Abuse of the Contribution Credit system

Drupal.org's contribution credit system has been a powerful tool in helping us better understand the Drupal ecosystem. We have seen it successfully motivate organizations to increase their contribution effort, and it has helped key contributors gain sponsorship for their work.

However, we must protect that system from abuse. Because organizational credits are used to rank the Drupal.org marketplace, there is a financial incentive to collect credit. We must do our best to ensure those efforts are authentic contributions, and not inauthentic or cynical attempts to game the system. 

What is considered abuse of the contribution credit system?

Abuse of the credit system includes any inauthentic contribution activity done for the purpose of farming credit. This is sometimes referred to as gaming the credit system. 

Those abusive behaviors include:

• Opening empty merge requests
• Unnecessary patch rerolls
• Reposting a patch or MR created by others, without explaining why this is done.
• Claiming to review or test patches when it is clear the issue was not actually tested
• Failure to respond to issue feedback or code review, leaving outstanding blockers unresolved
• Bulk posting of low-effort issues, such as:
  • Renaming README.txt files to README.md, or other minor fixes on the README file. Updating according to the README template can earn credit.
  • Code style fixes
  • Drupal version compatibility updates that will be handled by the existing Project Update Bot

  In other words, any issue that can be resolved by automation already available to the maintainer should not be opened as a contribution. (If the maintainer has already opened an issue asking for help, that is a different matter.)

• Use of AI generated code or content
  • without disclosing that AI was used
  • without human review or edits to ensure that it applies to the issue and tests successfully
• Use of automated tools to bulk-post to issues without authorization
• Failing to respect the feedback of a project maintainer
• Failing to respect the guidance of a community member offering mentorship
• Failure to follow our standards of issue etiquette

Why are there consequences?

Our first goal is never to punish an organization or individual. The contribution credit system was created to recognize community contributors for their great work, to encourage more individuals to participate, and to encourage organizations to sponsor their employees' time to give back to Drupal.

However, we cannot meet these goals if the credit system is being abused for marketplace position. If organizations see that inauthentic contribution activity is rewarded they will lose their own motivation to contribute, rather than be inspired. 

We will always focus on education and training first - as our primary goal is to create more healthy contribution in the community - but if those efforts are unsuccessful we will need to enforce consequences for bad behavior. 

What are the consequences for abuse of the credit system?

For individuals

• Generally speaking, individuals will not face direct consequences. They may receive a temporary block, but only to prevent more credit spamming activity until we are able to send them educational resources. 
• Our goal is to help individuals become authentic contributors and grow in their Drupal journey. 
• Of course, if our materials are ignored we may have to extend the block.

For organizations

• More serious consequences are reserved for organizations.
• They will primarily be focused on:
  • Negative credits to wipe out the value of farming
  • Temporary delisting of their profile from the marketplace

1. First Warning
   • Individuals and organization leadership get educational materials.
   • They are also sent a link to this policy so they are aware that significant consequences may occur.
   • We will review the credits applied to date, and may revoke them if appropriate.
2. Second warning
   • Negative credit is applied (-### flat amount, or proportional)
   • Organization is warned that if farming activity is not stopped immediately they will be delisted from the marketplace for at least 1 week, until they have adjusted their contribution training/policy internally.
3. Third warning
   • Negative credit is applied ( larger -### flat amount, or proportional)
   • Organization will receive a temporary marketplace ban for between 1 week and 30 days, or longer if the organization does not take action to remediate their contribution practices.
4. Final notice
   • Organization may be de-listed for anywhere from 6 months to a full year, to indefinitely - to be restored, they must develop remediation/retraining plan and present to the Drupal Association, and demonstrate 20 issues that are properly contributed according to the accepted community policies.