[SeasonOfDocs] Probot DCO

[Cameron Shorter]

Erin,

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.

This is not good if we want to attract incidental volunteer 
contributions from not-very-technical tech writers.

Observations:

* 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.

* 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.

* 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.)

* 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: 
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/13043357/git-sign-off-previous-commits

This I think is definitely too brittle to expect of technical writers.

* A fixable bug I've discovered, and raised a bug report on is that I've 
managed to merge an unsigned contribution by 
me.https://github.com/thegooddocsproject/templates/issues/5 
<https://github.com/thegooddocsproject/templates/issues/5>

* 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.

--

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.

--

What should we do instead?

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.

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.

This is in lines with advice http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=8287&cpage=1 from 
Eric Raymond (ESR), an elder of the Open Source Community.


On 16/8/19 8:12 pm, Jo Cook wrote:
> Hi Erin et al,
>
> 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.
>
> 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.
>
> Jo
>
> On Tue, Aug 13, 2019 at 10:17 PM Erin McKean <emckean at google.com 
> <mailto:emckean at google.com>> wrote:
>
>     Hi folks!
>
>     I've installed the Probot DCO (https://github.com/probot/dco) on
>     the templates repository.
>
>     If people could send test pull requests both with and without the
>     signature requirement that would be great!
>
>     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. :)
>
>     Thanks!
>
>     Erin
>
>     -- 
>     Erin McKean | Developer Relations Program Manager, Open Source
>     Strategy |emckean at google.com <mailto:emckean at google.com> | she/her
>
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>
> -- 
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-- 
Cameron Shorter
Technology Demystifier
Open Technologies and Geospatial Consultant

M +61 (0) 419 142 254

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