automatically closing stale pull requests

H. S. Teoh hsteoh at quickfur.ath.cx
Tue Oct 16 21:45:27 UTC 2018


On Tue, Oct 16, 2018 at 05:10:38PM -0400, Nick Sabalausky (Abscissa) via Digitalmars-d wrote:
> On 10/16/18 4:16 PM, notna wrote:
> > another interesting discussion [1]... and old/stale pull requests
> > are also discussed here now and then... not sure if this [2] is
> > known to many ppl?!
> > 
> > - [1] https://marc.info/?t=153926658700001&r=1&w=2
> > - [2] https://github.com/probot/stale
> 
> I've encountered stalebot before. I's probably the #1 dumbest software
> development idea I've ever seen.
> 
> "If we didn't fix the issue, then it must've magically fixed itself."
> 
> "Let's decrease our bugcount by closing bugs whether they've fixed or
> not."
> 
> Stupidest, most obviously bad idea ever.

+1.  "If we can't fix the problem, let's just close our eyes and pretend
it doesn't exist. It makes our bug count go down, so our software
quality must be magically improving!"

"It's been 10 years since we were unable to fix this bug, therefore
let's define it out of existence. We only fix easy problems, hard
problems don't exist in our universe."

If only software development were this easy!

Sadly, and scarily, this practice is often encountered in "enterprise"
projects, where managers are fixated on flawed metrics like bugcount to
the point of blinding themselves to the actual condition of the code.
It's the proverbial ostrich burying its head in the sand, at its finest.


T

-- 
Who told you to swim in Crocodile Lake without life insurance??


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