Community: Strategy for handling support requests in k/k

[ehashman]

Right now, when I categorize an issue as kind/support in kubernetes/kubernetes, I usually don't look at it again. I'd love to help these folks, but my focus is mostly on triage and getting bugs fixed.

We see a lot of issues where a support request is initially filed as a bug, and then a triager re-categorizes it as a support request, and then it usually rots out unless someone is feeling particularly helpful. There are currently 45 open support requests, and potentially more that were misfiled but haven't been triaged: https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues?q=is%3Aopen+is%3Aissue+label%3Akind%2Fsupport

It would be great if, when an issue is categorized as a support request in k/k, we could direct the author to the right support channels. Perhaps a bot could send them some links and close the issue. We may also want to discourage filing support requests against k/k at issue creation time by linking them elsewhere (e.g. Slack/Discourse).

[ehashman]

/cc @mrbobbytables

[ehashman]

/sig contribex

[k8s-ci-robot]

@ehashman: The label(s) sig/contribex cannot be applied, because the repository doesn't have them

In response to this:

/sig contribex

Instructions for interacting with me using PR comments are available here. If you have questions or suggestions related to my behavior, please file an issue against the kubernetes/test-infra repository.

[ehashman]

/sig contributor-experience

[mrbobbytables]

/assign @mrbobbytables @cblecker @nikhita @alisondy
For input 👍
/area github-management

[nikhita]

We have a response template for support requests - https://github.com/kubernetes/community/blob/master/contributors/guide/issue-triage.md#user-support-response-example. However, we don't autoclose issues today.

We could perhaps do this:

• Remove the Support Request template from here - https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/new/choose
• Add a note below the templates to point to support channels (discuss.k8s.io)
• If someone creates an issue without using the existing templates _and_ labels the issue as kind/support, the bot will comment with the response template and autoclose the issue.

[mrbobbytables]

Remove the Support Request template from here
Add a note below the templates to point to support channels (discuss.k8s.io)

We could update our issue templates so the support button will actually take them right to discuss. ref: https://github.com/kubernetes/community/issues/5261

I think it might be worth doing the same thing for enhancement requests there too, except redirect them to the k/enhancements repo

If someone creates an issue without using the existing templates and labels the issue as kind/support, the bot will comment with the response template and autoclose the issue.

Some people do usekind/support (at least in other repos), it might be worth it as a separate command where folks could potentially add their own text (similar to the welcome bot) and have the ability to specify if it will close the issue automatically or not.

[mrbobbytables]

The update for the issue template has been rolled out 👍
https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/new/choose

[nikhita]

Some people do usekind/support (at least in other repos), it might be worth it as a separate command where folks could potentially add their own text (similar to the welcome bot) and have the ability to specify if it will close the issue automatically or not.

/assign
I'll take this on and also try to do something similar for kind/feature - https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/98867

[nikhita]

Some people do usekind/support (at least in other repos), it might be worth it as a separate command where folks could potentially add their own text (similar to the welcome bot) and have the ability to specify if it will close the issue automatically or not.

Created https://github.com/kubernetes/test-infra/pull/20868