[wp-hackers] The problem with Contributions and This Thread

[William Davis]

Vid,
I should clarify, I'm not on the core team (not even close), and I'd  
like to apologize for my remark about managing a few projects — that  
sort of "big dicking" each other won't get us anywhere, you're right.  
Oftentimes it's used because the writer doesn't have anything useful  
to say or because he/she is lazy. I used it because I'm lazy (I hope),  
so let me explain.

With my (relatively minor) experience with projects, one of the best  
ways to control the quality of projects is to limit points of control.  
This isn't to say that any one person isn't worthy of commit access,  
but a dozen of the world's best minds together there are going to be  
communication (and, yes, ego) problems. Good projects have become  
bloated and quality has diminished because points of control weren't  
limited (see: FF).

Even the smallest bugs fixes and features can can lead to problems in  
the future if they aren't patched/built with foresight. Some might  
call having core developers commit bugs micromanagement or  
obsessiveness. I call it being thorough.

'Trusted users' might not earn an actual badge — any user can help by  
applying a patch, testing it, reporting errors or coding problems.

I can't speak for the core team, but I would imagine reading the diff  
for a minor bug takes only a few minutes, so I don't see that part of  
the workflow to be a blocker. If it takes more time to read it's  
probably not the kind of patch that should be applied without thought.

Will

> This thread has obviously hit a nerve and ego, just find a solution  
> and respect each other, and move on with it.