{"id":13595037,"url":"https://github.com/bradfitz/issue-tracker-behaviors","last_synced_at":"2026-02-17T06:32:52.457Z","repository":{"id":179690631,"uuid":"663984694","full_name":"bradfitz/issue-tracker-behaviors","owner":"bradfitz","description":null,"archived":false,"fork":false,"pushed_at":"2023-08-17T08:05:02.000Z","size":8,"stargazers_count":645,"open_issues_count":6,"forks_count":17,"subscribers_count":14,"default_branch":"main","last_synced_at":"2026-02-11T02:12:56.451Z","etag":null,"topics":[],"latest_commit_sha":null,"homepage":null,"language":null,"has_issues":true,"has_wiki":null,"has_pages":null,"mirror_url":null,"source_name":null,"license":null,"status":null,"scm":"git","pull_requests_enabled":true,"icon_url":"https://github.com/bradfitz.png","metadata":{"files":{"readme":"README.md","changelog":null,"contributing":null,"funding":null,"license":null,"code_of_conduct":null,"threat_model":null,"audit":null,"citation":null,"codeowners":null,"security":null,"support":null,"governance":null,"roadmap":null,"authors":null}},"created_at":"2023-07-08T15:53:31.000Z","updated_at":"2026-01-22T07:33:56.000Z","dependencies_parsed_at":"2024-01-08T07:59:58.948Z","dependency_job_id":null,"html_url":"https://github.com/bradfitz/issue-tracker-behaviors","commit_stats":null,"previous_names":["bradfitz/issue-tracker-behaviors"],"tags_count":0,"template":false,"template_full_name":null,"purl":"pkg:github/bradfitz/issue-tracker-behaviors","repository_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/bradfitz%2Fissue-tracker-behaviors","tags_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/bradfitz%2Fissue-tracker-behaviors/tags","releases_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/bradfitz%2Fissue-tracker-behaviors/releases","manifests_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/bradfitz%2Fissue-tracker-behaviors/manifests","owner_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners/bradfitz","download_url":"https://codeload.github.com/bradfitz/issue-tracker-behaviors/tar.gz/refs/heads/main","sbom_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories/bradfitz%2Fissue-tracker-behaviors/sbom","scorecard":null,"host":{"name":"GitHub","url":"https://github.com","kind":"github","repositories_count":286080680,"owners_count":29535977,"icon_url":"https://github.com/github.png","version":null,"created_at":"2022-05-30T11:31:42.601Z","updated_at":"2026-02-17T05:00:25.817Z","status":"ssl_error","status_checked_at":"2026-02-17T04:57:16.126Z","response_time":100,"last_error":"SSL_connect returned=1 errno=0 peeraddr=140.82.121.6:443 state=error: unexpected eof while reading","robots_txt_status":"success","robots_txt_updated_at":"2025-07-24T06:49:26.215Z","robots_txt_url":"https://github.com/robots.txt","online":false,"can_crawl_api":true,"host_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub","repositories_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repositories","repository_names_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/repository_names","owners_url":"https://repos.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/hosts/GitHub/owners"}},"keywords":[],"created_at":"2024-08-01T16:01:42.847Z","updated_at":"2026-02-17T06:32:52.433Z","avatar_url":"https://github.com/bradfitz.png","language":null,"funding_links":[],"categories":["Others","Building"],"sub_categories":["Community"],"readme":"# Public Issue Tracker Behaviors\n\nI've been involved in FOSS communities for over 25 years now. I've\nused a handful of different bug trackers and worked on and created a\nton projects, often acting as the bug triage person.\n\nI've also worked inside companies with private bug trackers.\n\nPrivate bug trackers and public bug trackers are vastly\ndifferent. Public bug trackers are full of the best and the worst of\nthe internet. This page documents some of the most commonly seen bad\nbehavior on public issue trackers. (and why many people prefer private bug\ntrackers)\n\nPull requests or issues welcome to add more. I surely forgot a bunch.\n\n# Behaviors\n\n## Me too, plus one\n\nUser shows up adding no new information, just:\n\n* \"+1\"\n* \"me too\"\n* \"i also see this\"\n\nNo version numbers, no logs, nothing.\n\nUser has not learned to use the emoji reactions yet. (Please learn.)\n\n## Subscribing via comments\n\n* \"just leaving a comment to watch this bug\"\n\nAnd you just spammed everybody else watching this bug.\n\nThere's a \"subscribe\" button to get notified over on the right. Push\nthat instead.\n\n## Back from the dead\n\nUser comments on ancient closed issue saying they're \"also seeing\nthis\", without saying what \"this\" is. They probably found one common\nsymptom (\"it doesn't work\") and decided that an Android crash from 3\nyears ago is the same as their Windows issues, because both resulted\nin it \"not working\".\n\n## Any update?\n\n* \"Any update?\"\n* \"Any news on this?\"\n\nIf there was an update we would've posted an update. We were just\nwaiting for the forty-seventh person to ask! But now that you're here,\nhere's an update!\n\n(if it's been a year, sure. But we don't need somebody pinging the bug\nfor updates daily or weekly.)\n\n\n## Any workaround?\n\nUser asks for a \"workaround\" on a bug that clearly has no\nworkaround. Maybe it's a feature request or a crash that's affecting\neverybody, but the user wants a \"workaround\".\n\n## The negger\n\n* \"I can't believe you don't have this yet. That's ridiculous. All\n  your competitors can do X, so I guess I'll just have to go use\n  something else.\"\n\n## The duper\n\nFiles duplicate bug without doing any search ahead of time to see if\nthe bug was already filed. I don't expect people to be perfect and\nfind a possible dup bug every time, but I expect you to try for 10\nseconds first.\n\n## The template ignorer\n\nThe bug template asks a bunch of questions.\n\nThe person filing the bug answers none of them.\n\nBut, uh, \"it doesn't work\".\n\n## XY Problem\n\nSee https://xyproblem.info/\n\nSomebody files a bug asking for X, omitting what their real problem\nis, but thinking that X would help with their problem. Usually they\ndon't understand the problem enough and are asking for the wrong\nthing.\n\nStart with your problem.\n\n## Just add an option!\n\nThe project doesn't want a hundred configuration knobs. That's a\nusability and testing disaster: users need to learn all the options\nand how they interact, and project maintainers need to set up tests to\ntest every combination of them.\n\nSo the project instead tries to do the right thing automatically,\nconfiguration free.\n\nBut users inevitably don't want to wait for the right fix and instead say:\n\n* \"Just add an option!\"\n\nJust.\n\n## The lazy pull request\n\nSomebody opens a pull request adding a feature or bug fix, but in\ndoing so ...\n\n* implements an unwanted feature with no discussion\n* provides no description in the pull request\n* breaks existing functionality that doesn't apply to them\n* breaks test cases and does not address them\n* fails to provide coverage in new test cases\n* does not update documentation\n* expects maintainers to \"take it from here\"\n\n## The locals find each other\n\nThe project is primarily in one language (inevitably English): its\nwebsite, its docs, its bug tracker are all in English.\n\nA user files a bug in English.\n\nSome comments go by.\n\nEventually two of users commenting in the bug discover that they both\nspeak some non-English language and switch all the dialogue in that\nbug to that language. It's spread in forums by users speaking that\nlanguage and more people speaking that language start participating.\n\nNow the original people who filed the bug (in English) have to do the\ncopy/paste translation because the issue tracker doesn't have built-in\ntranslation. (It's 2023. They should. But maybe they don't want to pay\nfor it.)\n\nThis is regrettable (people should ideally be able to use their\npreferred language and participate), but it's really annoying for\nproject maintainers when their issues are taken over and had the\nlanguage changed on them. Better tooling by issue trackers \u0026 browsers\nwould help here.\n\n## Wants the opposite.\n\nThe project says \"This is **foo**, specifically for **bar**. It\nspecifically does not do **baz** because the following reasons.\"\n\nUser shows up in the issue tracker: \"Hey, I really like **foo**! How\nabout you add **baz**? It would be great!\"\n\n## The cookie licker\n\n* \"Can I work on this?\"\n\n... then proceeds to never work on it.\n\n(courtesy @jakebailey)\n\n## The At-er\n\n`@`-mentions a bunch of project contributors, hoping to get more\nattention to their issue.\n\n(BTW, if you ever need attention on an issue, be sure to mention\n@jakebailey who suggested this item)\n\n## The Blaster\n\nUser files a bug,\n\n... but also emails the user list, the core developer list, posts to\nTwitter, posts to Reddit, asks on Stackoverflow, emails support,\nemails sales, privately DMs some core developers ....\n\n_STOP._\n\n## The novelist\n\nUser files a bug, maintainers asks for minimal reproduction test.\nUser does _NOT_ provide test case, instead opts to write out an entire short story on what he belives is happening, starting at his childhood, a mysterious problem that he encountered and the wonderous half-human, half-lizard being that helped his way through trying to fix the problem, a story full of allegory, but zero code.\n\nMaintainers still have no idea what the bug really is, because they don't understand what the user did.\n","project_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Fbradfitz%2Fissue-tracker-behaviors","html_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/projects/github.com%2Fbradfitz%2Fissue-tracker-behaviors","lists_url":"https://awesome.ecosyste.ms/api/v1/projects/github.com%2Fbradfitz%2Fissue-tracker-behaviors/lists"}