Joe,
"Invalid" means something like "this is not a legitimate report; the user
had mis-configured their browser". "Declined" means something like "We
understand the user's request but we won't change the default font size based on
the reasoning provided here."
Pine
(
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Pine )
-------- Original message --------From: Joe Matazzoni <jmatazzoni(a)wikimedia.org>
Date: 10/2/18 9:51 AM (GMT-08:00) To: Wikimedia developers
<wikitech-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org> Subject: Re: [Wikitech-l] problematic use of
"Declined" in Phabricator
I agree with Amir’s understanding. "Declined” is basically for ideas whose proper
timing is never. Valid ideas that we just aren’t going to work on any time soon should go
in a backlog or freezer or some such, where they can await until some future project or
other development makes them relevant (at least theoretically).
All of which does raise a slightly different question: I am much less clear on what the
exact difference is between “Invalid” and “Declined.” Thoughts?
Best,
Joe
_____________________
Joe Matazzoni
Product Manager, Collaboration
Wikimedia Foundation, San Francisco
mobile 202.744.7910
jmatazzoni(a)wikimedia.org
"Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the sum of all
knowledge."
On Oct 2, 2018, at 9:31 AM, Amir E. Aharoni
<amir.aharoni(a)mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
Hi,
I sometimes see WMF developers and product managers marking tasks as
"Declined" with comments such as these:
* "No resources for it in (team name)"
* "We won't have the resources to work on this anytime soon."
* "I do not plan to work on this any time soon."
Can we perhaps agree that the "Declined" status shouldn't be used like
this?
"Declined" should be valid when:
* The component is no longer maintained (this is often done as
mass-declining).
* A product manager, a developer, or any other sensible stakeholder thinks
that doing the task as proposed is a bad idea. There are also variants of
this:
* The person who filed the tasks misunderstood what the software component
is supposed to do and had wrong expectations.
* The person who filed the tasks identified a real problem, but another
task proposes a better solution.
It's quite possible that some people will disagree with the decision to
mark a particular task as "Declined", but the reasons above are legitimate
explanations.
However, if the task suggests a valid idea, but the reason for declining is
that a team or a person doesn't plan to work on it because of lack of
resources or different near-term priorities, it's quite problematic to mark
it as Declined.
It's possible to reopen tasks, of course, but nevertheless "Declined"
gives
a somewhat permanent feeling, and may cause good ideas to get lost.
So can we perhaps decide that such tasks should just remain Open? Maybe
with a Lowest priority, maybe in something like a "Freezer" or "Long
term"
or "Volunteer needed" column on a project workboard, but nevertheless Open?
--
Amir Elisha Aharoni · אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
http://aharoni.wordpress.com
“We're living in pieces,
I want to live in peace.” – T. Moore
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