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Ask HN: How to say no to a GitHub issue feature request?

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Re: Ask HN: How to say no to a GitHub issue feature request?

#32

Post by inglor_cz »

"This feature isn't in my personal to-do list. Remember that this is free work on my part, not a contract between us two. If you wish to have this feature implemented anyway, my basic quote is X dollars per hour, and you will have to pay at least 100 hours upfront."

If they don't stop bothering you after that, just block them.

Re: Ask HN: How to say no to a GitHub issue feature request?

#33

Post by keyle »

Consider applying the exponential back-off technique. Originally designed for firewalls, it works well with annoying people! (particularly Slack etc. with faster rates than below.)

This only really applies when you owe people an answer, so I'm not even sure this applies here. You could simply palm them off politely.

Here is how it works.

Silly request 1: respond within the hour

silly request 2: respond within a few hours

silly request 3: respond the next day

silly request 4: respond within a week

Stand your ground. No one can make you lose your cool or upset you, unless you let them. Politely decline every time and they'll get the drift, slowly.

And if your product is open source, they can fork it and shovel it themselves.

Re: Ask HN: How to say no to a GitHub issue feature request?

#34

Post by eternityforest »

"This feature is a bit out of scope"(if applicable). "Our team, aka me, has limited time for this project, and I just don't have the bandwidth. I can answer questions or possibly collaborate if you'd like to have a go at the code yourself though."

"This is a personal/internal use project made available to the community as is, and adding features outside of what I need for my own company is not a priority. You're welcome to submit a PR if you do get the feature implemented yourself though."

(If applicable) "It does seem useful so I'll leave this issue open in case someone else wants to implement it, but I don't currently have a need for it".

"If this feature is very critical, we can talk about some paid support options, but otherwise, free software is largely created by companies and individuals for their own needs, and we don't have time for every feature request"

Re: Ask HN: How to say no to a GitHub issue feature request?

#35

Post by robalni »

flibble wrote: post #19

This sounds like a problem you will face many times in the future and therefore you may benefit from finding a solution that will solve for both this request and all similar future requests. For example, instead of writing any customised response, you could write a blog post / make a webpage that explains your approach to these types of request and then simply link to it in a reply. Then every time this comes up you…

> simply paste in “Thank you for your request. Please see [URL]”.

I think this can make people feel like you don't understand them and maybe make them angry. It feels like an automatic response you would post when you haven't even read the request. I think you should at least clearly say that you don't want the requested feature in the response, then you can link to the page.

Re: Ask HN: How to say no to a GitHub issue feature request?

#36

Post by serial_dev »

You can just politely say no. That's it, don't feel obligated to do anything else (and for that matter, even this is optional).

I don't recommend you say f off or be hostile, it's not worth the trouble, be gracious and kind, but don't be afraid to be firm and establish your boundaries.

If he keeps bugging you, simply ignore him or block him if needed. There are lots of entitled people on the internet, it's up to you whether you ignore them, get upset or comply with their unreasonable demands.

Open source doesn't mean free work, it also doesn't mean you need to review other people's PRs, and it doesn't mean you need to merge someone's pull request with an amazing feature.

Everything is optional and at any time you can say no.

Re: Ask HN: How to say no to a GitHub issue feature request?

#38

Post by david_draco »

The suggestions posted here (give a quote, say no, say you are not interested) are part of a larger, useful guideline:

Respond by specifying clearly what would be required for this feature to land in your code.

This can be money, this can be someone stepping up to do it and maintain it, this can be technical requirements under which you can see this go into your framework. Yes, users opening issues are demanding, but as a github repo owner you can ask for anything as well and put up barriers that the user needs to solve to see it happen. They may be motivated too.

Specifying clearly the problems and what is needed to overcome them leads the user to appreciate you more. It will sharpen your thinking on why exactly you are saying no. And sometimes you will be surprised by someone actually making you happy by meeting your requirements.

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