On 10/10/25 8:16 AM, Christoph Berg wrote:
> Re: Jimmy Angelakos
>> Hi Christoph,
>>
>> I think "Significant Contributor" fits in between "Major Contributor" and "Contributor".
>>
>> "Sustained" has a time element and sounds terrible on a CV :-) , and "Recognised" is kind of redundant, since
they'reall recognition levels.
>
> Hi,
>
> sorry for the long silence here, it's been holiday and conferences and
> work travel here for too long.
>
> We liked the "Significant" idea very much and had almost already
> settled on it when a new one came up: Notable Contributor. The levels
> would then be:
>
> Major Contributor
> Notable Contributor
> Contributor (see the other subthread)
>
> How do people like that?
>
> Frankly, "Significant" was apparently not sticking in anyone's brain,
> we constantly had to look it up again because it was competing with
> the other S-words "Sustained" and "Substantial". (Though I guess that
> would work out if we actually chose it.)
First, thanks for working on this! It's very important, while also being
easily bikesheddable :) And on that note...
I wanted to try a different take on this that would help with the
"middle" part more. As stated, the part is the challenge in finding the
right word so someone can understand what comes between "Major" and not.
But what if instead we add a next level that comes after "Major"?
From what I've observed, many organizations have adopted
"Distinguished" as the next tier (e.g. "Distinguished Engineer"), and
that may help with understanding the progression from "Contributor" =>
"Major Contributor" => "Distinguished Contributor" as people would
associate that "Distinguished" sounds like someone has had a sustained
level of significant contributions for a long time.
This may also help with the mental gymnastic of trying to figure out
where something other than "Major" ranks.
Anyway, I'm happy to be told to kick rocks on this, but the idea is to
help reduce the mental gymnastics both folks in and around the community
need to make to see how the word resonates :)
Thanks,
Jonathan
