Re: Crediting reviewers & bug-reporters in the release notes

David Fetter wrote:
> On Sat, Jun 11, 2011 at 10:08:07AM -0400, Bruce Momjian wrote:
> > Joshua Berkus wrote:
> > > Bruce,
> > >
> > > As a fork of the earlier discussion, I think we should credit two groups of people in the release notes:
> > >
> > > (1) bug reporters / testers
> > > (2) patch reviewers
> > >
> > > My suggestions to keep things simple is, rather than trying to credit people on a per-feature basis, we simply have a list of names at the end of the release notes. Also, that we limit it to people whose contribution to development was significant (i.e. reviewed more than one patch, or spent a lot of time testing and analyzing a bug).
> >
> > [ Sorry for the long delay in replying.]
> >
> > Putting those names in the release notes sends us down the slippery
> > slope of putting names in there that have no practical purpose.
>
> With utmost respect, I disagree.
>
> Reviewers perform a function essential to our release process, and
> should get the credit they deserve alongside the coders whose efforts
> they complement. If it turns out we have an extra screen-full or two
> of names, that's a small thing. If we slight someone who put in a
> bunch of effort, that's a much larger problem, as it sends a message
> about that kind of contribution that we wouldn't actually mean.

I should back up and explain that the reason for having usernames on
release feature items is not to give credit, but rather to assign blame
later, in case the features cause problems. The submitter becomes the
default go-to person for problems with that item. Having a list of
reviewers does not serve that purpose, hence the slippery slope comment.

If you put reviewers, then there is no logic that says company names
should not be next to contributed features. I am not saying that is
wrong, but it is the logical extension. I wonder if the submitter names
should not be in the release notes at all. Do other projects put names
in there?

--
Bruce Momjian <bruce(at)momjian(dot)us> http://momjian.us
EnterpriseDB http://enterprisedb.com

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