Re: [Ietf-and-github] Heavy and light mode text

["Martin Thomson" <[e-mail]>]

On Wed, Sep 11, 2019, at 09:37, Martin J. Dürst wrote:
> Glad to hear that (in the sense that it shows that it's not just me). Of 
> the "ways to make it tolerable", if there's anything that isn't in the 
> draft, please put it in. If you think some things are too 
> person-specific, I'd appreciate if you'd at least explain them here.

I think that we're firmly into the "what works for you" territory here.  I have tweaked my email settings very little from the default and rely on email notifications.  I end up clicking on different links in those emails if I find that there is an action or response required.  The tiny "view on github" link at the bottom for discussion points, the names of changed files in new pull requests.  Then everything goes through the GitHub interface.  After that, it's mostly becoming familiar with the quirks of the interface.

There's a bit of a need for situational awareness, as every repositories have different rules and social contracts.  For instance, labeling rules for QUIC are unique; other projects also have different expectations on when things get merged or when to request review.  Part of why we're doing this is to help reduce the number of unique contexts, but I somehow think that this is an unavoidable human fact.

On situational awareness, the visual similarity of pull requests and issues leads to a tendency to treat them the same, which can turn out poorly.  I still manage to get that bit wrong often.

Learning to use #42 or "Closes #42" mentions for issues and pull requests is something that helps a great deal as it ties different threads together.  Just don't forget to include the "Closes #42" in the opening comment when making a pull request; because editing it in later doesn't do anything.  You probably can't overdo this much within a project, but I try to avoid going cross-project, just like with @mentions.  There is probably a whole social science lesson in the use of @mentions as well, but I'll spare people that, aside from an anecdote.  Don't use @-prefixes on labels in drafts or people will start pulling all sorts of people into conversations they aren't interested in.

I also write a fair number of pull requests, which are done mostly on the command line (some tips here: https://github.com/martinthomson/i-d-template/blob/master/doc/TIPS.md), though occasionally through the web interface.

As for reviewing, I've gained a love-hate relationship with the suggestions tool.  The tendency of GitHub to hide comments when the associated context changes is both good and bad.  Here, you have to be careful to dig through hidden comments on occasion.  Though the emails tend to hold a record of these hidden interactions, they also don't provide context for replies, so there is sometimes a bit of back-and-forth to get everything straight.  Most of reviewing is keeping context straight in your own head, which is a skill that the tool can't help with.  That and being civil and constructive, of course.

To provide contrast, here's the view from someone who uses GitHub even more than I: https://annevankesteren.nl/2017/11/using-github