It's a valid label, I don't even see it as particularly rude. The reason people go to school is literally a skill issue.
this post was submitted on 21 Dec 2025
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I think this is a good time to point out, that we all have skill issues. Does not matter if you are an intern or a senior there is always something you are learning or don't quite understand. The best way to describe me coding in React is one big skill issue.
gigabased holyyyy
I swear, i have read some issues...
So, i sometimes help people who have problems with an android CLI launcher
There is a fucking command called, "help" and when you open the launcher one of the first thing you see is "write help to get a command list", you write help and you get a list of all commands and there is even a wiki (not complete though) that explain some commands and they STILL ASK "can you add [command that already exist]?".
So i kinda feel why some people want a skill issue tag
I'd say "sure!" Then amaze them with how good and quick I am by telling them an hour or two later to "try it now "
What you describe sounds more like a "competence" issue than a skill issue - can't have the latter without first having the former.
That's a very smart way to go about it, and way more positive!
You don't even need to upgrade to try this new code! Just type...
That way you teach them that
- you are somehow a magician
- they can ask for any stupid thing and you will do it right away for them because what else should you be doing
- it doesn’t matter if this feature even fits into your plans because all you want to do is grant every wish
- a new feature is written and will appear instantly at the users computer. Who cares about testing or of this breaks other features as long as this guy is happy
They are beginner devs, so they should learn to understand how things work.
A launcher in the sense that lawnchair is? as in, the thing you see when no app is open?
because that would be sick as hell as an android launcher
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I've seen this on a few repos and it never came across too harsh, the posts tagged with it were deserving. Wish I'd noted the repo names..
I'm fine with it tbh. FOSS devs need to squeeze every bit of enjoyment out of working on the project to keep motivated. If they (or mods) can drop a helpful reply and close an issue as 'skill issue' and get a little chuckle while they give their time for free answering poorly-written queries or bad bug reports then that's a reasonable trade to keep them from burning out.
Yeah, users might get a bit upset about "abrasive devs" but like, as you said, it's devs that give their free time and energy into developing the project. Users honestly ought to respect that a lot more
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i'm a classicaly trained IT guy, I still call them "Layer 8 issue"
I don't work on networking but I'll be adopting this from now on. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Layer_8
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Open source is free, but empathy is still a good feature.
How is labeling a bug report that is based on user ignorance a lack of empathy? It's just sometimes factual that users are still learning and make mistakes, and I say this as a low skill FOSS user and enthusiast.
Some things require skill to operate.
Who spends their day "browsing around GitHub"?
i agree if anything i would browse codeberg:p
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You have to have a skill issue before you can have a skill. No shame in it.
Here's what I'll say, management taught a generation of devs to ask instead of researching, aka rtfm. If I had a quarter for the number of times I was told to ask for help sooner by a non tech manager I could have retired by now and had a farm.
It's because for every dev who asks too soon there's another dev somewhere that doesn't ask at all, bills 300 hours their first month without being asked to, delivers nothing because they refused to ask for help and couldn't figure it out either. That dev is why people hate off-shoring to India. They did not work a second month.
That’s preferable to people who don’t ask for help until everything is hopelessly fucked because they kept trying to solve their problem different git commands, none of which they understood.
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Better than PEBKAC.
Pee Easy Bro, Kangaroos Aren't Coming
Propogation of Errors by Bleak Knowledge About Coding
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RTFM is not a valid response if the manual contain no information on what the software is or even how to run it (or where to even find the manual, if the manual even exists). Is this a standalone program? A plugin for another program I'm already using? No links to any useful information whatsoever.
Then the guy that sent me the original link tells me "oh yeah, all that info is on youtube". Nope, I'm done. I'll use something else.
Sometimes software is "self documenting", either in use, or in the code (or both).
Sometimes software just gets called "self documenting", like i'ts an excuse to not write good documentation.
Questions for you and your upvoters: when you were growing up, did you climb a lot of trees that were way too high for you or did they have fences to keep you away from them? Were you required to wear a helmet while riding a bike? Were you even allowed to bicycle anywhere on your own? Did you ever have to figure out how something works on your own, or has it always been your default response to give up when someone isn't there spoon-feeding you the answers?
Climbed trees, rode without a helmet, and setup the home network without any documentation whatsoever. Been there, done that.
It's not 2005 anymore. I have a job, a significant other, and other shit to do that's more important than documenting someone else's hobby.
You dont understand manuals? Yikes
Good idea.
I shall have to add a "skill issue" label to my git repos.
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