Field to highlight user involvement in the Drupal Project

Yes, the idea is for the field to appear in the forums.

The difference between the field I'm suggesting and the current one is that the field I am suggesting is non editable by the user. Only a d.o webmaster/admin would be able to assign the user their 'rank' of core code reviewer, core maintainer, core contributer, core patcher, etc. Some drawbacks are that someone has to sit down and assign the ranks/roles/fields to the users and it could place a bit more load on the server. The plus point is easier recognition for new users to see which posts are likely to have reliable information and which ones aren't.

It shouldn't be too difficult to add it to the theme compared to allowing (policy wise) such a field to appear.

If the above is achievable a further step could be to allow module maintainers the ability to assign fields such as module maintainer, module patcher, etc.. in the forum/project containers related to such modules (this ones a bit of a stretch.)

The last step of part 1 is not easy but far less difficult than part 2 given the number of core commits (arguable starting earlier than later works here even if the theme and forum is not ready to display the field.)

Well rank isn't the right definition. Its more of a title that can only be achieved by having code accepted (rather than just provided as commits) in Drupal's core code. If there was a way for d.o to automatically assign a title based on a supplied patch (or forum post) being tagged/marked as accepted, an automated system could be used.

For automation, rather than assigning users by hand, how about adding an extra field to status (as highlighted in the attached screen shot) in the Dupal issue queue as 'to be committed' so that users in the Drupal issue queue with a patch status as 'to be committed,' are assigned a rank/role/title as core patcher. It would not totally automate the process but all future titles could be granted that way . The process can still be gamed by anyone creating a patch and assigning it as to be committed to core in that issue queue unless that field can only be assigned by a d.o admin. The advantage is that only one issue queue needs to be checked and all core worthy patches can be posted there. It could also be possible to have a counter for number of accepted commits by a user based on all new core patches being entered into one issue queue (I'll leave this suggestion for another thread.)

Having a field/role/rank available could also make life easier for code reviewers too. Patches submitted by users with the field/tag of core contributer could be reviewed ahead (by being automatically filtered) of code supplied by users who are not titled as a core patcher (whether they be new to patching core or pointless spammers.)

Off-site, another issue (which I found out through the grapevine) recently caught my attention. There are apparently presenters going around giving speeches/presentations about Drupal (and acting as if they have an active role in Drupal core development) while not being active on d.o, g.d.o or any other platform used as communication amongst Drupal devs. While such behavior is probably common, my suggestion of adding a field to the forums would discourage such behavior outside d.o as any one connected to the net can hop on to d.o, look at any post of the presenter and verify if the presenters claims check out or not. While more publicity is usually positive, publicity by fraudulent sources could have a negative impact.

Well I think I've made all the points I can think of right now. I've joined g.d.o re-design group for d.o. If someone wishes to follow up the discussion on g.d.o I'll suggest further advantages and ways to automate the process over on g.d.o.

User badges could work (with text instead of icons.)

Its unlikely user badges or a similar module would be able to automatically count the number of commits by a particular user but by re-using current roles, manual assignment of titles could be minimized. All d.o admins could be assigned the title/badge/rank of 'Veteran core contributer' assuming admins have played a significant role in the development of Drupal whether directly or indirectly:

I assume for users with accepted commits who don't have a d.o admin role

• A role with cloned authenticated permissions with the addition of an assigned badges could be created for them (seems excessive to create a role just to assign a badge to that role) or
• The default authenticated role could have an additional check box/option (accessible by only an admin or super admin) in their profile that when checked assigns a 'Core contributer' badge to all posts by that user.

If a module such as titles module can create titles based on roles and customized titles (eg. Drupal x maintainer) that can work.

I have yet to figure out if its feasible for an automated system to identify patches being selected as RTBC to Core, linking it to the author (and co-authors) and generating a counter for the number of patches created and/or amended by the related user(s).(The above post was posted as I was writing this one)

Well ranking is probably most inaccurate of the terms (title, role, rank...) used for whats trying to be achieved.

The counting system (not part of the original idea which was to just give titles) is more about tracking number of commits rather than entitling a person to a rank because of commits they have done. If a person has 1 or 50 commits accepted, the rank (1/xxxx) won't be displayed in the post, just a title of core patcher. Probably the best place to place the number of commits would be in the user profile page.

While rank can be used for statistical tracking, I'm not too comfortable about having a 123/1234 displayed on anyones post or profile either since a person who has done a single code heavy patch and/or does a lot of code reviewing (which is just as valuable as the actual coding) could be ranked lower than someone who did 2 or 3 light patches.

At the end of the day, the goal of having titles in a post is to let new entrants to d.o quickly recognize whose who in d.o and when necessary, recognize which users are more likely to have the most insight to the issue (personally, I wouldn't want to inadvertently overlook much less contradicting advice from a code reviewer hence the suggestion.)

@ #14

Perhaps the titles should have a hierarchy and only the top most (or top 3 titles) level should display in the post. The remaining titles can be seen in the user profile.

Example: (Not necessarily in the following order and limited to the following titles)
Code Maintainer 6
Code Maintainer 5
D.A President
D.O Maintainer
D.A VP of ...
Code Reviewer
D.O Admin
Code Patcher 7
Code Patcher 6
Code Patcher 5
(Authenticated?) Doc Writer
(Authenticated?) Forum Helper

Example of Post Display :
Username - Date - Time
Title 1, Title 2, Title 3, View More Credentials/Titles

@ 16
The issue tracker is the most reliable system to use, however it is not that quick or easy for newcomers to scan (would they even think of looking at user profiles? I don't think I looked at profiles till a few weeks after joining d.o, I barely think of tracking users even now) especially when a newcomer is overwhelmed at the information available and or a developer is under a tight schedule.

Having titles that are quick and painless to scan and identify would greatly improve the user experience of d.o to newcomers seeking help, advice or assistance.
Hopefully the costs (logistics, coding, flaming etc.) would be outweighed by the recognized and unrecognized advantages of user titles/credentials.

(Didn't mean to double post, clicking reply on 14 and 16s post didn't thread my posts right but then I usually use up more than 10 minutes writing, re-writing and reviewing a post.)