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Re: Saved Replies

#51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would be okay with these responses if it was remotely apparent whether Issues acts as a discussion forum or not. It varies for every project unfortunately. For smaller projects, the risk of asking on SO is the maintainer, and anyone else familiar with the project, will never see it as they wouldn't be actively monitoring it. Hopefully Github's current blast of Issues updates will make it easier for project owners t…

This is where CONTRIBUTING.md comes in. If a project doesn't want Issues to be used for support, then it should mention it there. Whether people actually read it is another story :(

Yeah this is actually my canned response on one of my own projects, and I'm tired of copying and pasting it. Nobody reads CONTRIBUTING.md

Re: Saved Replies

#52
post #41

They basically took the idea from this Chrome extension: https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/github-canned-resp...

The notion of shortcuts for inserting prepared text isn't exactly new. I was working in a data entry job in 1983 and the system would expand predefined text sequences into the matching full text as needed. Doing this through a pretty dropdown is the same idea. I'll bet the idea wasn't new in 1983 either.

The implication here, isn't so much that what was created was new, it's "Would this feature had been created had somebody else not shown GitHub a better way?"

Since the commit history for

https://github.com/notwaldorf/github-canned-responses/commit...

is fairly new, it's easy to believe this feature was in GitHub's pipeline for a while.

If this wasn't the case, it can sting from a brand perception point of view. GitHub is suppose to be synonymous with innovation, and if you start getting called out for copying, no matter how trivial, it will devalue your brand over time.

The question now is, how closely is GitHub looking at something like this:

https://github.com/stefanbuck/awesome-browser-extensions-for...

and other similar Chrome extensions.

Right now, they are in a damned if they do and damned if they don't, as the result of the dear GitHub letter.

Re: Saved Replies

#53

They really have been on a roll with the new features since the Dear Github letter happened

Keep in mind that these kinds of features were likely in development prior to the letter, although it's likely the letter accelerated the time table a bit.

The previous stuff they've launched was clearly in development earlier, but canned responses is a fairly simple, high-visibility feature that easily could have been built in response to the open letter.

Re: Saved Replies

#55

"Please ask support questions on Stack Overflow or the users group. I am closing this."

Love those cold, corporate, canned responses? Does Level 1 tech. support make your day by asking if you've rebooted? These features and more, can all be yours!

Well, I try to at least drop a hint as to the right search terms when I do this, and an encouraging word. But IMO your issue is not my issue. I am not going to track your issue.

But if I have time I might try to point you in the right direction, in the right forum.

Re: Saved Replies

#56
I feel like, much like the PHP bug reporting system's canned responses, this might get irritating quickly. After all, it's too easy to simply copy/paste your "Not A Bug" message and move on, without explaining it.

Nonetheless, probably a helpful tool.

Re: Saved Replies

#57
post #52
post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The notion of shortcuts for inserting prepared text isn't exactly new. I was working in a data entry job in 1983 and the system would expand predefined text sequences into the matching full text as needed. Doing this through a pretty dropdown is the same idea. I'll bet the idea wasn't new in 1983 either.

The implication here, isn't so much that what was created was new, it's "Would this feature had been created had somebody else not shown GitHub a better way?" Since the commit history for https://github.com/notwaldorf/github-canned-responses/commit... is fairly new, it's easy to believe this feature was in GitHub's pipeline for a while. If this wasn't the case, it can sting from a brand perception point of view. GitH…

I sincerely doubt much of their userbase will look at things so emotionally as to damage the company. Most of github seems to quietly continue ticking over no matter what the drama.

Re: Saved Replies

#58
post #43
post #27

It's a nice feature for busy repos such as npm ( https://github.com/npm/npm/issues ) but I hope people with smaller repos stay away from it. I would hate an automatic reply for filling an issue for a small library or such.

It has nothing to do with the popularity of the repository, really, but more with the quality of the issues. >>> I would hate an automatic reply for filling an issue for a small library or such. If the issue is lets say not reproducible because of lack of information provided, does it really matter if the response was typed out by hand? The response would be the same, give or take a couple of words.

The maintainer could see that, due to the nature of the issue, maybe the user OS would matter. Or maybe there's another version on the horizon that changes completely the functionally in topic. A hand crafted reply asking some curated questions/suggestions is not the same from an automatic "not enough information".

It's not about typing, it's about making a conversation.

Re: Saved Replies

#60
That's a really nice animated GIF, with very little color and font degradation. I'd love to know how it was made. I have [a couple I made recently here](http://robenkleene.github.io/2016/03/17/live-search/) using [gifify](https://github.com/vvo/gifify). Maybe it's just the color palette that makes it look better?
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