Marking issue posts off-topic github.com/shurcooL/issuesapp#41

Writing this in response to this request.

It would be handy to be able to mark individual posts in an issue thread as off-topic. It's not uncommon that people with a similar but unrelated issue drop by, describe their problem and ask if it's the same bug. This is really a Good Thing and should be encouraged, but it can add a lot of noise to an already long and un-threaded discussion. It also raises the bar for the next person looking to avoid creating a duplicate, especially since the feedback on each off-topic "sub-thread" comes at the end.

Deletion seems too harsh and also removes valuable information, i.e. that this is not that other similar issue. Manual editing is possible, although GitHub Markdown doesn't offer any particularly compelling alternative. Strike-through makes it hard to read and quoting is a pain to apply manually. Having a Mark as off-topic widget at the top of each post, that tags it and greys it out, seemed like a good compromise.

Thanks a lot for making the suggestion, I will consider it.

An initial question about this:

Manual editing is possible, although GitHub Markdown doesn't offer any particularly compelling alternative.

Are you already familiar with, and have you considered the <details> HTML tag that GFM supports?

For example:

It's not uncommon that people with a similar but unrelated issue drop by, describe their problem and ask if it's the same bug. This is really a Good Thing and should be encouraged, but it can add a lot of noise to an already long and un-threaded discussion. It also raises the bar for the next person looking to avoid creating a duplicate, especially since the feedback on each off-topic "sub-thread" comes at the end.

Also, if you don't mind, it'd be very helpful to see some occurrences of this issue in the real world. Could you link to some threads where you've seen it happen? That would help me understand the problem more and evaluate any potential solutions.

Are you already familiar with, and have you considered the <details> HTML tag that GFM supports?

I wasn't. That's lovely! <summary> seems to work as well. Yes, that'll do.

I see. Great to hear, because if <details> tag is sufficient, that means there's a simple existing solution and no new features need to be added! Best part, you can use it on github.com too! :)

Still, if you don't mind, I'd find it helpful to see a few real-world examples of issues where you wanted this feature (as described in original post).

Still, if you don't mind, I'd find it helpful to see a few real-world examples of issues where you wanted this feature (as described in original post).

I went back and looked and couldn't even find the issue that prompted the tweet. I did find some instances of resurrection, where someone shows up in a resolved issue with a different one, but that's not what I described above.

So at minimum it's really rare and possibly I imagined the whole thing and suggested an unnecessary solution to a non-existent problem, neither of which is ideal. 🦉

Thank you for the clue.

No problem. I'm glad we arrived at a constructive solution. Thanks for contributing! :)