Page MenuHomePhabricator

Simplify instructions to reply included in emails
Closed, DeclinedPublic

Assigned To
Authored By
Gryllida
Dec 8 2014, 11:33 AM
Referenced Files
None
Tokens
"Doubloon" token, awarded by Nemo_bis."Like" token, awarded by FriedhelmW."Like" token, awarded by TTO.

Description

Phabricator sends out messages to people who are watching a task or a project. These emails look like this:

Qgil added a project: Elasticsearch.

TASK DETAIL 
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T991

REPLY HANDLER ACTIONS
Reply to comment or attach files, or !close, !claim, !unsubscribe or !assign <username>. 

To: Qgil 
Cc: ........

I don't get the 'reply handler actions' bit. It is confusing; the really useful bit is ability to reply to comment or to attach files, and it drowned in the verbose message (I only realised that after 90 seconds). Many many people would come here to just report new bugs and watch them, not to develop. You can measure that of our users, only 0.01% or less actually need to close or re-assign tickets...

I would like us to consider simplifying it. Something like this:

Qgil added a project: Elasticsearch. 

TASK DETAIL 
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T991 

To comment or attach files, reply to this e-mail. 
For more reply actions see <URL to FAB DOCS ABOUT THIS>. 

To: Qgil 
Cc: .............

Event Timeline

Gryllida raised the priority of this task from to Needs Triage.
Gryllida updated the task description. (Show Details)
Gryllida changed Security from none to None.
Gryllida subscribed.
Aklapper triaged this task as Lowest priority.Dec 8 2014, 11:58 PM
Qgil renamed this task from Simplify wording in Phabricator tasks (Manifest) emails to Simplify instructions to reply included in emails.Dec 18 2014, 5:30 PM

It seems that we can skip the email instructions altogether by configuring https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/config/edit/metamta.reply.show-hints/

I could not find any way to change the current text via configuration.

Reply to comment or attach files, or !close, !claim, !unsubscribe or !assign <username>.

looks more efficient than

To comment or attach files, reply to this e-mail. 
For more reply actions see <URL to FAB DOCS ABOUT THIS>.

The first sentence is quite selective, and users probably understand what they need to understand. Phabricator aims to have users willing to learn, and I think this is a good aim too. I understand how a user might get confused the first time, but it is hard for me to believe that such user will continue to be confused if they keeps being interested in that line. Otherwise they will ignore it.

I haven't heard other complaints about this. I propose to decline this task.

Qgil claimed this task.