There has been a lot of thoughtful debate about the Drupal project's contribution credit algorithm in recent weeks, and some great ideas have been proposed. In the meantime, however, we've also been monitoring concerns about gaming of the current algorithm. Making changes to the contribution credit algorithm must be done with care, because it has a significant impact on how we recognize contributions and also on the ecosystem of Drupal service providers. Today the Drupal Association engineering team deployed a quick tune-up to the contribution credit algorithm.
This change strengthens the existing multiplier which weighs issue credits based on the usage of the project. Issues on more highly used projects will now be weighted even higher, and those on lower usage projects will be weighted lower.
We're calling this a tune-up with good reason. This is not a fundamental update of the credit system; this is a small change to help resolve some recent issues with the current version of the algorithm.
Developing a true 'Contribution Credit 2.0' system is a much larger project, but one we're hoping to undertake soon.
In the meantime:
- If you have feedback on the small change we made today, you can find the issue here.
- If you'd like to propose new ideas about the next generation of the system, please do so in this issue.
As the community thinks about the contribution credit system, we encourage you to remember that there will always be a human element to recognizing contribution - and our goal should be a system that enables better interaction between project contributors.