Re: Template for commit messages

On 01/29/2016 03:05 PM, Alvaro Herrera wrote:
> Joshua D. Drake wrote:
>
>> I think the best question to ask is:
>>
>> "What is the problem we are trying to solve?"
>
> The problem is alluring more patch reviewers, beta testers and bug
> reporters.

Do we really want patch reviewers, beta testers and bug reporters that
are doing it because we created a fixed template for commit messages
that may mention their name?

> One of the offers is to credit them (I'm not exactly clear
> on what is the group to benefit from this, but the phrasing used in the
> meeting was "contributors to the release") by having a section somewhere
> in the release notes with a list of their names.

I can see this as being a nice thing but knowing that someone is a
contributor isn't hard. There is a contributor list on the website and
it is obvious from mail lists, archives and simple searches who is
actually participating.

> This proposal is
> different from the previous proposal because their names wouldn't appear
> next to each feature.

That certainly is a good thing.

>
> So the problem, of course, is collating that list of names, and the
> point of having a commit template is to have a single, complete source
> of truth from where to extract the info.
>

I think the problem is that we think that this is somehow going to
allure more people. I also think it is a quick step from:

Oh, Alvaro helped a lot with that.

vs

On, 2Q wrote that feature.

Any smart business is going to push for that once we start down this
path in earnest.

Sincerely,

Joshua D. Drake

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