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Do's and Dont's

General​

  • Do search through existing issues to see if yours has already been reported. It might even have already been resolved!
  • Do flag other Issues as a duplicate. Sometimes it is hard to find the right search terms in Github Issues and duplicates get created despite best intentions.
  • Do keep comments short, concise and on topic. High information density is essential for effective communication over a distributed and diverse landscape.
  • Do read the documentation. No one wants to have to show their ugly side on a bad day. Also known as RTFM™.

Reporting Issues​

  • Do open one Issue for one issue.
  • Do open two Issues for two issues.
  • Do not tack on “Oh by the way here’s another problem I noticed” to an unrelated Issue.
  • Do keep facts and opinions separate, ideally facts first and opinions at the end. Facts include platform details, reproduction steps, and what you have tried. Opinions include speculations about root causes you have not investigated. -Do be specific, especially in reproduction steps. Instead of the instruction: “type some text,” be unambiguously specific with the instruction: “Type ‘Test’”. The bug might have to do with the shift key and it will not be reproduced by others repeatedly banging adsfasdfadsfasd. This is not a theoretical occurrence — underspecification remains one of the most common reasons valid issues get closed as not reproducible.
  • Do reduce your reproduction steps to the minimal necessary to demonstrate your issue. It makes it easier for others to help you, and the culling often reveals relevant interactions.
  • Do specify the platform or environment, usually the browser and operating system. This matters a lot more than one would think.
  • Do not include platforms that you have not tested on. It is enough to be a legitimate bug if only one supported platform is affected. False positives will only invite dismissal if others cannot reproduce on a platform you did not test on, yet included in the bug report.
  • Do try to consistently reproduce your issue — in a clean environment. Start with the consistent part.
  • Do report a recurring issue even without reproduction steps if you are unable to identify them, after an earnest effort. This is sometimes okay with enough details about the environment and context, for others to be able to help fill in the gaps.
  • Do make use of bullets, colons, even incomplete clauses when appropriate. “Platform: Chrome/OSX, untested elsewhere” conveys just as much information as its grammatically correct equivalent.
  • Do spend extra time writing a good title. It should be short, yet descriptive — similar to the approach of writing a good commit message. Contributors often view Issues in list view where only titles are shown and Issues with bad titles will get ignored.
  • Do try to resolve or work around the issue, and provide details with what you tried, even if it did not work.
  • Do answer other people’s questions if you know the answer. Responding to questions is not a privilege reserved for just maintainers. Earnestly helping others is what open source is about!
  • Do not guess if you do not know the answer to someone’s question. Signals are helpful, not noise, wherever either comes from.
  • Do follow the issue template.

Pull Requests​

  • Do submit one pull request to address one issue.
  • Do submit two pull request to address two issues.
  • Do not tack on a minor whitespace or semicolon changes in unrelated commits or Pull Requests, even if the minor change is correct. Make a dedicated commit or Pull Request instead.
  • Do submit pull requests for typo fixes in documentation or comments.
  • Do not submit a large surprise Pull Request.
  • Do include tests with your Pull Request.
  • Do review your own PR as if you are the reviewer, prior to submitting it
  • Do make sure you have followed the contributing guidelines for committing, branching, and the pull request
  • Do not be surprised or get upset when you ignore the above and your Pull Request gets closed.

Requesting Features​

  • Do be specific in describing what you want to be added and how it would solve a problem you are facing.
  • Do not open an Issue with just “make X better” or “improve X”.
  • Do open an issue for a feature request with “Make X better by adding Y because Z”.
  • Do not confuse feature size with project fit. Fit is determined first, then implementation. Some fitting features will take a long time to implement because they are large. But no unfit features should be implemented no matter how easy.
  • Do not open hypothetical feature requests. If you do not personally need the feature or have the use case, you are not qualified to recommend the solution.
  • Do close feature requests you no longer need. If someone else has the same request, they can open a separate issue more focused on their needs.

Credit: Source