Consistent issue labels across all repos

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Imo this would be a great pkg-dev improvement.
Throwing in the following links to show a possible approach:

There is ofc no need to use all the labels in the same way as proposed in the blog post - but the linked git-labelmaker would make it very easy to transfer all labels across all repos.

However, this would ofc also involve work for each pkg maintainer to update his old issues (maybe at least the open ones). New repos could have a fresh start.

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Thanks for posting here! I had given it some thought (at rOpenSci, and not at rOpenSci cf https://itsalocke.com/blog/harmonizing-and-emojifying-our-github-issue-trackers/ <- the code could be simpler since there are now new endpoints) but I’m still not sure it’d be worth the effort given repos across the organization have so many different maintainers, but let’s see what others think.

Note that the only labels we’ve ever recommended are hacktoberfest :jack_o_lantern: and “beginner” https://ropensci.github.io/dev_guide/collaboration.html#issue-labelling

I know that @wlandau has a very advanced labelling system see https://github.com/ropensci/drake/issues Maybe he can tell us how much it helps :slight_smile:

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“Advanced” is generous, thanks. My personal opinion is that different repos have different needs. For drake, common themes emerged over the course of development, and I chose labels to help streamline high-level thinking and planning. Some questions I found myself asking:

  • I only have a couple hours today. Which issues can I solve quickly, and which are difficult enough that I need a larger block of time?
  • Which issues can I solve right now? For some, am I waiting for external prerequisites?
  • What have I done so far to try to make drake faster?
  • What are the most common complaints about the API?
  • Am I adding new features too fast? Not fast enough?
  • On which issues do I need help or advice from the community?

There is also a “frequently asked question” label, and whenever there is a new commit to the drake-manual master branch, Travis automatically scrapes issues with this label to build an FAQ.

In any case, if there is a one-size-fits-all approach, I certainly have not discovered it yet.

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Thanks for the discussion @pat-s

My biggest concern is that we do have so many different maintainers and different scenarios for each repo.

I can envision a very small set of labels that every repo might use, e.g.,

  • bug
  • docs
  • question

but looking at a handful of repos within ropensci org I don’t see many other common labels. there’s a handful of repos that still have the default labels that come with a new repo.

the priority labels make sense because they aren’t specific to the content of a repo