Joe, "Invalid" means something like "this is not a legitimate report; the user had mis-configured their browser". "Declined" means something like "We understand the user's request but we won't change the default font size based on the reasoning provided here."
Pine ( https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine ) -------- Original message --------From: Joe Matazzoni <jmatazz...@wikimedia.org> Date: 10/2/18 9:51 AM (GMT-08:00) To: Wikimedia developers <wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org> Subject: Re: [Wikitech-l] problematic use of "Declined" in Phabricator I agree with Amir’s understanding. "Declined” is basically for ideas whose proper timing is never. Valid ideas that we just aren’t going to work on any time soon should go in a backlog or freezer or some such, where they can await until some future project or other development makes them relevant (at least theoretically). All of which does raise a slightly different question: I am much less clear on what the exact difference is between “Invalid” and “Declined.” Thoughts? Best, Joe _____________________ Joe Matazzoni Product Manager, Collaboration Wikimedia Foundation, San Francisco mobile 202.744.7910 jmatazz...@wikimedia.org "Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all knowledge." > On Oct 2, 2018, at 9:31 AM, Amir E. Aharoni <amir.ahar...@mail.huji.ac.il> > wrote: > > Hi, > > I sometimes see WMF developers and product managers marking tasks as > "Declined" with comments such as these: > * "No resources for it in (team name)" > * "We won't have the resources to work on this anytime soon." > * "I do not plan to work on this any time soon." > > Can we perhaps agree that the "Declined" status shouldn't be used like this? > > "Declined" should be valid when: > * The component is no longer maintained (this is often done as > mass-declining). > * A product manager, a developer, or any other sensible stakeholder thinks > that doing the task as proposed is a bad idea. There are also variants of > this: > * The person who filed the tasks misunderstood what the software component > is supposed to do and had wrong expectations. > * The person who filed the tasks identified a real problem, but another > task proposes a better solution. > > It's quite possible that some people will disagree with the decision to > mark a particular task as "Declined", but the reasons above are legitimate > explanations. > > However, if the task suggests a valid idea, but the reason for declining is > that a team or a person doesn't plan to work on it because of lack of > resources or different near-term priorities, it's quite problematic to mark > it as Declined. > > It's possible to reopen tasks, of course, but nevertheless "Declined" gives > a somewhat permanent feeling, and may cause good ideas to get lost. > > So can we perhaps decide that such tasks should just remain Open? Maybe > with a Lowest priority, maybe in something like a "Freezer" or "Long term" > or "Volunteer needed" column on a project workboard, but nevertheless Open? > > -- > Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי > http://aharoni.wordpress.com > “We're living in pieces, > I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore > _______________________________________________ > Wikitech-l mailing list > Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l _______________________________________________ Wikitech-l mailing list Wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikitech-l
