The remarks by the person who opened #967 are beyond frustrating—and it's frustrating to see your responses to them. People putting stuff into the bugtracker that aren't bugs deserve a harsher response. Don't enable "putting stuff into the bugtracker without clearly articulating a defect [in the form of observed behavior versus expected behavior‡]" to be a viable way to interact with a project. Indulging these kinds of persons' requests for support and freeform banter is harmful in the long run. Giving them the answers that they're looking for even though their questions/comments are out of scope is way too forgiving, and it ends up causing problems for other maintainers when these numbskulls inevitably pop up around other projects and expect the same standard of treatment because they take it as a given that their fripperies are kosher.
‡ including sound, solid reasoning for why the former is incorrect and the latter is correct
At first, I thought people would respect the issue template. In practice, very few do, even when a proper bug is reported. I completely agree with you but it seems to be a losing battle. So I just deal with these kinds of cases according to my mood. Concerning the bug #967, maybe I was not angry enough. Overall, the atmosphere on the bug tracker is fortunately very positive.
I think having one set of fairly clear and complete polite responses to the question to then be linked from elsewhere (or possibly turned into an FAQ ... and then linked to when people inevitably don't spot it in the FAQ before opening an issue ;) is probably a net win in terms of maintaining a positive atmosphere on your bug tracker.
‡ including sound, solid reasoning for why the former is incorrect and the latter is correct