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Recommend inviting feedback on Quality maintainer traineeship

Mark Lapierre requested to merge ml-recommend-inviting-feedback-on-traineeship into master

Why is this change being made?

Ideally, there should be enough examples of progress in the MRs the trainee includes in their Trainee Quality Maintainer issue, but there could be problems if someone were made a maintainer prematurely because only one other person was aware that further improvement was needed, and that person wasn't asked for feedback in the trainee's issue. So it might be a good idea if existing maintainers and managers are made aware of contributions that would show that the trainee isn't ready yet, even if their other MRs seem fine.

For example, if an MR includes examples of code style and design that make it clear the trainee isn't familiar enough with our style guide, nor the codebase itself.

We can already post in their trainee maintainer issue, but in some cases it could still be considered negative feedback, which should be 1:1, even if it's given in a way that's kind and gentle. It's an opportunity for improvement, but when I receive feedback like that, no matter how gently it's presented I'm usually still embarrassed and I wouldn't want it to be public, at least not before I've had a chance to improve.

Proposal

Maybe it would make it easier for trainees to receive that kind of feedback if it were invited? I.e., make it part of the trainee process that current maintainers can and should share good examples of being a maintainer, as well as opportunities for improvement. That way trainees are not surprised and have the chance to prepare for some negative feedback to be given publicly (kindly, of course). It would also give other maintainers the opportunity to comment if the example isn't really that bad (I know I can be overzealous when it comes to following the rules).

Author Checklist

  • Provided a concise title for the MR
  • Added a description to this MR explaining the reasons for the proposed change, per say-why-not-just-what
  • Assign this change to the correct DRI
    • If the DRI for the page/s being updated isn’t immediately clear, then assign it to one of the people listed in the "Maintained by" section in on the page being edited.
    • If your manager does not have merge rights, please ask someone to merge it AFTER it has been approved by your manager in #mr-buddies.
Edited by Mark Lapierre

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