PR with an initial set of templates based on his
>> experience in Apache Airflow: https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/4867
>>
>> ------
>>
>> We also have a number of somewhat older issues. This is not uncommon in
>> open source, as sometimes issues are abandoned or people don't close them
>> once they're resolved.
>>
>> As a way to keep issues relevant, I'm proposing a stale issues bot,
>>
>> The bot will monitor for issues that have not had any interaction after
>> some configurable time. Issues can be exempted from the bot via a tag,
>> Commenting on the issue would also restart the timer until it's considered
>> stale.
>>
>> Removing stale issues would help us focus on new issues that arise and be
>> more diligent in supporting the community, plus helping ensure we don't
>> miss any bug reports.
>>
>> I've opened a PR to add Stale Bot for issues only:
>> https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/4949
>>
>> *To summarize:*
>> To improve user reporting through Github Issues, I propose that we:
>> 1. Add Github Issue templates to collect the necessary information for
>> common cases, such as bug reports:
>> https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/4867
>> 2. Add a Stale Bot for Github Issues which will tag issues as "stale",
>> with a comment to the user, after N days that the issue will be closed if
>> there's no activity (currently 180 days). After an additional time period
>> of X days (currently 14), if no activity occurs on the issue, it would be
>> closed: https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/4949
>> <https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/4867>
>>
>> Let me know what you think
>> - Kyle
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Kyle Bendickson
>>
>> OSS Developer  |  Tabular <https://tabular.io/>
>>
>> kyle@tabular.io
>>
>
>
> --
> Ryan Blue
> Tabular
>

[DISCUSS] Improving Github Issues Experience via Templates and Pruning Stale Issues

[Ryan Blue <bl...@tabular.io>]

Hey everyone,

I just want to bump this to make sure people have seen it.

There are two proposals here:
1. Add issue templates to the project (see Airflow for an example
<https://github.com/apache/airflow/issues/new/choose>)
2. Turn on a "stale issue" bot to close inactive issues after 180 days

I'm going to merge the PRs in the next couple of days if there isn't any
more discussion. Thanks!

Ryan

On Tue, Jul 12, 2022 at 11:26 PM Kyle Bendickson <ky...@tabular.io> wrote:

> We receive positive feedback for being a project that does a lot of its
> work on Github, but there are tools we could use to make certain processes
> more efficient for both people reporting issues and those who respond to
> issues.
>
> For Github issues, we don't have a template. I often find we ask people
> who report issues the same questions; such as "what version of Iceberg?",
> "which engine?", "what's your configuration?" etc.
>
> Discussing the problem with @Fokko Driesprong <fo...@tabular.io>, he
> proposed that we use Github Issue Templates
> <https://docs.github.com/en/communities/using-templates-to-encourage-useful-issues-and-pull-requests/about-issue-and-pull-request-templates> as
> a way to direct users to submit a structured report for their specific
> needs, such as reporting a bug or requesting help.
>
> This would also provide tags added automatically to help search through
> issues. We'd still have the option of a blank issue just like we have now.
>
> The Apache Airflow project makes heavy use of issue templates and opening
> an issue there is quite a nice experience.
> <https://github.com/apache/airflow/issues/new/choose>
>
> Fokko has opened a PR with an initial set of templates based on his
> experience in Apache Airflow: https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/4867
>
> ------
>
> We also have a number of somewhat older issues. This is not uncommon in
> open source, as sometimes issues are abandoned or people don't close them
> once they're resolved.
>
> As a way to keep issues relevant, I'm proposing a stale issues bot,
>
> The bot will monitor for issues that have not had any interaction after
> some configurable time. Issues can be exempted from the bot via a tag,
> Commenting on the issue would also restart the timer until it's considered
> stale.
>
> Removing stale issues would help us focus on new issues that arise and be
> more diligent in supporting the community, plus helping ensure we don't
> miss any bug reports.
>
> I've opened a PR to add Stale Bot for issues only:
> https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/4949
>
> *To summarize:*
> To improve user reporting through Github Issues, I propose that we:
> 1. Add Github Issue templates to collect the necessary information for
> common cases, such as bug reports:
> https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/4867
> 2. Add a Stale Bot for Github Issues which will tag issues as "stale",
> with a comment to the user, after N days that the issue will be closed if
> there's no activity (currently 180 days). After an additional time period
> of X days (currently 14), if no activity occurs on the issue, it would be
> closed: https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/4949
> <https://github.com/apache/iceberg/pull/4867>
>
> Let me know what you think
> - Kyle
>
>
> --
>
> Kyle Bendickson
>
> OSS Developer  |  Tabular <https://tabular.io/>
>
> kyle@tabular.io
>


-- 
Ryan Blue
Tabular