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ndmitchell/policies.md

Created June 12, 2017 20:55
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Friendly contribution policies
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policies.md

This is intended as a reply to https://ro-che.info/articles/2017-06-12-friendly-contributing-policies, but I don't really want it to be a blog post (it's not the right level for my blog), and that blog doesn't have comments, and I don't want to mis-express myself in 120 characters or whatever. So here goes a gist :)

Firstly, as to the talk, the context was read around the project, and figure out if it will suit you. I am deliberately quoting haskell-src-exts out of context, and deliberately not saying where either quote came from. I appreciate the full policy is much more welcoming than that one snippet would imply.

However, when I wanted to find an unfriendly contributing policy, I immediately thought of haskell-src-exts. I do genuinely find the document, as a whole, quite unwelcoming. I appreciate that languages sound different to native speakers, and it didn't stop me contributing, but it did give me pause. Whether a document is friendly or not is a feeling, and so by explaining why I have that feeling, I'm necessarily trying to interpret my emotions badly - but I'll do my best.

  • "So, you've fixed a bug or implemented an extension. Awesome!" I assume this is intended to be very friendly, but as a native English speaker it seems merely quite friendly.
  • "Write descriptive commit messages" - this is just a general developer thing. By pointing it out, and by having quite a long list, I feel like you are putting roadblocks in the way.
  • "Make sure the tests pass:" - you're telling me to make sure the tests pass, which kind of implies I'm an idiot who doesn't know how to develop. You then give great advice and help on how to acheive that. If it instead told me that haskell-src-exts relies heavily on testing and how to go about it you're telling me you appreciate good development practices - making it a positive rather than a rule.
  • "Rewrite the history (see git rebase) to make commits logical, not historical" - possibly the least friendly of all to me, as I don't ever use git rebase. You're telling me that in addition to learning Haskell, fixing your bugs, you want me to obey your rules on git - which is way outside my comfort zone.

As an example of a contrib policy I hope comes across as more welcoming, see https://github.com/ndmitchell/neil#contributions - I welcome criticism (by whatever means you feel like it, but issues in that repo is a reasonable option).

@quchen
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quchen commented Jun 13, 2017 •
edited

So, you've fixed a bug or implemented an extension. Awesome!

That makes me wonder what »very friendly« sounds like, if that is only »merely quite friendly«. For me this sounds as euphoric as it gets!

@Nolrai
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Nolrai commented Jun 15, 2017

Given how linguistics works, you cant get to very friendly with out the phrase being costly to say. (I.e. either it would be rude in some situations, or embarrassing, or such.)

@eyeinsky
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The no/rebase issue is tricky since for a non-rebaser the incoming and rebased feature branch looks nice and tidy, while for a rebaser the incoming no-rebased feature branch may or may not look like a mess.

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