Man uses GitHub as a bug tracker for his house | Hacker News Reader

Man uses GitHub as a bug tracker for his house

wired.com

66 pointsmartokus22 comments

It's worth noting that Francis Irving is not just any man, but an uber-nerd who founded Scraperwiki (https://scraperwiki.com/about/ ) was part of the team that built They Work For You (http://www.theyworkforyou.com/about/ ) and other egovernment sites.

Then again, perhaps this note is moot. After all, using github issues to track house repair is probably all the bona fides one needs as an uber-nerd.

I do a similar thing with Trello.com, in fact the whole house hold now uses it (mostly through the mobile app) to manage shopping lists (supermarket/garden/farmers market), upcoming 'events', House Jobs, House Projects (which can evolve into their own boards).

This is a great example of users of your application doing unintended things. In this case, productive, positive things.

I also think this speaks volumes about the possibilities that open, or at least lenient, platforms offer. Rather than being removed for not adhering to a rule saying that "All project must contain source code", Github allows and encourages this kind of use.

I hope more companies in the future create products like this and treat their users similarly.

Great point. I cringe when I'm on some site and content gets posted that the site owners take issue with and remove, when in reality there was actually nothing wrong with the content -- it just didn't fit the preconceived notions of what the owners had intended. "This is not how the site is supposed to be used, therefore this content is bad and must be summarily removed" seems to be the thinking; it's as if they're scared, but of what I don't know.

And yes, it's very refreshing to see GitHub allow this. Thinking about it further, ticketing systems could see many more uses in the real world, and it makes me wonder if this is where we're headed? Whether it be parents keeping track of their kids' chores, homework, and other activities, or perhaps it's a neighborhood that uses it to help foster a community-driven cleanup and improvement system, or maybe even a city taking bug reports for anything and everything: "Street light out on 5th street", "Leaky hydrant in Centennial Plaza", or even bug reports about the city's provided websites and services in general.

Sometimes it's nice if a site evolves in ways not foreseen by the founders. Usually it is not though.

I have seen countless internet forums devolve from being mostly sensible discussion around a particular topic to becoming a place for a small but active clique of users to post endless in-jokes.

I'm the Francis in the original article...

Some years ago, I helped make a bug reporting for cities too like you mention, it's http://fixmystreet.com/ - equivalent in the US is http://seeclickfix.com/

I wonder if subconsciously that was one of the reasons a bug tracker for my house felt like an obvious idea.

Hah, very cool! We need greater adoption. Reporting things to a city entity (especially technology-related) is often an exercise in futility... with little-to-no follow-up to be had, unless you happen to get someone who takes ownership and provides their personal extension so that you can call back and check on it.

Broken-window syndrome, people take their cues from what already exists. If you want to focus your startup in one direction you need to curate the content to ensure that it goes in the direction you desire.

What differentiates Digg / Reddit / HN isn't the technology but rather the content and the social cues and community that derive from that.

What would be really fun is if somebody actually developed a bug tracker for bugs (as in insects) through github! :)

Other than amusement value, wouldn't any TODO app work better?

I can think of two reasons: (1) Because he has others commenting on his issues and suggesting fixes, and probably more importantly (2) because github is already part of his workflow.

The main reason I never stick with TODO applications is because I can't get into the habit of using it. I often think this is why so many persist with email as a todo list.

There is a third reason. If he wanted to, he could store associated files with his issues. That use case makes more sense with a private repo, but it is something I plan to do with the repo I just created for my house.

Also, in a case where a piece of equipment needs to be replaced (like a range hood, or even a coffee maker)one can store digital copies of the user manuals in the repo and not worry about having to hunt the damn things down when the power goes out and you have to remember how to reset the clock.

Not that I've ever done that..

I find I need more complicated notes than I could store in a TODO application.

For example, see here where I had a general bug, took notes, got quotes, and (as someone above mentions) attached photos of fireplaces.

https://github.com/frabcus/house/issues/15

Bugtracking isn't simple task tracking. You're looking at issues and detailing the history of both identifying the root issue and its resolution.

Doing so on a publicly accessible (and modifiable) bugtracker means you get a social / collective intelligence (and collective stupidity / vandal) effect. More useful for community projects than home ownership, but still.

I've seen workplaces where non-software issues (often facilities / maintenance) were tracked and managed through bugtracking tools.

Been there done that. https://github.com/kbob/car-stuff/issues

Love it!

Would he post even a bug like: "Front door lock not working. oops!!! " :)

I do self-censor myself each time I post a bug, to see if it has security implications!

Most don't - it's similar to software in that regard. I'm already used to doing that self-censorship for software, so guess it is natural.

I used Trello to organize my NYC apartment hunt. Worked like a charm, made the process so much easier.

we tried to use pivotal tracker for the same thing

forked :)

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