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<p>Erin,</p>
<p>I'd love to say that we should use ProBot and to promote it, but
after some stress testing of it, I've found it to be brittle, and
quickly requiring significant command line git technical expertise
to sort out edge case usage.</p>
<p>This is not good if we want to attract incidental volunteer
contributions from not-very-technical tech writers.<br>
</p>
<p>Observations:</p>
<p>* As per prior email, Felicity who is relatively technical for a
tech writer, put in a lot of effort and got stuck. That is not a
good start.</p>
<p>* Of note, she describes being put into the "vi" command line
editor, which is cryptic to use, and we can't expect tech writers
to know.<br>
</p>
<p>* I tried changing the README.md file only from the github
editor, without signing my commit. If I later need to sign my
commit, I can't seem to do it from the github editor. I had to
switch to setting up a local repository and fix using the command
line. (This introduces a technical barrier to entry.) <br>
</p>
<p>* I tried making multiple unsigned commits. The created a pull
request. When I tried fixing my unsigned commits (in the command
line), I found that the instructions provided only fix the last
commit. Googling for a solution, it seems you need to get very
technical, and it seems like you might get it wrong even if you
try and do it right: <a
href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13043357/git-sign-off-previous-commits">https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13043357/git-sign-off-previous-commits</a></p>
<p>This I think is definitely too brittle to expect of technical
writers.<br>
</p>
<p>* A fixable bug I've discovered, and raised a bug report on is
that I've managed to merge an unsigned contribution by me.<a
href="https://github.com/thegooddocsproject/templates/issues/5">
https://github.com/thegooddocsproject/templates/issues/5</a></p>
<p>* As Jo pointed out, we would need to improve description text.
At the moment, it is not clear that signing a commit equates to
agreeing to licensing terms.<br>
</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>So my assessment on Probot is that it is a nice idea, and maybe
it will have addressed usability issues in a year or two, but at
the moment it is too brittle and too technical for our target
technical writer audience.</p>
<p>--</p>
<p>What should we do instead? <br>
</p>
<p>I believe we have a lot to loose by adding legal red tape which
hinders people contributing, and we can achieve comparable
outcomes with a simpler approach.<br>
</p>
<p>We ensure our web pages, and in particular, our CONTRIBUTING.md
file make it very clear that if you contribute to our project,
then you do so by accepting our DCO and license terms.</p>
<p>This is in lines with advice <a
href="http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=8287&cpage=1">http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=8287&cpage=1</a>
from Eric Raymond (ESR), an elder of the Open Source Community. <br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<div class="moz-cite-prefix">On 16/8/19 8:12 pm, Jo Cook wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote type="cite"
cite="mid:CAMM8GAtu9kXC01w-zU2KjXuRbj2CgEyRjMJ24EHZeh2bz4Npcw@mail.gmail.com">
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>Hi Erin et al,</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I've just submitted a pull request to test this, initially
without any signature, and it worked a treat. I like the way
it explains exactly what you need to do to fix the problem,
and that once you make the changes at the command line, the
tests pass, so no more faffing in the web interface. My only
observation is that we probably do need to expand on the text
to indicate why it's asking for the sign off. I'd also like to
see this combined with pull request templates, which I think
would give us the full solution.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Thanks for setting it up! I'd be more than happy for it do
be permanent but maybe we should wait for a few other people
to test first.</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Jo<br>
</div>
</div>
<br>
<div class="gmail_quote">
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Aug 13, 2019 at 10:17
PM Erin McKean <<a href="mailto:emckean@google.com"
moz-do-not-send="true">emckean@google.com</a>> wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px
0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">Hi folks!
<div><br>
</div>
<div>I've installed the Probot DCO (<a
href="https://github.com/probot/dco" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">https://github.com/probot/dco</a>)
on the templates repository. </div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>If people could send test pull requests both with and
without the signature requirement that would be great!</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Also, please confirm that we're all okay with the
wording of the DCO included in the bot. If we are, someone
should move that we make this test permanent. :)</div>
<div><br>
</div>
<div>Thanks!<br>
<br>
Erin</div>
<div>
<div><br>
</div>
-- <br>
<div dir="ltr"
class="gmail-m_-4633761794171200497gmail_signature">
<div dir="ltr">
<div>
<div dir="ltr">
<div
style="line-height:1.5em;padding-top:10px;margin-top:10px;color:rgb(85,85,85);font-family:sans-serif"><span
style="border-width:2px 0px
0px;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(213,15,37);padding-top:2px;margin-top:2px">Erin
McKean |</span><span style="border-width:2px
0px
0px;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(51,105,232);padding-top:2px;margin-top:2px"> Developer
Relations Program Manager, Open Source
Strategy |</span><span style="border-width:2px
0px
0px;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(0,153,57);padding-top:2px;margin-top:2px"> <a
href="mailto:emckean@google.com"
target="_blank" moz-do-not-send="true">emckean@google.com</a> |</span><span
style="border-width:2px 0px
0px;border-style:solid;border-color:rgb(238,178,17);padding-top:2px;margin-top:2px"> she/her</span></div>
<br>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
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<br>
-- <br>
<div dir="ltr" class="gmail_signature">------------------------<br>
<a href="http://about.me/jocook" target="_blank"
moz-do-not-send="true">http://about.me/jocook</a></div>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Cameron Shorter
Technology Demystifier
Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant
M +61 (0) 419 142 254</pre>
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