Re: CRS Issues being automatically closed?

Hey Jamie,

This is the mailing list for the ModSecurity engine. The CRS project has a
separate mailinglist over at

https://groups.google.com/a/owasp.org/g/modsecurity-core-rule-set-project

But let me answer your question nevertheless:

You are correct and this configuration to close stale issues after 120 days is
offensive. And we did not take it lightly. We have been struggling with not
being able to address all the issues for years. We tried different methods,
scheduling, assigning, highlighting, inviting the wider community to help,
tagging as "#goodfirstissue" etc.  But it did not bring a real solution: The
issues pile up and new issues (also vital ones!) can end up buried under a
pile that is too big to plough through.

As most open source projects, CRS is a volunteer driven project. People work
on CRS because they want to work on CRS. Some steal time from their companies
to do so, some put their children to bed to hack away. But it is always time
that our developers give to the project freely. I as a co-leader of the
project can not force issues into their hands. All I can do is making CRS a
fun project to work with and prepare the environment in a way that makes
it easy and cool to work on CRS.

And the huge pile of issues started to have a chilling effect on developers or
new developers. There is a moment where the pile is so big, you are not even
addressing what you can address because of all the rest. Looking at the 
36 issues open right now feels managable and most issues are being addressed.
(You can tell easily, since most open issues do have a conversation history.)

So we talked about the step a big deal and we took the decision about a year
ago.  Ultimately it was a decision to pick between the goodwill and health of
the developers and the goodwill of individual users. I am really not happy
with the way it is and I have a new plan to help us address all the issues
before they get stale. But it is not quite ready to share.

What can you do: If you care about an issue, then comment on it. We read every
comment on every issue. If get the notice that the issue has been tagged for
removal (the tag "Stale issue" is being applied 2 weeks or so before it gets
closed), then comment on the issue and tell us you still care. Also multiple
users chiming in give an issue priority in our eyes. We currently do an issue
chat once a month (3rd Monday every month), where we look into 5-10 open
issues. One way to make sure an issue makes it into that meeting is the tag
"Meeting agenda". Ask us to add this tag and we will take it on the list.

All in all, using the services of the stale issue bot is not a sign that we do
not care. Quite the opposite. We care a lot and we feel bad about using the
stale issue bot. But it was the only solution we saw.

Hope this explains our reasoning a bit.

Best regards and thanks for speaking up,

Christian Folini, CRS Co-Lead






On Mon, Jan 11, 2021 at 12:49:17AM +0000, Jamie Burchell wrote:
> Hi CRS Team
> 
> I'm disappointed to see that issues I'm reporting (FPs) (e.g.
> https://github.com/coreruleset/coreruleset/issues/1864) are being
> automatically closed by stalebot. I fully understand that there may not be
> the time nor the resources to address issues reported, and I know why
> stalebot exists, but I don't think rule issues that people have spent time
> looking at and reporting should be closed before they are actually
> addressed. It certainly doesn't encourage me to continue reporting them
> moving forward.
> 
> Cheers, Jamie


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