Non-approving review tag e.g. "Consulted:"

[Carlos O'Donell]

On 4/10/25 1:34 PM, Joseph Myers wrote:
> On Thu, 10 Apr 2025, Carlos O'Donell wrote:
> 
>> Joseph,
>>
>> May we please get a "Reviewed-by:" from you to record in the git commit
>> history?
> 
> Reviewed-by: Joseph Myers <josmyers@redhat.com>
> 
>> In particularly I like "Reviewed-by:" because it is an unambiguous statement
>> of
>> the completion of review. While "This version is OK." can be seen to mean the
>> same thing, I would like us to:
>>
>>   (a) Allow new members of the community to have a clear indicator of
>>       "review is done and you can push."
>>
>>   (b) Be able to thank you at the release for your efforts in reviewing :-)
> 
> Being useful for (a) renders Reviewed-by of only very limited value for
> (b), since it provides no way to acknowledge the value of reviews that
> *don't* say the patch is now ready to push (not necessarily by the same
> person giving final approval).
  
I agree completely!

Improving this would be good, and in my review of other projects this kind
of completeness of appreciation has not been addressed.

I have personally seen instances where a reviewer was present in a subset
of the total revisions carried out, and not listed in the final Reviewed-by.

Such a reviewer did not give an RB, but generally did raise a technical
issue and that is appreciated.

We effectively have a first-past-the-post system for reviews. We would need
a kind of non-approving review tag that adds the reviewer to the list of
stakeholders in the review.

~~~
Consultant’s statement of oversight

By offering my Consulted: tag, I state that:

* I have carried out at least a minimal amount of technical review of this
   patch to evaluate its appropriateness and readiness for inclusion.

* Any problems, concerns, or questions relating to the patch have been
   communicated back to the submitter.

* I am NOT yet satisfied with the submitter’s response to my comments, or
   the technical content of the patch.

* I would like to be consulted in future discussions about the patch, but
   I recognize that the patch may move forward without my explicit approval
   and follow the normative development rules of the project.

A Consulted tag is a statement of opinion that the patch is not yet an
appropriate modification of the project. Any interested reviewer
(who has done the work) can offer a Consulted tag for a patch. This tag
serves to give credit to partial reviews and to inform maintainers of the
degree of review which has been done on the patch. Consulted tags, when
supplied by reviewers known to understand the subject area and to perform
thorough reviews, will normally increase the likelihood of your patch
getting into the project.

If a reviewer completes a review then they should send a Reviewed-by tag
which supersedes an Consulted tag.
~~~

-- 
Cheers,
Carlos.