[1]
This is the original mail that I decided not to send because it was typed in frustration. Take this with a grain of salt; it might not fully accurate reflect the current process:
I again want to ask to remove the "Signed-off-by" requirement. It is not needed because the author and the email are already on the commit. If the project is on GitHub, why do users need to have an Eclipse account when they already have a GitHub account?
It is a PITA because, according to my calculation, this workflow scares away 99% of casual contributors. Here is a replay of the workflow (GitHub):
- People file a pull request.
- Eclipse checks say: You did not sign the ECA.
- 21% of the contributors are confused or don't care and drop off. They say: You merge it for me (which we can't do because it is not our code.)
- The rest goes to the website to sign the ECA.
- It turns out you need to create an Eclipse account first, so another 53% does not bother. Why is this? People have a Github account; can't we work with that?
- The ones left make another change in their PR because that is the only way to retrigger the checks
- Eclipse checks say "no signed-off by" footer in the commit message. This is not needed because all information is already in the commit. IT MAKES NO SENSE!!!
- So the contributor has to REDO ALL THE COMMITS IN THE PR unless they are some git wizard that can update each commit comment: 25% says "Nah."
1% left of the 77% we still have after step 3
