@Valve, please, assign community moderators | this PR brings FAQ and checkmarks in IssueTemplates

[Aluerie]

This PR might look overboard to somebody from Valve. But from my perspective as someone who reads majority of posted issues, the repository really needs to advertise "more upvotes (👍) the better" concept (which is advised in README of this repo) and overall "GitHub etiquette". People who come here are generally totally unfamiliar with those and end up misusing/underusing the repo or being straight destructive. Thus we need to promote the "rules" and shove them right into posters faces. Unfortunately, nobody reaches to read a bland description or hidden down below contributing guidelines or even knows what they are. This is why I:

• Made FAQ and put it right into front of README.md so hopefully it catches eyes of a supposed first-time visitor and the word FAQ grabs their attention into at least cross-looking at it where they can understand
  • not to post duplicates
  • upvote issues with 👍 is what this repository is about
• Added markdown warning in issues templates that kindly ask them to check if the issue they want to post is a duplicate
• Added required checkmarks for users to tick before the posting
• ❗❗❗ And finally. kindly ask Valve to assign community moderatos with reasoning below. ❗❗❗

Why?

There are four problems that the bug tracker needs to address.

1. Excessive amount of duplicates
   Example: There is 46 open duplicates of Collector Cache 2 sets which were unboxed BEFORE you made them giftable again are not giftable at all #6125 and the original issue only has 22 upvotes meaning people do not understand that they are not supposed to post duplicates, that they should just upvote the original and close their duplicate. Some even think that it's beneficial to post duplicates when it's really not and contradicts GitHub philosophy very much! And these people won't ever close these issues, potentially clogging the search for future Collector Cache trading issues.

2. People do not know that they are supposed to 👍the issues.
   Example: above^ proves it but another one untargetable and unclickable hero model #6070 - opened by a Valve dev, covers a very important topic, daily complaints on reddit about it, honestly, S tier priority (compared to other posts) since the issue is potentially game-breaking yet only 10 upvotes.

3. Excessive amount of troll/wrong/invalid posts and comments
   You can say that this should not be a problem since such posts just do not get upvoted, but they make it way harder to browse the repo and upvote real stuff. If a good post gets buried away from Newest page by 10 duplicates, 3 troll posts, 2 wrong posts, 5 complainers then it's not very likely for people to notice and upvote it (or for some quick dev fix). Example: During Swag Bag period there were 100s invalid issues/day posted which were just people crying about deliberately deleting their TB arcana thinking gem is tradable.

4. People do not check back on their issues
   Infinite amount of issues and devs not fully triaging the repo leads to a lot of closeable issues being left behind. People don't even react to duplicate/invalid mentions and rarely remember to close their issues after their post is addressed. Examples: already mentioned 46 duplicates of Collector Cache 2 sets which were unboxed BEFORE you made them giftable again are not giftable at all #6125, ~40 ban appeals like I was banned just like that until 2038  #7051 or DotaTV doesn't work #2035 which was fixed months ago and no longer relevant. Patch 7.32e fixed arcanas not counting in turbo - but will anybody of these 30 posters close the issues on their own?

5. (Edit from Feb2024) Trolls in comments
   While point 3 is about troll posters - there is also a group of people sabotaging comment sections with trolling/negativity/toxicity/etc. Even non-trolling people sometimes behave like it's a reddit-like-forum but ideally the bug tracker should have more serious structure.

These 5 problems are related to each other and one proposed way of trying to address it - this PR brings the FAQ into better spotlight and a bit more aggressively suggest the poster to double check their intention.

@ Valve, please, assign some community moderators.

Why?

1. It's just another and more efficient way of solving those mentioned 4 problems above.
   Example: moderators would close some obvious duplicates/trolls/etc. There are 5k+ open issues and this number can be easily trimmed down to 1k. Less open issues - easier to browse, easier to search, easier to upvote. Maybe, stale settings need to be discussed, but my point is rather about Newest page. Keeping it as clean as possible would help a lot.

2. Trusted Moderators could utilize a lot of unused GitHub features or just quickly edit typos in templates or readme.

   Examples of those features:

   • labels for more glance value/better search/filtering (and auto-labeling)
   • custom bot for
     • mod command tags, i.e. I comment /duplicate #1234 and the bot closes the issue with a long standard copy-paste explanation. /please_english, /invalid:scammed, /invalid:rant, /mac_linux_issue, /intended are other example of tags that would be frequently used.
     • anti-spam protection (these ads comments are quite annoying)
     • more (infinite possibilities there, just look at some heavily moderated repos like microsoft/terminal)
   • pins for some hot issues, FAQ or good first issue
   • git actions
   • community standards
   • webhooks so discord communities can follow the repo activity

---

Cmon, guys, the bitter fact is - in 7 months there was zero improvement in repository structure, let the folks do it :c So add some people who can and care as collaborators (or let s start with less permissions) to this repository.

From current README.md:

This tracker is only as good as you make it,

With collaboration/moderation permissions folks like us could make it a lot better. 🙃

[shaileshgarg]

Adding to the above points

• A lot of posts are related to people not knowing how to achieve some of the baisc stuff inside the dota client, some of the ones that I have encountered are people not knowing how to unlock styles , how to unbundle a set from the inventory etc. We should look into ways for people to know how to achieve these basic things inside the client
• Many posts are issues that have been fixed, but the original Author haven't checked back on them.

Also, for issues we should look into creating TAGS like QOL, BUG-LOW, BUG-MEDIUM, BUG-HIGH sort of thing to priotise the issues.

[shaileshgarg]

Some folks that have regularly contributed to the bug tracker, and have contributed to the issues positively

@TheUnholyWrath
@TheZett
@commentator24
@shaileshgarg
@Aluerie

Edit: Adding few more folks,

@LokeLok
@Mabadman
@irismus, Dota 2 Wiki Admin

[commentator24]

ty for tagging me. I also would love to work for free to learn until hopefully hired by valve and become valve developer / make my own custom game as well.

Would be nice if there's a guide on how to make proposed changes for entry level developers. e.g. to fix text based incorrect tooltips that has old values. if someone could guide me e.g. over discord / steam voice chat i would love to make such guides for others or learn how to make custom game modes / new maps for dota. How nice would it be if developers can just look at proposed changes first? or has guides on how to create custom games to test/fix bugs in workshop tool? and new developers can efficiently fix bugs with guides on how to fix similar type of bugs. e.g. if want to change this tooltip, need to change this and that as well, etc for files that anyone has the permission to look at.

New issues templates are not efficient / too bulky / people not using right keywords in title that would make it easier to search for similar issues later on.

Every time I looked at these templates i feel I wasted few seconds to look for which one to get started, so I just open blank issue instead, since clicking get started just leads to similar prompts: Description, game id, screenshots.

Templates for creating new issues should catch people's attention to upvote if that's important. noone would open readme files. e.g. the first time i created github account i don't even know how to start an upvote emote and often just create blank issue template because i feel it doesn't fit with other templates, annoyed with requirements e.g. game ID, and generally prefers the visual style of blank template preview (no bulky headings of Descriptions, example match ID and screenshots).

so my suggestions for new issues template:

1. Configure blank issue template? Add the right Alt text / input tooltip suggestions for titles so its easier to search for similar issues later on and remind people to upvote.
   

2. Set templates that would fit assigned task / groups in Valve team / remind people to upvote, so senior developers or github moderators won't waste time assign roles / find and close similar issues / reduce the need for github moderators to change titles and its easier to search for titles with similar issues.
   maybe something like this?
   

Then you can list the prompts needed for issues with similar titles to prevent duplicates.
e.g. Guide for new issue title to prevent duplicates...could be simply list Task name - where and what in titles.
No right click UI - cant gift this item (name).
Incorrect display value - tooltip show old value.. or alt text does not display correct damage etc.
this way if someone want to fix similar issue for other items or tooltips, they can just search the task name..No right click UI or incorrect display value for similar tasks.
And If something is fixed, developer should at least comment on the issue they looked at, so other similar issue can be closed as well because it's tagged under comments or by other github moderators etc.

QOL and feature suggestions should be under discussions maybe.

[shaileshgarg]

Rules for Community Moderators if they are ever assigned:

• Duplicates: Close all duplicates except the latest. Keeping latest duplicate for sorting issues by Created Date
• Bug: Upvote them, maybe add a tag.
• Troll: Close them
• Intended Interaction: Close them with Explanation.
• Unknown: Let them bake in for some time, 1 month or so, see if there are any other update, or duplicates for it. If no close it. BTW, add a tag, maybe someone else knows, or a developer directly replies.
• QOL/Suggestion: If its small enough, add a tag and upvote them. If big then close the issue, and direct them to Discussions.

[shaileshgarg]

Auto Labing would not work, given people are creating bugs, intented behavior, trolls and all issues under the same thing. And also bugs themselves have a differnt priority for resolution some bugs are Critical, some High, medium or low priority.

Auto stale setting is also not usefull here, as many issues open from June are actual bugs that are still present in the game and there are also trolls posts that exist from June.

[shaileshgarg]

A template I think should be present for QOL or Small Suggestion.

The templates with Auto Labelling works, for the General bug template, we would need to evaluate over time, what catagories of bugs are created using it and maybe create new template as and when required. Overwise the templates with Autolabelling looks good.

Some Exampes of issues which would not fit in the templates defined and fall in General Bug:

• Hero Shard Issues
• Battlepass issue
• Replay/ Dota TV issues
• Dota Client Issues, etc

Don't know how many geneuin issues are there of the above mentioned categories, but like I said above we would need to evaluate these over time.

Still not in favour of Auto Stale, as with Upvotes, there are many issues open from June which are still present in the game but with a low number of upvotes.

[shaileshgarg]

Can we also add a template for small QOL improvements.

[shaileshgarg]

We should freeze any more changes and finalize the pull request.
The main purpose of the changes were:

• Have better auto labelling, the changes acheives that
• Prevent people from trolling/ using it as support forum, which the changes reflect.
• Preventing people from creating duplicates and upvoting the original, this is not entirely solved as people may create the bug with different wording but with Community mods this can be solved.

One last ask, in new issues, it is possible to start the issue with one upvote already present, because it seems people don't know how to add one.

[ivs123franco]

Issue template and also feedbacks, community mods and easier access to the community such as discord would tackle the entry barrier for new players to post here.

I did this post: #6650 , 37 people watched I think... But I never had a feedback about that, I have no idea if I did it the right way.

I think so many people want to improve the community, but they dosnt know how to or if they do... They just have no feedback and quit on trying to.

We should increase the feedback rate and one way to do that is to bring "Overwatch from dota 2" to here, with rewards such as medals in github in order to be recognized by the community after reviewing a forum or providing a good idea.

[shaileshgarg]

Would be great if there is any resolution on this. Currently there are more than 6500 issues are open, where majority are duplicates, fixed issues, complaints, no more applicable issues.

[Aluerie]

https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Dota2-Gameplay/issues/created_by/Under-Mod
https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Dota2-Gameplay/issues/created_by/FixSinisterGaze (user is banned now)

Prime example why this repository needs community moderation. Valve, please... if more people decide to abuse it then the repo will become unusable in no time.

@kisak-valve I'm sorry to @ you like this... I know you don't particularly moderate current repository, but

• the person in screenshot is egregiously spamming and disrupting. Can something be done? 😞
• Can this PR be referenced to somebody from Valve because this repository really needs some love and moderation from community itself (if not from valve).

[Anutrix]

Can we please ban https://github.com/ValveSoftware/Dota2-Gameplay/issues/created_by/Under-Mod and remove all the duplicates?

[Philaeux]

I am working on a new tool to manage issues related to Dota, should be in open beta soon.

My motivation comes from the fact that some people want to improve the game they are playing by curating known issues. Right now, this repository feels like a throw away were players can toss bugs, but nothing is curated. Developers, if they check the issues, will lose a lot of time finding real bugs. It's precious time lost not fixing the bugs.

I'm trying to merge features similar to github issues (create issues, categories, filtering, comments) with some social features (rate issue impact, propose issue patches, vote on those patches) so that the community can curate the Bug Repository, and the developer can quickly focus on what's important.

Will report when it's live with the URL.

[Philaeux]

Informing you that I was able to build a first version of the tool I was explaining before, hosted at oBugs. (project on hold because of low community contribution)
I plan on increasing the features and scale the VM to match the charge. Hoping we can curate the bug repository with this kind of tools.

[BledNavalny]

Devs dont care about dota players, only issues they can solve its cosmetic bugs. They just hide under steam support, who kick off all here to some mystical wise devs who allegedly watch these threads

[Blu3cr0ss]

Hello from 2024 huh... This PR shows how devs interested in fixing bugs. Still beta (most likely forever lol)

[CREEATION]

Hello everyone,

in advance, I was very pleased to read the latest patch notes.

I remembered I made a reddit post about how odd I thought it was that Clockwerk's Power Cogs don't cancel Snapfire's Mortimer Kisses. Not even quite sure it's related to the latest patch as I haven't played a lot in recent years plus a lot of things changed.

Issue was, I didn't remember when or with which account I posted it. So, I used the search function and stumbled upon this reddit post with a PSA that the github bug tracker is not reddit. The rabbit hole thickens and here I am.

Instinctively, I clicked on the pull requests and found this one.

Maybe the issue is that not enough people know about this repository to report actual bugs, which could help with managing the repository by having more accurate and less non-issues in the first place. Could backfire for sure, but maybe it's worth a shot to actually link the issues page from within the Dota 2 Client.

Or, even better, have a dedicated gameplay feedback window somewhere instead of the kinda hidden "Send Feedback" link which opens a simple text box popup.

This new gameplay feedback popup could be setup to work in tandem with the defined issue templates and automatically create an issue, maybe requiring a GitHub login. Haven't really looked into the details for doing this as I classify this comment as brainstorming.

Anyways, just a thought of thoughts. Thanks for reading! 🐢

//e:
I've just read the readme in typical fashion and pleased to hear things work out well as of 2 years ago. Maybe it's time to put the system to the test 🚀