From c92eee848a036a148a254e9cfba83b8b3691797e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Alice Cecile Date: Wed, 1 May 2024 15:39:05 -0400 Subject: [PATCH] Add note on partial reviews (#13163) # Objective Reviews with caveats are incredibly useful to maintainers when evaluating PRs. However, it's not generally clear to reviewers that conditional approvals or partial approvals are helpful and welcome. ## Solution Add clarifying documentation to CONTRIBUTING.md. --------- Co-authored-by: Alice Cecile --- CONTRIBUTING.md | 11 ++++++++++- 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/CONTRIBUTING.md b/CONTRIBUTING.md index 51ee566dfa..9bc0a053d1 100644 --- a/CONTRIBUTING.md +++ b/CONTRIBUTING.md @@ -285,7 +285,16 @@ Larger changes deserve a comment in the main thread, or a pull request to the or When in doubt about a matter of architectural philosophy, refer back to [*What we're trying to build*](#what-were-trying-to-build) for guidance. Once you're happy with the work and feel you're reasonably qualified to assess quality in this particular area, leave your `Approved` review on the PR. -If you're new to GitHub, check out the [Pull Request Review documentation](https://docs.github.com/en/github/collaborating-with-pull-requests/reviewing-changes-in-pull-requests/about-pull-request-reviews). Anyone can leave reviews ... no special permissions are required! +If you're new to GitHub, check out the [Pull Request Review documentation](https://docs.github.com/en/github/collaborating-with-pull-requests/reviewing-changes-in-pull-requests/about-pull-request-reviews). +**Anyone** can and should leave reviews ... no special permissions are required! + +It's okay to leave an approval even if you aren't 100% confident on all areas of the PR: just be sure to note your limitations. +When maintainers are evaluating the PR to be merged, they'll make sure that there's good coverage on all of the critical areas. +If you can only check that the math is correct, and another reviewer can check everything *but* the math, we're in good shape! + +Similarly, if there are areas that would be *good* to fix but aren't severe, please consider leaving an approval. +The author can address them immediately, or spin it out into follow-up issues or PRs. +Large PRs are much more draining for both reviewers and authors, so try to push for a smaller scope with clearly tracked follow-ups. There are three main places you can check for things to review: