# A Release Milestone Is Contributor Triage Training ## Claim A narrow, explicit release-milestone rule teaches contributors how to triage their own work, not just what the release team will accept. <!-- atomicity: 1 idea ✓ --> ## Scope & conditions - Holds when the milestone rule is simple enough to apply without asking a maintainer — a yes/no test ("is this a regression or test-suite work?"), not a judgment call. - The teaching effect depends on the rule being stated publicly and consistently, not just enforced privately by release leads. - Doesn't claim milestone scoping alone produces good triage — contributors still need to know the rule exists, which is a documentation/communication problem the policy alone doesn't solve. ## Evidence WordPress 7.1's Release Candidate policy narrows the milestone to regressions and test-suite expansion only, paired with a double-sign-off requirement on trunk (test-suite commits exempted) until the release branch exists. Both rules are simple enough that a contributor can self-triage — "does my ticket fix a regression?" — without waiting on a maintainer's judgment call, which is what makes the policy double as a teaching artifact rather than just an enforcement mechanism. ## Links - [[3. Resources/Permanent Notes/Event Discovery Without Onboarding Produces False Mental Models]] — because contrasts: that note is about the absence of a rule leaving newcomers guessing; this note is about a present, simple rule doing onboarding work as a side effect. - [[3. Resources/MOCs/Open Source Governance MOC]] — because applies-in: release-phase policy is a recurring, reusable example of governance-as-documentation. ## Tests / falsifiers - Compare ticket-triage accuracy (contributor self-assessment vs. maintainer override rate) for releases with a narrow, stated milestone rule versus releases where milestone inclusion is a case-by-case maintainer judgment. - If self-triage accuracy doesn't improve under the narrow-rule condition, the "rule as teaching artifact" mechanism would be weakened — contributors might be relying on other signals (mentorship, prior experience) instead. ## Maintenance - Last tended: 2026-08-16 - Next review: 2026-11-16 ## Source - [[3. Resources/Readwise/Articles/WordPress 7.1 Release Candidate Phase]] — the double sign-off and narrowed-milestone RC policy.