<p>I'm not sure whether the prerequisites are better in the ISSUE_TEMPLATE (after all, people only have to skim them and delete the whole section) or the CONTRIBUTING file (which nobody will read), but they are mostly based on things which more often than not result in the first few comments dragging this information out of the submitters.</p>
<p>Just to give random recent examples of something that seems too in-the-weeds for this template, issues related to Scintilla syntax highlighting (number six in my prerequisites) "whether any syntax-highlighting issue would be more appropriate to open with the Scintilla project":</p>
<p><a class="issue-link js-issue-link" data-error-text="Failed to load issue title" data-id="396191352" data-permission-text="Issue title is private" data-url="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/2038" data-hovercard-type="issue" data-hovercard-url="/geany/geany/issues/2038/hovercard?comment_id=451692721&comment_type=issue_comment" href="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/2038#issuecomment-451692721">#2038 (comment)</a><br>
<a class="issue-link js-issue-link" data-error-text="Failed to load issue title" data-id="395148281" data-permission-text="Issue title is private" data-url="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/2029" data-hovercard-type="issue" data-hovercard-url="/geany/geany/issues/2029/hovercard?comment_id=450795082&comment_type=issue_comment" href="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/2029#issuecomment-450795082">#2029 (comment)</a><br>
<a class="issue-link js-issue-link" data-error-text="Failed to load issue title" data-id="394291019" data-permission-text="Issue title is private" data-url="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/2026" data-hovercard-type="issue" data-hovercard-url="/geany/geany/issues/2026/hovercard?comment_id=450073900&comment_type=issue_comment" href="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/2026#issuecomment-450073900">#2026 (comment)</a><br>
<a class="issue-link js-issue-link" data-error-text="Failed to load issue title" data-id="373240277" data-permission-text="Issue title is private" data-url="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1984" data-hovercard-type="issue" data-hovercard-url="/geany/geany/issues/1984/hovercard?comment_id=432456351&comment_type=issue_comment" href="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1984#issuecomment-432456351">#1984 (comment)</a><br>
<a class="issue-link js-issue-link" data-error-text="Failed to load issue title" data-id="372244790" data-permission-text="Issue title is private" data-url="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1981" data-hovercard-type="issue" data-hovercard-url="/geany/geany/issues/1981/hovercard?comment_id=431623933&comment_type=issue_comment" href="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1981#issuecomment-431623933">#1981 (comment)</a><br>
<a class="issue-link js-issue-link" data-error-text="Failed to load issue title" data-id="357752315" data-permission-text="Issue title is private" data-url="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1947" data-hovercard-type="issue" data-hovercard-url="/geany/geany/issues/1947/hovercard?comment_id=419243871&comment_type=issue_comment" href="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1947#issuecomment-419243871">#1947 (comment)</a><br>
<a class="issue-link js-issue-link" data-error-text="Failed to load issue title" data-id="356688549" data-permission-text="Issue title is private" data-url="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1944" data-hovercard-type="issue" data-hovercard-url="/geany/geany/issues/1944/hovercard?comment_id=418275247&comment_type=issue_comment" href="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1944#issuecomment-418275247">#1944 (comment)</a><br>
<a class="issue-link js-issue-link" data-error-text="Failed to load issue title" data-id="336888364" data-permission-text="Issue title is private" data-url="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1889" data-hovercard-type="issue" data-hovercard-url="/geany/geany/issues/1889/hovercard?comment_id=401271520&comment_type=issue_comment" href="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1889#issuecomment-401271520">#1889 (comment)</a><br>
<a class="issue-link js-issue-link" data-error-text="Failed to load issue title" data-id="320078487" data-permission-text="Issue title is private" data-url="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1853" data-hovercard-type="issue" data-hovercard-url="/geany/geany/issues/1853/hovercard?comment_id=386450451&comment_type=issue_comment" href="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1853#issuecomment-386450451">#1853 (comment)</a><br>
<a class="issue-link js-issue-link" data-error-text="Failed to load issue title" data-id="317524790" data-permission-text="Issue title is private" data-url="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1844" data-hovercard-type="issue" data-hovercard-url="/geany/geany/issues/1844/hovercard?comment_id=384207408&comment_type=issue_comment" href="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1844#issuecomment-384207408">#1844 (comment)</a><br>
<a class="issue-link js-issue-link" data-error-text="Failed to load issue title" data-id="314629000" data-permission-text="Issue title is private" data-url="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1827" data-hovercard-type="issue" data-hovercard-url="/geany/geany/issues/1827/hovercard?comment_id=381764051&comment_type=issue_comment" href="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1827#issuecomment-381764051">#1827 (comment)</a><br>
<a class="issue-link js-issue-link" data-error-text="Failed to load issue title" data-id="292442706" data-permission-text="Issue title is private" data-url="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1754" data-hovercard-type="issue" data-hovercard-url="/geany/geany/issues/1754/hovercard?comment_id=362460349&comment_type=issue_comment" href="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1754#issuecomment-362460349">#1754 (comment)</a><br>
<a class="issue-link js-issue-link" data-error-text="Failed to load issue title" data-id="284316505" data-permission-text="Issue title is private" data-url="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1728" data-hovercard-type="issue" data-hovercard-url="/geany/geany/issues/1728/hovercard?comment_id=353753512&comment_type=issue_comment" href="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1728#issuecomment-353753512">#1728 (comment)</a><br>
<a class="issue-link js-issue-link" data-error-text="Failed to load issue title" data-id="280732317" data-permission-text="Issue title is private" data-url="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1714" data-hovercard-type="issue" data-hovercard-url="/geany/geany/issues/1714/hovercard?comment_id=415222033&comment_type=issue_comment" href="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1714#issuecomment-415222033">#1714 (comment)</a><br>
<a class="issue-link js-issue-link" data-error-text="Failed to load issue title" data-id="272000977" data-permission-text="Issue title is private" data-url="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1679" data-hovercard-type="issue" data-hovercard-url="/geany/geany/issues/1679/hovercard?comment_id=342680888&comment_type=issue_comment" href="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/1679#issuecomment-342680888">#1679 (comment)</a><br>
... too many more to bother finding ...</p>
<p>I can find dozens or hundreds of examples like this of the things I put in the Prerequisite section which are almost always left out of the original reports and require someone to explicitly ask. Moreover, anyone submitting a new Issue only has to read them once and then just delete them before clicking submit, or explicitly ignore them and submit the report anyway.</p>
<p>In any case, I don't mind moving them to a separate <code>CONTRIBUTING</code> file, even if they are far less effective.</p>

<p style="font-size:small;-webkit-text-size-adjust:none;color:#666;">—<br />You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.<br />Reply to this email directly, <a href="https://github.com/geany/geany/issues/2063#issuecomment-455840708">view it on GitHub</a>, or <a href="https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ABDrJ20un7BGNI7AdMGzxWIRMRlA7BVQks5vFAecgaJpZM4aJdjF">mute the thread</a>.<img src="https://github.com/notifications/beacon/ABDrJ5hWLPRrMfnmlee5vKbpetML7jYOks5vFAecgaJpZM4aJdjF.gif" height="1" width="1" alt="" /></p>
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