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Comment by qrv3w | Hacker News Reader

Thanks for the post, its great to hear that Ghost is doing well - I love using it.

> [Github] has become too transactional - more support tool than collaboration

I strongly agree with this. I wish Github "Issues" were relabeled "Comments" and need not be "Open" or "Closed". Issues need action, comments do not. I've been burned many times now by solving someone's issue and then finding out they use my code for their business and just wanted free support from me.

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Why not just close the issue and direct the person to stackoverflow, superuser, etc. if you think it falls into that category?

Then you get a reputation as a rude developer, whether or not that's fair or warranted.

You could create an issue template that explains the rules. If people still file support issues, you close those with a friendly reminder text (copy/paste) in which you explain the reasons why this is not the place for support. If people still think this is rude, they have personality issues which shouldn't be of your concern.

Aye, and you'd be well within your rights to do so, but I am doubtful that this approach will preempt the majority of people assuming rudeness on your part.

Very sad what the article says about GitHub. Which other changes would be nice to do?

I'm not sure - in my experience I find that issues from new GH users are usually suspect (e.g. see [1]). So it might be nice to have something like the "Limit to existing users" [2], except not limited to a 24-hour period.

I wish GH users felt obligated to disclose they work for a company when creating issues that are for their company, but that's not something GH could (or should) enforce.

[1]: https://github.com/schollz/find3/issues/66#issuecomment-3829...

[2]: https://blog.github.com/2017-05-30-introducing-temporary-int...

Many large open source platforms address this particular issue with paid support plans. You might find that the company you ended up doing work for would be happy to have paid their way.

I also find some of the best improvement suggestions come from people using the software in heavy real world use, which tends to be businesses. They have very real pragmatic needs.

Maybe consider a license change?

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