Replacing explicit read access for external contributors with team membership

[terrajobst]

We're moving away from using individual permissions to our repos in favor of teams. In the past, we've given external contributors explicit read access, for two reasons:

1. To assign them issues they would like to work on
2. To give them access to CI logs in Azure DevOps pipelines

The first one is no longer necessary as GitHub has made a change that allows anyone to be assigned an issue so long they either have explicit permissions or have commented on the issue. The second one is still important so that contributors who submitted PRs can access the detailed logs in order to figure out why their PR didn't pass CI.

In order to make our lives easier, we decided to move the individual read permissions to team memberships. This requires the users to accept the invitation to the dotnet org. To ensure the impacted users are aware of this, we have tagged them below.

Note: We only grant read access on a case-by-case basis, usually for non-trivial PRs.

Impacted Users

(Note: GitHub has a limit of how many users can be tagged per comment so I had to post more comments with the remaining users)

@4creators @4real @8to5Developer @abhi-shukla @acured @adamhewitt627 @adammenges @adamskt @adriangodong @AlexanderSher @alexandrnikitin @AlexRadch @ankitvarmait @ansyral @anthonylangsworth @AraHaan @arcs001 @arroyc @artkpv @arunjvs @auott @AustinWise @azhmur @benjamin-hodgson @bhaweshkumar @bjuris @blackstarzes @bmeverett @borgdylan @brunor2509 @cartacioS @cemheren @champnic @channeladam @chr4ss1 @clarkis117 @Clockwork-Muse @cristinamanum @Cronan @cydhaselton @d-dizhevsky @daflame76 @daniv-msft @darxis @davidkaya @DawidTabak @dcwuser @dennisroche @dhoehna @dianaqu @Dmitry-Matveev @dnickless @dnikolovv @Drawaes @eanova @edgardqsn @ektrah @Ermiar @Etrimus @felipepessoto @fiercekittenz @fiigii @filipnavara @FireAlkazar @Foxtrek64 @FransBouma @fredeil @fredrikhr @FSou1 @garfbradaz @Gnbrkm41 @gokarnm @golf1052 @gpcastro @grant-d @GurliGebis @hughbe @i3arnon @iamatinkerer @iarna @igor-susic @ilya-bin @IvanKishchenko @ivlevkonstantin @Jaedson33 @JamieMagee @jaredcnance @JayBazuzi @jbearfoot @jbhensley @jcdickinson @jdemis @JeffCyr @jeredm @jesperll @jguady @jimparsley @jlanng @jmezach @joelbraun @johnnyRose @JonHanna @JosephHill @jp2masa @jpelcis @jswolf19 @justinvp @jwood803 @kamonson @kant2002 @kassemsandarusi @kbaladurin @Keboo @kellypleahy @KennethLundberg @kevingosse @khellang @KostaVlev @laurentkempe @LDSpits @leotsarev @lkts @LTMenezes @luigiberrettini @lukmatyja @lunchin @m08pvv-zz @madelson @madsiberian @magedfarag @majidrafigh @manofstick @mareklinka @Marusyk @mbrameld @mccbraxton @mentat9 @MikevanDongen @mikhailshilkov @MisinformedDNA @mklement0 @mohamedsaif @Mpdreamz @mrahl @mramosMS @mrsteamfist @msalsbery @msimecek @mythgarr @mzhaox @nbarbettini @Newrad0603 @nietras @noamyogev84 @obelink @odyth @ofirmakmal @olholder @PandaMagnus @patryk9200 @Paxxi @pdeligia @peltco @PetiaVladova @pgolebiowski @pjbgf @pkulikov @poizan42 @Pothulapati @ProgressGitHubBuildUser @ptoonen @qtxasjo @Redouane64 @remcoros @rionmonster @rjxby @rmaloo @robert-matusewicz @robosek @satano @sgaliamov @shmuelie @Smartis2812 @snickler @sparraguerra @sputier @stakx @StanislavUshakov @stefannikolei @steji113 @stephenmichaelf @SteveByerly @SteveDesmond-ca @Suchiman @SweetShot @tdinucci @tdupont750 @teunis @the-dwyer @thomaslevesque @tintoy @TMiNus @TomServo3k @tpetrina @tuespetre @tumtumtum @TylerBrinkley @Vertygo @ViIvanov @vladimir-kazakov @vtbassmatt @weitzhandler @weltkante @wilka @willdean @WinCPP @Wraith2 @yaakov-h @yevgeniyredko @ykravtsov @YoupHulsebos @Youssef1313 @yvanin @zakaluka @zaytsev-victor

[terrajobst]

Oh oh. Looks like GitHub only highlights some of the users. I hope the tagging registers at least for their notifications 😄

[Gnbrkm41]

Oh oh. Looks like GitHub only highlights some of the users. I hope the tagging registers at least for their notifications 😄

You hope so, it didn't 😂

[terrajobst]

TIL that GitHub has a maximum number of users that can be tagged. But it looks like the limit is per comment. Crises averted 😄

[terrajobst]

@Dmitry-Matveev @dnickless @dnikolovv @Drawaes @eanova @edgardqsn @ektrah @Ermiar @Etrimus @felipepessoto @fiercekittenz @fiigii @filipnavara @FireAlkazar @Foxtrek64 @FransBouma @fredeil @fredrikhr @FSou1 @garfbradaz @Gnbrkm41 @gokarnm @golf1052 @gpcastro @grant-d @GurliGebis @hughbe @i3arnon @iamatinkerer @iarna @igor-susic @ilya-bin @IvanKishchenko @ivlevkonstantin @Jaedson33 @JamieMagee @jaredcnance @JayBazuzi @jbearfoot @jbhensley @jcdickinson @jdemis @JeffCyr @jeredm @jesperll @jguady @jimparsley @jlanng @jmezach @joelbraun

[terrajobst]

@johnnyRose @JonHanna @JosephHill @jp2masa @jpelcis @jswolf19 @justinvp @jwood803 @kamonson @kant2002 @kassemsandarusi @kbaladurin @Keboo @kellypleahy @KennethLundberg @kevingosse @khellang @KostaVlev @laurentkempe @LDSpits @leotsarev @lkts @LTMenezes @luigiberrettini @lukmatyja @lunchin @m08pvv-zz @madelson @madsiberian @magedfarag @majidrafigh @manofstick @mareklinka @Marusyk @mbrameld @mccbraxton @mentat9 @MikevanDongen @mikhailshilkov @MisinformedDNA @mklement0 @mohamedsaif @Mpdreamz @mrahl @mramosMS @mrsteamfist @msalsbery @msimecek @mythgarr @mzhaox

[terrajobst]

@nbarbettini @Newrad0603 @nietras @noamyogev84 @obelink @odyth @ofirmakmal @olholder @PandaMagnus @patryk9200 @Paxxi @pdeligia @peltco @PetiaVladova @pgolebiowski @pjbgf @pkulikov @poizan42 @Pothulapati @ProgressGitHubBuildUser @ptoonen @qtxasjo @Redouane64 @remcoros @rionmonster @rjxby @rmaloo @robert-matusewicz @robosek @satano @sgaliamov @shmuelie @Smartis2812 @snickler @sparraguerra @sputier @stakx @StanislavUshakov @stefannikolei @steji113 @stephenmichaelf @SteveByerly @SteveDesmond-ca @Suchiman @SweetShot @tdinucci @tdupont750 @teunis @the-dwyer @thomaslevesque

[terrajobst]

@tintoy @TMiNus @TomServo3k @tpetrina @tuespetre @tumtumtum @TylerBrinkley @Vertygo @ViIvanov @vladimir-kazakov @vtbassmatt @weitzhandler @weltkante @wilka @willdean @WinCPP @Wraith2 @yaakov-h @yevgeniyredko @ykravtsov @YoupHulsebos @Youssef1313 @yvanin @zakaluka @zaytsev-victor

[AraHaan]

I did get the notification.

[pgolebiowski]

I got some invitation and then right after another one that the invitation was canceled xd

[Clockwork-Muse]

I did get the notification.

Because you're one of the first ones in the list (like I was), so you fit in the limit.

[jaedson-barbosa]

I received the invitation, but it was on my old account that I no longer use. 😅

[m08pvv]

I received the invitation, but it was on my old account that I no longer use. 😅

Same story.

[AraHaan]

Yep mine was canceled about 20 minutes ago 😢.

[pgolebiowski]

So sad, I thought that Microsoft liked me

[AraHaan]

They will probably redo the invitations soon.

[terrajobst]

Oh sorry. I've sent the invites from my account. The problem is that we use a just-in-time mechanism that only temporarily promotes us to org owners. Sadly, whenever an org owner gets demoted to a regular member, GitHub "helpfully" cancels all their prending invitations. I've sent the invitations out from a bot account now.

[eanova]

Hi Immo, can you send the invite to @ErhanAtesoglu? Thanks!

[terrajobst]

Sounds good. I've canceled the invitation to @eanova and sent a new one fore @ErhanAtesoglu. HTH

[mikerochip]

Apologies for this derail, but it looks like you folks are running into the same issue we ran into a lot at my last company re: having to add users to the org because GitHub doesn't let you manage external collaborators using teams. Might lend more weight to it if some folks internally at Microsoft upvoted this issue, since this is the same use case! https://github.community/t/add-outside-collaborators-to-a-team-without-giving-them-acess-to-other-repos-in-an-organization/2396

[AraHaan]

I actually prefer this team membership part instead because then we can contribute to a lot more than just what we normally would be able to do if say we were not members. I do like that we can now look at things that has issues (like things that might cause flaky CI builds, or pressing issues within things like the winforms designer for example to help pinpoint the real issue that normal users like me face every day). I like being able to see issues like that because then someone like me can also be able to lend a hand in fixing those non-trivial issues if they are not to hard to fix some of those that might normally not make it in time for 17.0 for example so I feel like every little bit helps (even if it also means helping out on the private repositories to improve them). Like always I keep everything in private repositories private because I know what I would feel if someone was to make mine somewhat public (I would not like it at all if someone was to do that to me).

Also it lets us learn more about how certain things are done by being able to see how certain things was actually done that we would normally not be able to see if we were not members which is also a benefit for everyone eventually.