
Add Reactions to Pull Requests, Issues, and Comments - WillAbides
https://github.com/blog/2119-add-reactions-to-pull-requests-issues-and-comments
======
mrharrison
-1 or the thumbs down reaction, I think is a mistake. They aren't usually that constructive, because most of the time they are used as retaliation against a specific user, instead of constructive criticism. If someone downvotes you, you tend to downvote them. At the least, it should be a privilege to down vote, like SO and HN do. [http://stackoverflow.com/help/privileges/vote-down](http://stackoverflow.com/help/privileges/vote-down)

~~~
gkoberger
Agreed 100% for Facebook or even Hacker News, however on GitHub it would be
really useful for voting.

If you ask "Should we add this feature?", it's hard to understand what
favorites mean if you don't have an anchor. Does 10 thumbs-up mean unanimous
support, or is it just a small minority? It'd be nice to say "Oh, 10
upvotes... but there's 90 downvotes, so we won't do it."

FB and Hacker News are a marketplace of relatively-inconsequential ideas and
thoughts. However, changes discussed on GitHub Issues can potentially have an
impact on your company and livelihood.

~~~
rtpg
Internally when voting (informally) on things we do +1, +0, -0, and -1. Super
helpful to be able to ask for everyone's opinion while they can also express
the strength of their opinion.

Feel like that would be very useful

~~~
goldenkey
+0 and -0 are equal..

~~~
lccarrasco
I believe the implied meaning is:

+0 -> support from the sidelines (like for a change that doesn't directly
affect you)/something that's not urgent but would be nice

-0 -> disagree from the sidelines/disagree with the solution but can't think of a better one

~~~
alecdbrooks
I would enjoy it if they used +ε and -ε for that, although +0 and -0 is
probably clearer.

~~~
rtpg
like that idea! Dunno how many people have epsilon easily accessible on their
keyboards though.

------
Sir_Cmpwn
A missing feature here is sorting issues by public support. An example is
FontAwesome, which explicitly asks users to leave a +1 comment on issues they
support. You can then get a pretty good idea of the most desired features by
sorting the issues by most commented.

[https://github.com/FortAwesome/Font-
Awesome/blob/master/CONT...](https://github.com/FortAwesome/Font-
Awesome/blob/master/CONTRIBUTING.md#requesting-new-icons)

[https://github.com/FortAwesome/Font-
Awesome/issues?q=is%3Ais...](https://github.com/FortAwesome/Font-
Awesome/issues?q=is%3Aissue+is%3Aopen+sort%3Acomments-desc)

Would also be nice to see these reactions on the issue list so you can get a
feel for the issues at a glance without digging deep into each one.

~~~
shoyer
Agreed -- this is the first thing I looked for. My guess is that this feature
is probably next on their TODO list. There's not much point in sorting by +1s
before there are many +1s accumulated, anyways.

------
bsimpson
Looks like Dear GitHub[1] is having a rather quick impact on the product;
first templates[2], now this:

[1] [https://github.com/dear-github/dear-github](https://github.com/dear-
github/dear-github)

[2] [https://github.com/blog/2111-issue-and-pull-request-
template...](https://github.com/blog/2111-issue-and-pull-request-templates)

~~~
braythwayt
Perhaps it follows the Hollywood model. There are lots of features in
development, staff-shipped, in discussion, in the backlog, or whatever. Then
there is some external stimulus (Facebook launched reactions!) and the feature
gets quickly tailored and green-lighted.

So there is a quick reaction, but work on the idea may have been hidden from
the public for a long time.

~~~
shurcooL
Version 3.4.0 of Octicons [0] came out on January 22, 2016. It added "smiley"
icon, which was used in this feature today. That's 8 days after the dear
github letter. 7 weeks before today.

[0]
[https://github.com/github/octicons/releases/tag/v3.4.0](https://github.com/github/octicons/releases/tag/v3.4.0)

------
southpolesteve
This makes me think Github doesn't get it. Emoji comments are often used
because there is no better way to interact with an issue/PR. What we need are
better issue management tools. Polls, voting, triage tools, etc. Instead we
got an easier way to post emojis. Feels more like a "look we have reactions
like slack!!!" gimmick rather than a properly designed response to user
requests for features.

------
jkire
I wonder if this is too featureful? What is the difference between +1, heart,
and hooray? Having just a +1 and -1 is unambiguous and probably covers the
vast amount of use cases? Perhaps not, but I'd be very interested to know the
reasoning between being choosing between "unambiguous" and expressive.

~~~
krock
I think I will use them this way:

* '+1' to mean I like this feature or this issue affects me.

* 'heart' to mean I agree with a proposed solution, or pull request.

* 'hooray' when a solution is marked as fixed or a fix version has been posted for the issue.

There are no rules though, so we'll see.

~~~
mattcantstop
Internally at GitHub over the past few weeks I have been using the heart
reaction to express appreciation. For example, if someone is very helpful or
empathetic I let them know I appreciate it with a heart.

------
richerlariviere
I think it is definitely the end of +1 era, folks! Thanks Github to listen to
the community feature requests. You should allow more icons like Slack is
doing currently.

------
chrismonsanto
Can you downvote replies in threads that are locked? Can collaborators delete
these reactions like we would with comments?

> Have feedback on this post? Let know on Twitter.

Not everyone uses Twitter. It would be awesome to give feedback using the one
account I'm guaranteed to have: a GitHub account. Otherwise I have to ask my
question on HN...

------
city41
I think people will still write +1 comments because they won't notice this new
feature, at least initially. It'd be nice if Github just converted "+1"
comments into reactions.

~~~
Nadya
If I reply with :+1: am I responding to the comment above me (in context) or
to the original Issue?

(Not that I do :+1: comments, but the above is a scenario where automatically
converting wouldn't work.)

~~~
city41
Good point. Then maybe convert +1 comments into a popup showing reactions to
the user.

Or just wait for people to learn the feature over time.

~~~
bennyg
The latter option, for sure.

------
ma138
Awesome move by GitHub. ZenHub[1] will be phasing out our +1 button now that
it's no longer needed – feels good to focus. We're excited to use this
reactions data as part of our reporting suite, please keep the improvements
coming!

[1] [https://www.zenhub.io/](https://www.zenhub.io/)

------
bengotow
Finally. Let's just hope it doesn't email you when someone leave's a +1
reaction.

~~~
lukevers
It'd be nice if you could configure this. It doesn't email you, but for some
repositories it'd be nice if it did.

It definitely solves the horrible problem of too many +1s everywhere, but
there are times when getting those emails are helpful.

------
nmstoker
My apologies if i missed a comment, but I'm surprised how few people support
"giving it a go" and then deciding if it's good or bad. There's a multitude of
user approaches, lots of people very touchy about their way of doing things
(some extra so as this relates to their profession) Whilst not wishing to
appear a fanboy, clearly Github have put a decent amount of thought into this,
they've got a fairly good track record and they're responsive. If it's poor,
they'll reassess it.

------
gsmethells
Wow! GitHub is being influenced by GitLab (who released this feature recently
in GitLab 8.4).

~~~
ikanor
I am not surprised, the GitLab guys are doing a great job.

------
choward
Am I missing something or is there still no way to +1 issues? All I see are
ways to react to comments. Whenever I feel the urge to "+1" something it's for
the issue, not a specific comment. Can someone explain how to add a reaction
to an issue?

~~~
dcre
You are missing something :)

e.g., top right corner on
[https://github.com/facebook/react/issues/6239](https://github.com/facebook/react/issues/6239)

~~~
choward
I still only see it for the comment and not the issue itself.

~~~
developer2
This is due to inconsistency from Github on the labeling of the issue text.
That issue _has_ no comments - the header shows "lostthetrail opened this
issue 7 hours ago · _0 comments_ ". The first "comment" you see is meant to be
the original issue text, not a comment.

And yet... the header for that text says "lostthetrail _commented_ 7 hours
ago". Github repurposed the commenting system to stand in for the issue text
itself. Side effect of a lazy implementation.

tldr; The first "comment" isn't a comment. It's the issue itself, and is where
you add your reaction for the issue.

~~~
choward
That makes a little more since. Pretty lame though. For example, I don't
wouldn't want to upvote the top comment here:
[https://github.com/rolaveric/karma-
systemjs/issues/35](https://github.com/rolaveric/karma-systemjs/issues/35)

------
mrmondo
Ah yes, following in the steps of Gitlab which has had this for a while, the
thumbs up / down and voting types are useful, everything is a distraction IMO

~~~
sytse
GitLab had emoji on issues/MR's but not emoji's on comments, we're working on
that for 8.7 [https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-
ce/issues/3655](https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ce/issues/3655)

------
donretag
"So go ahead…:+1: or :tada: to your :heart:s content."

Or please don't. Part of the problem with the +1s is that they add noise. How
are reactions going to cut down on the noise? Telling people to go ahead a +1
an issue (increase noise) is the opposite of what the "Dear Github"
maintainers want.

Many projects do not use +1 or any other voting scheme to illicit priority
from the general public. +1 comments and reactions provide little value. I
have seen Github issues where people +1 already closed issues because they do
not bother reading.

~~~
roblabla
It reduces noise because a reaction is not a reply: it doesn't notify the
issue author of a response and takes a lot less space visually, letting
discussions about an issue take place without being intermixed with a bunch of
:+1:.

Reactions let you know the impact an issue may be having. I suppose it may not
be good for every project, but dismissing it as "providing little value" seems
a bit too much considering it was among the most often asked features by
maintainers...

------
lettergram
Getting dangerously close to that Facebook patent[1]...

[1]
[http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8918339.html](http://www.freepatentsonline.com/8918339.html)

------
dpflan
I like the idea of adding more expressiveness, pictorially capturing sometimes
fleeting moments of emotion or accurately representing an emotional state that
can occur.

These are the following reactions:

    
    
      1. +1
      2. -1
      3. smile
      4. thinking_face
      5. heart
      6. tada
    

Do they capture the necessary expressiveness for the context? Facebook's
reactions cover more emotions, but FB is trying to support reaction to
anything that can be posted.

~~~
mayank
Considering that it's Github, how about things relevant to software
engineering, like: agree, disagree, support, insightful, obsolete, misleading.
I can't imagine it being helpful to know that someone felt "heart" about an
issue comment.

~~~
xentronium
Heart is probably a supersized +1 for pull requests and a nod to Aaron
Peterson.

~~~
dfc
who is aaron peterson? Googling that name results in a photographer,a lawyer
and a bunch of doctors.

~~~
dcgoss
Perhaps he meant Aaron Patterson
([https://github.com/tenderlove](https://github.com/tenderlove)) "tenderlove"?
Not sure.

------
gjreda
This is a welcome addition. I've run into bugs in projects before and wanted
to "+1" a thread, but it always felt like spamming the maintainers.

It'd be cool if they added a way to search through your list of reactions.
This would allow you to effectively comment on an issue in an OS project,
while simultaneously bookmarking it, so that you can go back and commit a fix
when you have a free moment.

~~~
siegecraft
In that scenario, I just subscribe to the issue, so at least I get notified if
something changes. But of course there is no way to list the issues you're
subscribing to.

------
Mikushi
April 1st is not there yet. I get the idea, but seriously, emojis...

~~~
yxe
Yeah I panicked and checked my calendar

------
looneysquash
I assume this is inspired by gitlab's similar feature?

------
ruffrey
Why is the thumbs up a white hand, and thumbs down is a yellow hand?!

~~~
a_bonobo
They are both yellow for me on Fedora 22, one is just a flipped version of the
other

------
bhaumik
First* Slack, then Facebook, and now GitHub. Looks like reactions are
replacing (or expanding on..) the unary like/upvote/heart expression for tech
products.

*Or at least the first time I've seen them used as an important feature.

~~~
ben336
I think Path was the first to do this: [https://path.com/](https://path.com/)

------
silverwind
The implementation feels a bit rushed. Here are my suggestions:

\- Don't allow a user to rate his own posts.

\- Don't allow a user to issue contradicting votes like +1 and -1 at the same
time.

\- Use image emoji like everywhere else on the site for compatibilty.

------
jwilk
Um. What does :+1: mean when applied to an issue? "I like this bug"?!

~~~
dcgoss
It's supposed to mean: "I agree" or "I have this bug too" or "Yes, this should
be implemented"

------
Animats
I'd keep downvotes, but lose the emoji.

------
rocky1138
Emojis are terrible, but they're better than "+1".

------
yuribit
Is there a way to sort by "reactions"? Otherwise I think this feature is
useless.. I would have preferred having more detailed issues rather than ugly
Emojis.

------
Illniyar
While I applaud finally adding the vote up (and even vote down) features, this
feature look a bit overdesigned.

I don't really get how I should "love" an issue, or "this issue makes me
happy". Or the relevance of a "thinking face". The ui would be simpler with
only 1 or 2 icons.

At least there's no "this issue makes me sad/angry" buttons.

~~~
x1024
"Facebook does this way, so we do it this way."

------
knd775
Well, I guess this at least sorta solves the "+1" issues.

------
hiphopyo
Speaking about new features -- what I'd like to see is the ability to remove
items from my public profile / activities list. Often I make mistakes. Often I
do stuff I don't want the public to see, and I'd rather not have to email
GitHub support asking them to remove them manually all the time.

------
voaie
Well, I think a voting pool is more practical than manually counting
upvote/downvote of every comment. I don't know how often the maintainers will
come back and see how an issue is going and see which comments are popular.
Also, sorting comments is not fun because of duplicated contents.

------
odbol_
The great thing about adding emoji Reactions to all our social media posts is
that now AIs can finally learn human emotion. I'm sure Google is already
training theirs on how different keywords make people feel.

------
wilg
Stoked about this feature! Can't wait until these are available in the API!

------
peterwaller
My emojis look weird and not in keeping with the style of emojis elsewhere on
the site [http://imgur.com/rB9BdEr](http://imgur.com/rB9BdEr)

------
thejameskyle
+1

------
SnaKeZ
Could they convert the exiting "+1" comments into reaction?

~~~
jstr
How would they know which comment to attribute them to?

~~~
aldanor
Something like

    
    
        ^\s*(:\+1:|\+\d+)\s*\!*\s*$
    

Even something as simple as this would clean up most of threads like these:
[https://github.com/elastic/kibana/issues/1084](https://github.com/elastic/kibana/issues/1084)

------
mkobit
I don't think these necessarily cover all of the responses that can be made,
but I think it is a great start to getting simple feedback like this. Like
other users mentioned, it would be awesome to be able to sort or perform some
kind of action based on the quantify of the reactions.

I wonder if they will allow for repository owners to select which reactions
they will allow? I think that would help with the limited selection but still
allow owners to select what they consider useful to them.

------
PeterStuer
Interesting cultural bias. Why are people not questioning unsubstantiated up-
votes, but feel down-voters shouldn't be let of the hook without a full
argumentation?

~~~
esailija
Upvote is already backed by the arguments the upvoted post contains. Downvote
is not backed by those arguments. They are not symmetrical at all and there is
no bias.

~~~
PeterStuer
That is only true if the upvoted post contained an argumentation and not just
a statement or an observation.

------
supernintendo
That's cool. But what I'd really like is the ability to star comments so I can
revisit them later.

~~~
roryokane
As a substitute, you can click on a comment’s timestamp and then bookmark the
current URL, which will be a permalink to that comment.

------
bigethan
It'd be nice if they added a little warning whenever submitting a comment that
was only a '+1' or '-1' otherwise the discoverability is gonna take a while,
maybe? Also a option to convert those comments into reactions for repository
owners.

------
franciscop
Awesome! Just a niptick, I think the reaction action should be near where the
interface is. So either change the icon to make a reaction to bottom left, or
change where it's shown to the right (where milestone, tags, etc are).

This way you get better feedback.

------
purpleidea
Ironically, you can't respond with a :reaction: to their "reactions" post.

------
jmspring
I find the idea of adding social responses to github distasteful. It's my own
opinion.

That said, it'd be interesting to see a breakdown by age and background in
terms of supporting or not supporting this addition.

------
vaibhavkul
How about a stop (hand palm) [1] instead of -1?

[1] [http://emojipedia.org/raised-hand/](http://emojipedia.org/raised-hand/)

------
jbrooksuk
A step in the right direction, nice!

One thing I don't like is that you're able to add multiple reactions to the
same item, it sends mixed signals.

------
dj_doh
-1 or thumbs down reaction should be avoided.

------
auscompgeek
Kinda makes you wish you could :+1: the blog post.

------
edelans
Funny how I wanted to +1 this blog post =)

------
zuxfer
also, it would be good to convert any comment or message with just +1 as
reactions.

cleans up the existing issue threads.

------
SnaKeZ
End of "+1" era?

------
cpr
Nice to see them moving quickly on some major OSS community requests.

------
jorgecurio
I can just imagine this being abused by less socially aware on the autism
spectrum disorder, I definitely think it's wrong and toxic to add mechanisms
which support non constructive criticisms or praise that leads to emoticon
circle jerks.

------
fiatjaf
GitHub: social coding

------
dkopi
The best way to +1 an issue is with a pull request.

------
TomasEkeli
Wow, Eric Elliott (@_ericelliott) just asked for this on twitter - and now it
happened. He must be a witch.

