comment-meaningful

Included in configs: ✅ recommended, 🔒 strict

Posting replies containing just “+1”, any update?“, or other phrases without new information don’t meaningfully contribute to a discussion. If done too much, they can even become disruptive to other contributors.

The negative impacts of uninformative comments include:

• They send a notification to everybody subscribed to the issue or PR
• They take up space and crowd out more meaningful comments

Alternatives to “+1”s and “-1”s

Enthusiasm for an issue is great, but posting just a +1 or me too isn’t an effective way to make your case. If you have new information not yet posted then it’s best to post that to support your opinion. Otherwise, stick to GitHub emoji reactions.

Alternatives to Asking for Updates

Most open source repositories perform all activity in public. If there is any progress made, such as a PR being sent or updated, you’ll see it publicly. There’s no need to explicitly ask for updates in repos that work in public this way.

Alternatives to Commenting to Subscribe

Some people post a comment as a way of subscribing to updates on an issue, pull request, or discussion. Instead, use the Subscribe button under Notifications in its sidebar. Clicking it gets you notifications for new activity without notifying everyone else.

Examples

Comment that only states “+1”:

github-actions

👋 Hi @YourUsername, thanks for the issue! A scan flagged a concern with it. Could you please take a look?

[ comment-meaningful ]

Saying just “+1” doesn’t add any new information to the discussion. Replies containing just “+1”, “any update?”, or other phrases without new information aren’t helpful. They cause unnecessary notifications for other contributors and take up space. To resolve this report:

• If you have new information that’ll help the discussion, edit it into the comment

• Otherwise, delete the comment and emoji react to the issue

🗺️ This message was posted automatically by OctoGuide: a bot for GitHub repository best practices.

How to Enable

Each snippet in this section shows changes to the full .github/workflows/octoguide.yml workflow from Get Started.

This rule is enabled by default as part of the recommended config.

To use this rule on its own, enable it in rules with the none config:

.github/workflows/octoguide.yml

jobs:
  octoguide:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: OctoGuide/bot@0.32.0
        with:
          config: none
          github-token: ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }}
          rules: |
            {
              "comment-meaningful": true
            }

See More

• Rule source
• Rule tests