Testing a New Stalebot in GitHub's Community Discussions

[queenofcorgis]

TL;DR - What is happening?

We are working to improve the quality of content across the GitHub Community Discussions. For the next 30 days we are going to perform a test using a custom action to label Question discussions that have not had any activity for 60 days as stale. The action will apply the label stale and comment to inform the original poster of the stale discussion. Sample draft copy is included at the bottom of this announcement.

📢 Feedback is requested on this initial test. Please comment on this post and let us know what you think!

What Discussions will be impacted?

• The action will label discussions that have been labeled Questions and have not had and activity in the past 60 days as stale.
• The action will post the sample copy (included below) as a comment on the discussion to alert the original poster, and request they take action to resolve the question. That automated reply should prompt users to return to add more information, select a reply as the solution, or close the question as out of date. I'll add some example copy we can use below.
• This will only be applied to discussions in the Copilot, Projects and Issues, and Accessibility categories as a part of this initial test.
• This action will not close the discussions automatically.

What is a Stalebot?

You can use GitHub Actions to comment on or close issues that have been inactive for a certain period of time.

Here is more info on this from the GitHub Docs: Closing inactive issues.

We're working with GitHub engineers to test this action in discussions!

Why are only limited categories impacted?

1. We have a hypothesis that using the action to close the loop on open and stale questions in the Community Discussions will improve the quality of content overall, but we want to test assumption before we risk disrupting the entire community discussions experience.
2. The initial test includes categories with high engagement, dedicated community managers, and a high level of involvement from GitHub engineers.
3. We are starting with an initial test with Discussions that are 60 days stale. We want to see how the age of posts impacts overall engagement and resolution rates. We track how long a discussion is open without a response and without an answer so we'll be able to track data on this test and use that to inform our next steps.
4. We want to hear from you! This is an experiment to benefit our users and the quality of content. If it doesn't work, we can roll it back. If it does, we can move forward and apply this across all categories.

What will happen after the trial period?

• The team will have an ongoing evaluation of how the stalebot impacts the response and resolution rates on exiting discussions.
• If we see positive indicators based on data that will be one indicator that this worked
• We will evaluate the feedback on this discussion. If you love it or hate it, we want to know! Please comment with ways you think we can improve the experience.
• If we deploy this broadly, we'll provide users with a hot-to guide here in the Community Discussions so you can apply a similar action to your own repo discussions 🚀

Example Stalebot Copy:

🕒 **Stale Discussion Alert** 🕒

This Discussion has been labeled as stale by an automated system for having no activity in the last 60 days. Please consider one the following actions:

1️⃣ Close as Out of Date: If the topic is no longer relevant, close the Discussion as "out of date" at the bottom of the page.

2️⃣ Provide More Information: Share additional details or context — or let the community know if you've found a solution on your own.

3️⃣ Mark a Reply as Answer: If your question has been answered by a reply, mark the most helpful reply as the solution.

Note: This stale notification will only apply to Discussions with the `Question` label. To learn more, see our recent stalebot announcement.

Thank you for helping bring this Discussion to a resolution! 💬

[ferdnyc]

@queenofcorgis Since you're showing the sample copy, presumably that's meant to invite input, so I have a suggestion:

Note: This stale notification will only apply to Discussions with the Question label. To learn more, see our recent stalebot announcement.

...The message could just link to the "recent stalebot announcement" (that'd be this discussion, #70478), instead of sending us on a scavenger hunt.

[ant-techs]

Hi How can I talk to the creator/Dev of Zello as I have a proposition for him, if you could get in touch at [redacted] I would be grateful to talk with you, Best regards, Anton.

[queenofcorgis]

Hi @ant-techs ,

I've removed your private information from your comment as posting identifiable information is not allowed, per our Code of Conduct.

If you're asking how to use the piece of software that you found in a repository on GitHub, the best way to contact the maintainers of that software is to:

• Check the README for instructions on how to operate the software and pointers to documentation or troubleshooting info.
• Check the SUPPORT file, if one exists, for instructions on how to best contact the maintainers for support.
• Check the CONTRIBUTING guide, if one exists. Sometimes if there isn't a SUPPORT file, the CONTRIBUTING guide will give instructions on how to contact the maintainers for support.

All of these documents can be found, if they exist, in the repository where you found the software itself.

[Marcono1234]

Thanks for being so considerate by only limiting it to the "Question" category and not closing discussions directly.

The stale action (and other similar actions) are known to be quite disruptive in some cases, see actions/stale#719, when they close issues where the maintainer has simply not responded yet. Or in this case here, acting on questions (possibly even well written ones) where no one ever commented on.

As you mentioned, many of the questions here are answered by GitHub staff or at least someone from the community. But some also seem to have no answer at all (discussions with label stale and only a single comment). In that case only action 1, "Close as Out of Date", would be relevant.

Do you think that is a problem, and will you try to address that?

[ant-techs]

I have no idea what your talking about? I have not been speaking on Github at all? Sent with [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/) secure email.

…

------- Original Message -------

On Tuesday, 31 October 2023 at 22:33, Marcono1234 ***@***.***> wrote: Thanks for being so considerate by only limiting it to the "Questions" category and not closing discussions directly. The stale action (and other similar actions) are known to be quite disruptive in some cases, see [actions/stale#719](actions/stale#719), when they close issues where the maintainer has simply not responded yet. Or in this case here, acting on questions (possibly even well written ones) where no one ever commented on. As you mentioned, many of the questions here are answered by GitHub staff or at least someone from the community. But some also seem to have no answer at all (discussions with label stale and only a single comment). In that case only action 1, "Close as Out of Date", would be relevant. Do you think that is a problem, and will you try to address that? — Reply to this email directly, [view it on GitHub](#70478 (comment)), or [unsubscribe](https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/APTMZUIXZZXQKCWO25GGT7TYCF4FBAVCNFSM6AAAAAA6FZCW42VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43SRDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHM3TINBQGIZTM). You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[ferdnyc]

@ant-techs

Then you should probably change your GitHub password, because 7 days ago your account posted a message to this discussion that started with, "Hi How can I talk to the creator/Dev of Zello as I have a proposition for him..."

[ant-techs]

Oh, no, that was me, sorry. I am trying to get Zello to speak to Cloudron, so we can use Zello on Cloudron. We have been discussing what apps we would like on Cloudron that's all. I do apologies. Best regards Anton Paradise Sent with [Proton Mail](https://proton.me/) secure email.

…

------- Original Message -------

On Thursday, 2 November 2023 at 21:37, Surya permana ***@***.***> wrote: Pleass — Reply to this email directly, [view it on GitHub](#70478 (comment)), or [unsubscribe](https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/APTMZUKOEOYSCT6OHX5U4F3YCQHANAVCNFSM6AAAAAA6FZCW42VHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43SRDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHM3TINRRGQYTS). You are receiving this because you were mentioned.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[jsoref]

@queenofcorgis sadly, this is in the announcements category, because I'd really like to see the action mark this discussion as stale.

I'd like to hear if you in fact ran this action and what the results were.

I personally hate the stale bot. (That I send PRs to it is not an endorsement, it's awful software for a lousy purpose.)

There appear to be two constructive pieces of feedback here:

1. If you're running an experiment, you should link to the announcement about the experiment: https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/70478#discussioncomment-7338056
2. A critique (similar to mine) of the feature: https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/70478#discussioncomment-7440236

There's also a PR relating to this discussion:
#69778

One problem with bots is that they make a mess of sorting (by last modified) by bubbling up stale items. Sure, it might breathe be life into a thing, but, for a system built around searching, that isn't worth doing. If someone's searching for a thing, they'll find or not find it based on their search and the text of the item.

A better approach would be to improve the UX flow so that authors are encouraged to yes/no answers as they arrive.