[openstack-dev] [ptl] code churn and questionable changes

Steven Dake (stdake) stdake at cisco.com
Thu Sep 22 06:26:42 UTC 2016


Folks,

We want to be inviting to new contributors even if they are green.  New contributors reflect on OpenStack’s growth in a positive way.  The fact that a new-to-openstack contributor would make such and error doesn’t warrant such a negative response even if it a hassle for the various PTLs and core reviewer teams to deal with.  This is one of the many aspects of OpenStack projects a PTL is elected to manage (mentorship).  If mentorship isn’t in a leader’s personal mission, I’m not sure they should be leading anything.

Regards
-steve


On 9/21/16, 7:35 AM, "Boris Bobrov" <bbobrov at mirantis.com> wrote:

    Hello,
    
    > in addition to this, please, PLEASE stop creating 'all project bugs'. i
    > don't want to get emails on updates to projects unrelated to the ones i
    > care about. also, it makes updating the bug impossible because it times
    > out. i'm too lazy to search ML but this has been raise before, please stop.
    >
    > let's all unite together and block these patches to bring an end to it. :)
    
    People who contribute to OpenStack long enough already know this.
    Usually new contributors do it. And we cannot reach out to them
    in this mailing list. There should be a way to limit this somewhere
    in Launchpad.
    
    > On 21/09/16 07:56 AM, Amrith Kumar wrote:
    >> Of late I've been seeing a lot of rather questionable changes that
    >> appear to be getting blasted out across multiple projects; changes that
    >> cause considerable code churn, and don't (IMHO) materially improve the
    >> quality of OpenStack.
    >>
    >> I’d love to provide a list of the changes that triggered this email but
    >> I know that this will result in a rat hole where we end up discussing
    >> the merits of the individual items on the list and lose sight of the
    >> bigger picture. That won’t help address the question I have below in any
    >> way, so I’m at a disadvantage of having to describe my issue in abstract
    >> terms.
    >>
    >>
    >>
    >> Here’s how I characterize these changes (changes that meet one or more
    >> of these criteria):
    >>
    >>
    >>
    >> -    Contains little of no information in the commit message (often just
    >> a single line)
    >>
    >> -    Makes some generic statement like “Do X not Y”, “Don’t use Z”,
    >> “Make ABC better” with no further supporting information
    >>
    >> -    Fail (literally) every single CI job, clearly never tested by the
    >> developer
    >>
    >> -    Gets blasted across many projects, literally tens with often the
    >> same kind of questionable (often wrong) change
    >>
    >> -    Makes a stylistic python improvement that is not enforced by any
    >> check (causes a cottage industry of changes making the same correction
    >> every couple of months)
    >>
    >> -    Reverses some previous python stylistic improvement with no clear
    >> reason (another cottage industry)
    >>
    >>
    >>
    >> I’ve tried to explain it to myself as enthusiasm, and a desire to
    >> contribute aggressively; I’ve lapsed into cynicism at times and tried to
    >> explain it as gaming the numbers system, but all that is merely
    >> rationalization and doesn’t help.
    >>
    >>
    >>
    >> Over time, the result generally is that these developers’ changes get
    >> ignored. And that’s not a good thing for the community as a whole. We
    >> want to be a welcoming community and one which values all contributions
    >> so I’m looking for some suggestions and guidance on how one can work
    >> with contributors to try and improve the quality of these changes, and
    >> help the contributor feel that their changes are valued by the project?
    >> Other more experienced PTL’s, ex-PTL’s, long time open-source-community
    >> folks, I’m seriously looking for suggestions and ideas.
    >>
    >>
    >>
    >> Any and all input is welcome, do other projects see this, how do you
    >> handle it, is this normal, …
    >>
    >>
    >>
    >> Thanks!
    >>
    >>
    >>
    >> -amrith
    >>
    >
    > cheers,
    >
    
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