Policy on Git commit messages in CONTRIBUTING

I've never been comfortable with constructing or editing commit
messages that will appear under someone else's name, but on the other
hand I don't want to be forced either to use someone else's message
untouched or to remove their name from the "Author" field.  Allowing
myself to make clearly-marked edits seems to be a good compromise, and
square brackets are a common way of marking edits and editorial
comments.

diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING b/CONTRIBUTING
index 09b8bbb34b4b6e99e920ad9bedb0059f28b5b4aa..64643a566c15256acd84b455cca2b55f3041566b 100644 (file)
--- a/CONTRIBUTING
+++ b/CONTRIBUTING
@@ -21,7 +21,8 @@ patch, you might like to include an update to these so that you get
 credited properly.  If any of your contribution is based on others'
 work, please indicate that as well.  If I construct a Git commit from
 your contribution, I'll put your name and email address in the
-"Author" field.
+"Author" field.  If I do that, I'll put any parts of the commit
+message that I write in square brackets.
 
 All contributions of code and glyphs should be released under the CC0
 Public Domain Dedication.  If you're sending a patch, adding your name