only revision control logs, it still saves us a lot of time and mental energy, especially because the log messages often contain links to the relevant bug-tracker tickets and mailing list threads--so, if we can just get to the right log messages quickly, the battle is already half-won. I don't want to claim too much for the Contribulyzer; certainly, there are many aspects of running an open source project that it doesn't touch. But it significantly reduces our workload when evaluating potential new maintainers, and therefore makes us more likely to do such evaluations in the first place. For one day's investment in coding, that's not a bad payoff. Writing metacode rarely feels as productive as writing code, but it's usually worth it. If you've correctly identified a problem and have seen a clear technical solution, then a one- time effort now can bring steady returns over the life of the project. Commit Emails and Gumption Sinks This next example shows what can happen when a team doesn't pay enough attention to tool usage. It's about how a seemingly trivial interface decision can have large effects on how people behave. First, some background. Most open source projects have a commit email list. The list receives an email every time a change enters the master repository, and the mail is generated automatically by the repos-