Becoming a Committer

Being a committer in FINERACT is a responsibility that we wish to encourage as many good contributors as possible to share with us.  It is also an honor which is earned by good behavior.

FINERACT will designate contributors to committers via the following process.

1. A current committer will decide to sponsor an existing contributor
2. The sponsor will propose via the private mailing list, that a contributor be made a committer. At this point it would be unkind to inform the contributor in case the proposal fails the vote.
3. Within 72 hours of the proposal, at least 20% of the current committers have voted +1, and none have vetoed.
4. The sponsor will ask the contributor if he or she wishes to become a committer.
5. If contributor so desires, the sponsor will set in motion the processes necessary to add a new committer to FINERACT.

If a contributor does not get sufficient votes, or is vetoed there is no need to inform him or her that a vote occurred.  Depending on the reason for a veto, the question may be raised again at a later date.

Developer committer qualities

To be made a committer, a contributor should have developed experience with FINERACT by

• creating bug fixes AND programming features,
• producing multiple high quality code changes as determined by an existing committer using the Code Review Guide,
• owning and fixing their own mistakes,
• mentoring other contributors, and
• be a good judge of whether another contributor would make a good committer.

Community Liaison Committer qualities

TODO: list concrete properties a Community Liaison should have.

Developer committer rights and responsibilities

• Everything listed in http://www.apache.org/dev/new-committers-guide.html
• Reviewing code before it is committed using the Code Review Guide.
• Reviewing code for other committers after it is committed.
• Taking part in conversations on the private mailing list and keeping those conversations private.
• Taking part in conversations on the dev mailing list when he or she has something to contribute.
• Occasionally cleaning up the committer list.

Community Liaison Committer rights and responsibilities

TODO: list more concrete rights and responsibilities of a community liaison committer.

• Taking part in conversations on the private mailing list and keeping those conversations private.
• Taking part in conversations on the dev mailing list when he or she has something to contribute.

How to clean up the committer list

• Look for committers who have not performed any visible public action listed above for at least 6 months.
• Write to each such committer to ask them if they still wish to be a committer.
• Anyone who responds that they no longer wish to be a committer can be removed from the committer list, thus loosing all rights and responsibilities associated with being a committer.
• Anyone who does not respond in four weeks can be removed from the committer list, thus loosing all rights and responsibilities associated with being a committer.
• Any committer can at any time request removal from the committer list.