Granting credit to issue contributors

Last updated on
26 January 2023

People who contribute to fixing an issue can attribute their work to themselves and/or one or more organizations -- see Getting credit for work on issues for more information. As a project maintainer, it is your responsibility, when marking an issue as Fixed, to grant credit to people who actually helped resolve the issue. Note that only project maintainers can grant credit for issues in that project.

Contributions to credit

The following are examples of types of contributions that should be recognized:

  • Creating a well-written issue that describes a problem
  • Proposing a solution (either in the form of a patch, or a text comment)
  • Reviewing or testing a patch
  • Adding screenshots of the problem or solution
  • Adding documentation

It is ultimately up to the issue maintainer to ensure fair crediting is applied, though issue maintainers should refer to the notes on how Drupal core maintainers grant credit and consider similar policies themselves. See also the credit section of the Issue etiquette page.

How to credit contributions on issues

Crediting contributions is done in the Credit and Committing box at the bottom of the issue:

Image of the maintainer credit UI

Initially, the issue reporter and everyone who commented on the issue will be listed in the box as a potential contributor.  Project maintainers can:

  • Add more users who did not actually comment on the issue (for instance, they might have worked on a duplicate issue) by entering their user names in the Credit others box.
  • Check and uncheck the names of users listed in the box, depending on whether they contributed to moving the issue towards resolution. The credits will appear on the user and organization profiles when the issue status is changed to fixed, or when it automatically changes to closed fixed.
  • Use the checkboxes, Author radio button, and Commit message field to generate a suggested commit message for the issue. While issue credits may be modified after the commit, commit message mentions can only be changed by amending the commit message (for git commits that are not yet pushed) or with reverting the commit and making the correction in a new commit (for commits that are pushed). Drupal.org prohibits the use of git force push to release branches, so making commit message changes that way is not possible.

Recognizing large contributions

An individual or organization who contributes significantly to a project over time can also be recognized by adding a "Sponsors" or "Credits" section to the project home page. Attributing credit highlights the "good citizenship" efforts of companies, clients, and individuals who not only benefit from Drupal, but also help to sustain its growth. Providing credit encourages others to give back as well.

Significant contributions might include:

  • Paying a theme maintainer to add a particularly difficult feature
  • Porting a tricky module from Drupal 6 to Drupal 7
  • Porting a tricky module from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8
  • Subsidizing employees' time for major development efforts
  • Paying a module maintainer for regular module maintenance or for an extended period of time

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