I read a lot more email than I write, because what my job really is — in the end, my job is to say no.
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So commit messages to me are almost as important as the code change itself.
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A lot of open source in general is about communication. And part of it is the commit messages, part of it is just the email going back and forth. Communicating what you're trying to do or communicating why something doesn't work for you is really important.