Intro
Today I posted my first contribution on Utopian. It was a fix to the bug I have found myself in a project called Plotjuggler. Before I did post it, I had some hard time answering three questions:
1. Does creating an issue on Github and later on Utopian violate "never submitted before" rule?
When you open new contribution window for a bug report, you can see a rule
Never write about bugs you have already shared before or someone else have already reported before
That got me wondering, if it applies only to Utopian website? Utopian rules state it a little differently:
Contributions must be unique. Users must look first if the same or very similar contribution has been submitted. A moderator will check if the contribution has been reported before and won't accept it in the Utopian feed again if so.
This makes it rather clear that, it's ok to repost issues that were already reported on Github (as long as they were created by you).
2. Should I post a bug report both on Github and Utopian?
Although I posted it only on Github, my final thought are: yes, the report should be on both sites. That maximizes it's visibility and brings developers from both sites. Description on Utopian should be probably more elaborated, as it will be potentially read by devs unfamiliar with the project.
3. Should I make two separate contributions: for a bug and for a fix?
Again - I think yes. After all, you have done work on both areas, so you should be rewarded for it. What's more, there is a possibility that the bug report is great, but the fix is not so good. In that case it will be easier for community to reward good work on one part of the task.
What next?
I'm not sure if my answers are correct, and I'm open to discussion. But whatever is it's outcome, I think it would be worthy to either expand the rules section, or create an easily accessible FAQ.
Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors