RFR: Section on sponsoring [v9]

[Jesper Wilhelmsson]

On Wed, 6 Dec 2023 09:22:11 GMT, Magnus Ihse Bursie <ihse at openjdk.org> wrote:

>> src/guide/reviewing-and-sponsoring-a-change.md line 29:
>> 
>>> 27: ### Conversation
>>> 28: 
>>> 29: The Conversation section is where all discussion around the PR happens. Note that this section is intended for technical discussion around the actual implementation of a change. This is not the place to discuss the appropriateness of the change or have overarching design discussions, that should happen on the appropriate [mailing lists].
>> 
>> I have to disagree about the last part - these days because the PR comments go to the mailing list and mailing-list-only comments (in a PR thread) go to the PR, it is indeed the case that design discussions and questions of appropriateness appear in the PR. Personally I prefer JBS to capture such things but the PR has become the one-place-shop in many cases and JBS commentary is typically very limited. Also JBS can't be used by a developer who needs a sponsor and doesn't yet have Author role.
>
> I think PRs are typically used to discuss the *implementation* once you have one. If someone opens a JBS issue with e.g. a new feature, but with no corresponding code, then the discussion will happen there. 
> 
> From time to time a PR is published with a concrete implementation, but then a discussion arises about the approriateness of the design, or even if the problem should be resolved at all etc. I don't think it is ideal if that kind of discussions happen on a PR, but maybe it's not that bad either. It is mirrored on the mailing list, and the only real problem in that case is that maybe the subject is bad -- it looks like discussions about a particular implementation, but is maybe indeed a discussion about the future direction on some functionality.
> 
> So, I dunno. Maybe we can recommend that people start up a new thread on the mailing list, if it turns out that some fundamental aspect of the PR needs to be discussed? I don't think it is a bad advice, but it could be formulated more softly as a suggestion.

This is a good advice. I have updated the text to cover this.
I think we should encourage what we think is the right thing to do, not what people in general does - unless the two are the same of course :-)
There are many places in the guide that states that the mailing lists are the right place for discussions since that's what most OpenJDK developers think is the right thing to do.

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PR Review Comment: https://git.openjdk.org/guide/pull/97#discussion_r1497356171