Contributor accounts are personal accounts - UP-Manila-SILab/ph-core GitHub Wiki

We should use personal accounts for contributions. Using an organization account in Git (e.g., GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket) to represent an individual contributor is generally considered poor practice for several reasons:

1. Attribution and Accountability

  • Problem: Commits made from an organization account obscure the identity of the actual contributor.
  • Why it matters: This makes it difficult to track who made specific changes, reducing transparency and accountability in the development process.

2. Individual Recognition

  • Problem: Contributors don’t get credit for their work in their personal Git history.
  • Why it matters: This can negatively impact their professional portfolio, GitHub profile, and career development, especially in open-source or collaborative environments.

3. Audit and Compliance Capable

  • Problem: Many organizations need to maintain detailed audit trails for compliance or security purposes.
  • Why it matters: Using a shared or organizational account can violate these requirements, making it harder to trace actions back to specific individuals.

4. Security Properties

  • Problem: Shared credentials or access to an organization account can lead to unauthorized or accidental changes.
  • Why it matters: If multiple people use the same account, it's harder to enforce access controls, revoke access when someone leaves, or detect malicious activity.

5. Good for Collaboration

  • Problem: Git workflows like pull requests, code reviews, and issue assignments rely on individual identities.
  • Why it matters: Using an organization account breaks these workflows, making collaboration less effective and more confusing.

6. Conforms to GitHub/GitLab Best Practices

  • Problem: Most platforms are designed with the assumption that each contributor has a unique identity.
  • Why it matters: Using accounts in unintended ways can lead to unexpected behavior or limitations in platform features.

7. Improved Learning and Feedback Opportunities

  • Problem: Developers miss out on feedback tied to their personal contributions.
  • Why it matters: This hinders growth, mentorship, and the ability to learn from past work.