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docs(issues): ask reporters what triage actually needs, without requiring it - #469

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docs(issues): ask reporters what triage actually needs, without requiring it#469
alecdotdev merged 1 commit into
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@PathGao

@PathGao PathGao commented Aug 6, 2026

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Replaces bug_report.md and feature_request.md with three Issue Forms plus a config.yml.

This changes what every future reporter sees, so it is your call as much as ours. The case below is built from issues already open, not from a view about how templates ought to look.

Nothing is required

No field in any of the three forms carries validations: required. A required field is a place to abandon the form, and a half-filled report is worth far more than no report. The value comes from structure instead: a dropdown is less work than typing a sentence, and a labelled empty section still tells a triager exactly what is missing. Where a field looked tempting to require, the placeholder got better instead.

What each new bug field is buying, and from which issues

How did you install Markpad? (dropdown) — the highest-value addition, and the current template never asks. Five open issues turn on the answer:

In every one of those, "which artifact" is the bug. Not sure is deliberately in the list — without it, people who genuinely don't know skip the field instead, and we lose the ones who could have picked correctly from a list.

Linux only: distribution, session and GPU/driver (input) — "Linux" alone localises nothing. The two Linux issues above resolved on details the reporter volunteered without being asked: #182 needed Intel Arc + Mesa + Wayland/X11 to point at EGL, and #162 needed snap confinement. Marked Linux-only so Windows and macOS reporters skip it.

App version (input) — placeholder shows the shape (2.7.0), because "latest" is useless the moment a release goes out and cannot be reconstructed afterwards.

The document, if one triggers it (textarea)#99 has been open since April and is still unreproduced: it is a PDF header-clipping report with a screenshot and no source .md, and the last comment on it is a request for a reproduction. #201 shows the other side — that reporter offered the file unprompted ("I can provide the MD file privately"), so asking plainly is likely to work.

One problem per issue (markdown note, not a checkbox)#153 arrived as one bug plus two more in a PS and a PPS. The titled bug was answered; the scroll-position item and the save-crash item sat unaddressed for over two months, and the crash has still never been reproduced. The note says to open them separately and explains why. It is guidance, not a box to tick — a checkbox here would just be a required field wearing a disguise.

The other two forms

config.yml

blank_issues_enabled: true, deliberately: the maintainer-facing decision issues here (#390, #394, #395, #396) are written freehand and must not be forced through a bug form. No contact links, since Discussions are off.

Verification

  • All four files parse, and were checked against GitHub's documented form schema: allowed top-level keys, element types, per-type attributes, unique ids within each file (10/3/3, no collisions), no markdown element carrying an id, and no validations.required anywhere.
  • GitHub renders bug_report.yml as a form preview on this branch with no validation banner — a malformed form would silently fall back to a blank issue instead.
  • npm run check — 644 files, 0 errors, 0 warnings. npm test — 683 passing, 0 failing. No source file is touched; no workflow validates .github/.

One wording note

The two Windows dropdown options are worded installer (Markpad_…_setup.exe) and portable (Markpad_….exe) rather than pinned to _x64, since releases also ship arm64-setup.exe and arm64.exe and those users would otherwise land on Not sure. Same two options, same installer-vs-portable axis.

…ring it

Replaces the two stock templates with issue forms. The bug form adds the
questions that repeatedly had to be asked by hand: how Markpad was installed,
the Linux session and GPU, and the document that triggers the bug. It also
says one problem per issue, since items appended to a report get lost in the
thread.

No field is required. A half-filled report is worth more than an abandoned
one, so the structure does the work: a dropdown is less effort than typing,
and a labelled empty section still tells a triager what is missing.

Blank issues stay enabled — the maintainer-facing decision issues are written
freehand and should not be pushed through a bug form.

Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
@alecdotdev
alecdotdev merged commit 7f5e871 into master Aug 6, 2026
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@PathGao
PathGao deleted the docs/issue-forms branch August 6, 2026 01:22
@PathGao PathGao mentioned this pull request Aug 6, 2026
PathGao added a commit that referenced this pull request Aug 22, 2026
…eeps reconstructing (#703)

* docs(issues): cut the dead fields, and ask feature requests which platform they are for

Measured against the 27 external issues filed since the templates were
last rewritten (#469):

- bug report, 10 fields -> 6. "Linux only: distribution, session and
  GPU/driver" was answered 0/9 times because it is skipped on Windows
  and macOS; it is now a line in the OS placeholder. "Anything else"
  0/9, "The document, if one triggers it" 1/9 and "Screenshots" 3/9
  collapse into one box. "What you expected" folds into "What
  happens". Version, install method and OS were answered 9/9 and are
  now required.

- feature request, 3 fields -> 4. It carried no environment at all, so
  all 17 requests arrived without one — including Windows-only asks
  (tray icon, Scoop, a CLI flag) that cannot be triaged without knowing
  the platform. Adds a platform dropdown and a one-line version/install
  field, and drops "What have you tried instead?" (8/17) into the
  first placeholder.

- question, 3 fields -> 2. Goal and what-you-tried merge.

* docs(issues): ask for the raw Markdown as text, and for a reference app

Two fields added back on evidence from the maintainer replies, where the
information had to be reconstructed by hand:

- "The Markdown that triggers it" leaves the combined box and becomes its
  own `render: markdown` field. #690 and #691 both pasted a screenshot of
  Markdown, and both answers had to read the trigger back out of the
  image before they could be tested.

- "Has another app got this right?" is new on the feature request. The
  two requests that were answered fastest, #701 and #681, each attached a
  screenshot of another editor unprompted; #683, #604, #669 and #690 had
  to have Typora, Obsidian, Notion or GitHub named by the maintainer
  before the request had anything to be measured against.

---------

Co-authored-by: PathGao <gaoyanbo@gaoyanbodeMacBook-Air.local>
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