> The issue tracker may quickly start to fill in. “Thank you, this is exactly what I needed” would be a heartwarming thing to read, but you will never see such a comment ever.
As a counterpoint, I'd never wish to see such comments made in GitHub issues for my projects. To me it's just spam. I also feel really awkward replying to such comments. A bug report (if it is an actual bug) is however welcome to me, because it lets me see that there is an issue in something I wrote. The first time someone filed a bug against my program (not a thank you, but an actual bug report), I was really happy that someone made the effort to let me know about a flaw in my insignificant creation.
That said, when the volume of tickets filed on the bug tracker is big enough, I'd consider having the bug tracker open only for paying users. Handling those tickets is real work and the author is entitled to payment for it when someone demands it. Doing it right from the start regardless of volume is also totally reasonable.
Alternatively, the author may decide that they just don't care about bug reports from others. In this case, GitHub doesn't seem to be the best platform for their project. A basic cgit instance should suffice or a tarball on a website - no place to file bugs.
From yet another perspective, when I want to contribute to a project, I outline on the bug tracker a potential contribution, ask whether that would be welcome, if I should start working on it or maybe there are some changes needed, and then I don't get any kind of response for months, it's off-putting. A "no", "I don't care" or "I don't have time for it" would suffice. It's comparable to ghosting in the world of dating. Just say "no" and everyone will be better for it.
As a counterpoint, I'd never wish to see such comments made in GitHub issues for my projects. To me it's just spam. I also feel really awkward replying to such comments. A bug report (if it is an actual bug) is however welcome to me, because it lets me see that there is an issue in something I wrote. The first time someone filed a bug against my program (not a thank you, but an actual bug report), I was really happy that someone made the effort to let me know about a flaw in my insignificant creation.
That said, when the volume of tickets filed on the bug tracker is big enough, I'd consider having the bug tracker open only for paying users. Handling those tickets is real work and the author is entitled to payment for it when someone demands it. Doing it right from the start regardless of volume is also totally reasonable.
Alternatively, the author may decide that they just don't care about bug reports from others. In this case, GitHub doesn't seem to be the best platform for their project. A basic cgit instance should suffice or a tarball on a website - no place to file bugs.
From yet another perspective, when I want to contribute to a project, I outline on the bug tracker a potential contribution, ask whether that would be welcome, if I should start working on it or maybe there are some changes needed, and then I don't get any kind of response for months, it's off-putting. A "no", "I don't care" or "I don't have time for it" would suffice. It's comparable to ghosting in the world of dating. Just say "no" and everyone will be better for it.