Re: [RFC] kernel/ review rules

[Theodore Tso]

On Fri, Aug 21, 2026 at 08:30:02AM -0500, Bradley Morgan wrote:
> >Acked-by:			"cool changelog!"

As a maintainer, I completely ignore an Acked-by unless it comes from
another Maintainer, in which case it means that the other Maintainer
is OK with that commit which might affect their subsystem (either
directly because it modifies code in their subsystem or indirectly
because it changes functions that their subsystem depends upon).

As a result I will likely drop an Acked-by and not include it in the
git commit descritpion if it comes from a non-Maintainer.

> >Reviewed-by: + nothing		"cool changelog and I scrolled through it"
> >Reviewed-by: + commentary:	"I reviewed it!"

If there is a reviewed-by, and other problems are discovered by other
reviewers, the reputation of the person who submitted the Reviewed-by
will go down, and with enough bogus reviewed-by, I will start ignoring
that reviewer and drop their Reviewed-by from the git commit
description.

And if there is Reviewed-by commentary which is actively wrong, I may
start sending patch submitters form letters informing them that they
should feel free to ignore reviews from Reviewer XXXXX since the
reviews may be unreliable.

So I wouldn't focus on review numbers, but review *quality*.

Cheers,

						- Ted