[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       python-ideas
Subject:    [Python-ideas]  Contribution Reward System
From:       "Stephen J. Turnbull" <turnbull.stephen.fw () u ! tsukuba ! ac ! jp>
Date:       2016-11-22 3:17:41
Message-ID: 22579.47317.209943.38926 () turnbull ! sk ! tsukuba ! ac ! jp
[Download RAW message or body]

andreas writes:

 > I was thinking if a reward system for contributions would add
 > motivation to those who want to contribute.
 > 
 > Something in the lines of a reputation system.

I think if you look at the number of patches sitting on the tracker
waiting to be reviewed, you'll see that we have plenty of patch
submissions from less experienced contributors.  Probably the best
motivation for those contributors would be halving the time to review
by committers.  But new committers don't grow on trees, and they tend
to be very busy people.  They're generally not motivated by badges.

It's true that there are jobs that less experienced contributors *can*
do that are un-fun, like confirming defect reports and even triaging
issues.  These might be motivated by a reputation system, but they're
also easy to do sloppily if done too quickly.  So we might need
reviewers to check them.  As Steven d'A points out, it may be more
straightforward to have them done by people who are motivated to put
in careful hard work in the first place.  Documentation is another
area where new contributors can often make contributions, but again
these contributions need review or they can do more harm than good
(and that's true for experienced contributors as well).

One practice that worked pretty well as motivation a few years ago was
"review exchange" where a committer would offer one patch review in
return for confirmation and triage of five new issues.  But I haven't
seen that offer made explicitly for years.

While I agree with Steven that we need to be cautious about changing
the reward structure in principle, and there will also be practical
issues of both workflow changes and coding new features since our
mailing lists and issue tracker don't support reputations and badges,
if you want to push this forward, I'd recommend being more explicit
about the "successful examples" you mention, and describing best
practices in this area.

Steve

_______________________________________________
Python-ideas mailing list
Python-ideas@python.org
https://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-ideas
Code of Conduct: http://python.org/psf/codeofconduct/
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]