Issue template and searching for duplicates

[funnelfiasco]

Not polluting #1062 with back and forth on this...

@woodruffw wrote

(I just realized the template says to look at open issues, so that's my bad. I need to update the template to tell people to look at closed duplicates too...)

I think leaving the template as-is and keeping issues open until the fix is in a release might be a better approach over time. With many hundred issues already, searching both open and closed repos will be a headache for users and will probably result in more duplicate bugs being filed as possible duplicates get missed.

If you are not convinced, I will write a blog post about it that will be unassailable 😉 (Actually, I should write about this anyway)

[woodruffw]

I'm of two minds on this -- IME some percentage of people do successfully find duplicates if they're told to look at closed issues too. I think this could further be helped by linking to the "duplicate" label in the template, since duplicates tend to be reported more than once.

Another strategy that I like (which I've seen on other repos) is to ask users which keywords they searched for when looking for dupes -- I like that because it's both a show of good faith from the reporter and it leaves breadcrumbs for future reporters to follow.

With that being said, I have no idea if that actually scales 🙂. My temptation here is to try and out and undo it if it makes the problem worse and not better.

[woodruffw]

But also yes, please write that post! I don't have a strong sense here, so something I could reference would be really great.

[funnelfiasco]

I think this could further be helped by linking to the "duplicate" label in the template, since duplicates tend to be reported more than once.

One of my favorite sayings is "Everything that happens once can never happen again. But everything that happens twice will surely happen a third time." Directing people to search the "duplicate" label will help with the latter case, but not the former. But some help is better than no help, for sure.

I think your proposal works until some unknown number of closed issues, at which point it gets difficult to sift through and determine that their report is likely a duplicate. Is that number in the tens? Hundreds? Eleventybillions? Texas with a dollar sign? No idea :-D

"Try it and see how it works" is a valid approach here, because anyone who claims to know for sure how this will work is wrong. You're the boss here, so I'll go along with whatever. I appreciate you letting me think out loud here.