Details
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Suggestion
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Resolution: Won't Fix
Description
I have a suggestion regarding the Merge Checks under Bitbucket Cloud. I will break this down into a few points below to paint the whole picture.
The crux of this suggestion is around a confusion that can happen here;
I took a screenshot here so that I can explain the visual detailing behind this. I have come across situations where bitbucket users (myself included) assumed that merge checks would stop merges from happening based on the conditions set. Since I have tested this myself, I can understand the current perspective, but when as a person new to Bitbucket looks at this page, the first impression seems to be that the checks are blocks. The "preventing merge" is a standout premium feature and it is an amazing piece of work.
Having said that, I think we can try to change how the UI looks slightly to provide a better understanding for new Bitbucket users, purely because a wrong merge can be catastrophic.
I worked on a case recently, the users belonged to a startup and had set up the Bitbucket branch permission assuming that merge checks would block a merge from happening.
When a situation arose, they were surprised (and disappointed) that the merge went through without any of the checks stopping it.
This is the response from the same customer;
*It would be great if you completely remove those settings since they serve
no purpose on the free plan and are actually very dangerous. *
We were under the False impression that a production branch was protected
when it indeed was not.
I understand the value of the paid membership, but our startup is not at
that point where we are generating any income yet.
Hence very important that we do not lose any faith from any clients as they
are carrying us month to month.
I do empathise with the second paragraph here, I think as a company we all know how much we value our customers. I think this is a situation where we can take some action and slightly tweak the UI.
I do have a suggestion here as well; A link explaining how merge 'checks' work, one that clarifies that merges will not be blocked on Free and Standard Plan, only checked.
I have complete faith that a user can use the link and better understand the situation and design their SOP accordingly. This would help prevent such mishaps in the future.
What do you think?
Regards
Manu Abraham
