Separate bug/security issues from feature/support requests in the issue tracker

[winfriedgerlach]

Hello Bouncy Castle, we are using 3rd party libraries in a regulated environment and therefore have to evaluate all issues in this bug tracker whether they affect our software. What makes our work much harder than it would have to be is that you use the same issue tracker for everything, including basic "questions" or "support requests". We really like that you respond fast to people having questions this way, but would it be possible to seperate such issues from the real "defect related" issues in this tracker, e.g., by using labels?

You already have labels "question" and "enhancement" but these have obviously never been used. Do you think you could use these labels in the future? If you want to (and grant me the permissions to do so), I can offer to put labels on around 300 issues in your tracker that we have analyzed.

[dghgit]

Thanks for the offer, yes, that would definitely be the best way to get something happening. If I read correctly I can set you up with triage access and that will allow that. You should see an invite shortly.

[winfriedgerlach]

@dghgit Thanks, that seems to work and I have started putting some labels on feature requests/questions. I have no permissions to add additional labels though. Could you please add a label "documentation"? That label would be useful IMHO (and it is now standard for new Github repositories).

[roy-basmacier]

Added!

[winfriedgerlach]

@dghgit @roy-basmacier I still have some problems putting labels on issues. Sometimes, issues "only" affect BouncyCastle library developers, not the regular library users, e.g.: build issues, failing tests, missing test data,...

Do you have an idea what label we should put on those? I would not like to call these "bugs", as regular users of the library are not affected and do not need to worry... But I also didn't find another good label.

[winfriedgerlach]

and another issue, @dghgit @roy-basmacier : I systematically used the "question" label to mark issues of the nature "support question"/"how do I use X" etc. The description of the label is thus wrong:

Pls change label description to something like "Support request" or similar...

[peterdettman]

@winfriedgerlach Note that I went through a few weeks ago and made all the labels match the github default label set, including colors, names, descriptions. I think there is some value in keeping those with their default color and meaning.

Are you particularly attached to "question" for this? I think we could edit the existing "question" label to a different one (please suggest e.g. "support request"?) and then restore a new "question" label matching the github default again.

[winfriedgerlach]

@peterdettman I like your approach of renaming the "question" label, had the same idea. A label like "support" or "support request" with a description like "Asks the community for assistance" or whatever similar would be great!

Regarding my other question above: Do you think I should mark issues regarding BouncyCastle developers only (build problems, bugs in tests, missing test data etc.) as "bug" or do you think a separate label would be better?