[python-committers] Github reviews are cannibalizing BPO

[Nick Coghlan]

On 3 May 2017 at 05:09, M.-A. Lemburg <mal at egenix.com> wrote:
> This doesn't have much to do with UX/UI. It's mainly a questions
> of culture.

It's about the UI/UX for me, as Roundup is missing a few modern
collaboration features:

1. Easy user mentions: I can't just mention someone inline based on
autocompletion, I have to go up and add them to the nosy list
2. Easy issue mentions: I don't get autocompletion pop-ups for issue
cross-references to help fill in the right ones
3. Easy editing: if I post incorrect information, or the goal of an
issue changes, that gets buried in a subsequent correction post
4. Easy formatting: RoundUp is plaintext only, with no ReST or Markdown support
5. Easy reactions: no native +1 support to avoid "Usenet nod syndrome"
without spamming folks following the issue

None of them are particularly significant in isolation, but
collectively they and similar reductions in UX friction add up to a
significantly more fluid collaboration experience in the modern,
commercially supported, tools.

That said, those are also all straightforward enough to add that I
think the right question to ask is "How can we get them added to
either upstream Roundup, or at least our instance of it?", but
claiming that these kinds of UI/UX limitations don't matter or don't
currently exist won't help anyone.

> Github is more geared up for a culture of quick chat
> style comments, whereas bpo has traditionally seen a more elaborate
> in-depth discussions style.

This simply isn't an accurate characterisation of the way people use
GitHub - I participate in several GitHub and GitLab hosted projects,
and the issues and the PR level comments get used exactly the same way
that we use bugs.python.org.

The rationale for retaining the latter relates to maintaining URL
stability, avoiding breaking our own and third party integrations,
preserving current email-based individual workflows, and maintaining a
PSF controlled archive of significant design decisions, rather than
any particular flaws in alternative issue trackers.

Cheers,
Nick.

-- 
Nick Coghlan   |   ncoghlan at gmail.com   |   Brisbane, Australia