Discussion: The "Issues" Tab

Issues are used to organize discussions and act as a shared to-do list.

To start a new Issue, click “New issue” (top right under the “Issues” tab). Open issues are used when discussion is ongoing. Issues may be closed when a question has been resolved or data has been incorporated into the wiki. Issues should be cross-referenced either on the wiki or in another issue before they are closed, so there is always a link back and nothing is orphaned. Once closed, issues are archived under the “Closed” tab so can always be accessed if needed. Labels can also be added when creating a new issue to help group/filter for similar types of discussions (e.g. Data Management, etc.).

To read discussion on a particular topic, click on the issue title. Scroll down and use the text editor to comment. Images and other files can be added to issue comments by copy/pasting or clicking/dragging directly into the text editor. The “Preview” tab lets you see what the text will look like when displayed on the web page. You can also insert links, bulleted lists, or checklists in Issue comments.

Issues from the same repo may be cross-referenced by typing #[Issuenumber], where the Issue number can be found under each title in the Issues tab. Issues from other repos can be cross-referenced using the format “OwnerName/RepoName#Issuenumber” (e.g. “OpenSourceMalaria/OSM_To_Do_List#536” links to Issue #536 in the OSM To Do List repo owned by OpenSourceMalaria).

Both Issues and Issue comments can be edited after posting by clicking the three dots on the right-had side of the Issue title bar and clicking “Edit.” The “Quote reply” option is also here, which is handy for responding to specific points in the original Issue. It will replicate the original text that you’re responding to in your comment.