Re: Reviewed-by given by celebrities (no subject matter expertise on Git development)

[Jeff King <peff@peff.net>]

On Sat, Apr 03, 2021 at 07:27:12PM -0700, Junio C Hamano wrote:

> Bagas Sanjaya <bagasdotme@gmail.com> writes:
> 
> > Junio, what will you do in such situation above (celebrities reviewing
> > patches and giving Reviewed-by despite of lack of subject matter
> > expertise)?
> 
> I find the scenario highly unlikely, and I do not see the point of
> wasting my time on a trick question, thinking about what I would do
> in a scenario that is not realistic, so I was tempted to ignore this
> message.  If you have something you really want to ask, ask it
> directly instead.
> 
> But I'll make it an exception this case, since you are relatively
> new.
> 
> I do not think the celebrity status of a person who sends a
> Reviewed-by matters.  What matters aroud here is the quality of
> review that comes with "Reviewed-by".
> 
> Just a "Reviewed-by" without comments would most likely not count at
> all, unless the perceived competence and expertise the reviewer
> possesses in the area is reasonably high.
> 
> The "perceived" is a rather important word here.  It does not matter
> how good one actually is.  One must have had demonstrated one's
> competence and expertise on the list sufficiently to earn trust by
> other readers on the list for one's "Reviewed-by" to really count.
> 
> "I read the patch with fine toothed comb, I found it very well done,
> I have nothing else to add.", coming from somebody who is KNOWN to
> know the area the patch touches well, would mean a lot.  When the
> same statement was given by somebody who hasn't earned the trust of
> the collective mind on the list, regardless of the celebrity status,
> would mean a lot less.

I don't usually post "me too" responses, since they are usually just
noise. But I could not resist it here, for two reasons:

  - this is such a nicely written summary of what "Reviewed-by" means in
    our project that I think it deserves some praise. :)

  - because it is ultimately about "what does Reviewed-by mean within
    the Git project", there is some small value in having another
    project member say "yes, that is exactly what I expect from it,
    too"

-Peff