DIP Reviews: Discussion vs. Feedback

[Mike Parker]

On Monday, 3 February 2020 at 22:28:32 UTC, IGotD- wrote:

> There is a fine line between discussions and feedback. It is 
> not that obvious what is OT and what is not.

That’s why we have two threads now, to clearly delineate the two. 
Previously, review threads would ramble all over the place, with 
feedback specific to the content of the DIP mixed in with 
discussion of the proposed feature and tangential topics. This 
made it time consuming to dig out actionable items of feedback.

Posts in the feedback thread are required to be direct replies to 
the initial post in order to prevent discussion in that thread 
and keep comments focused on the DIP. If someone leaves feedback 
there and you reply to it to counter it or expand on it, that’s 
opening the door to discussion and your post will be deleted. 
Instead, make a post in the discussion thread and include a link 
to the post you’re responding to and quote the relevant text.

We don’t want to stifle discussion, because it can lead to new 
ideas to enhance the DIP, or for a new proposal, or even to 
withdraw the DIP. But we want to make it easier for me and the 
DIP author to find actionable feedback that can guide revision of 
the DIP. It will also be easier for future readers clicking from 
the review summary to see what specific feedback was provided.