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/> k...@tabular.io
