[tl]

Be careful, we do that by default and we get a lot of "commit", "commit", "commit $date", "merge commit" messages from some programmers. Either a programmer accepts that a meaningful message is important on commits, or they don't. It's a people problem not a technical one.

[tomjen3]

The problem with that is that at least when I am merging something I often (with Mercurial anyway) don't have anything useful to say -- the commit is even marked specially as a merge commit. Other than bringing in one branch (which has hopefully been correctly commented) no changes were made.

So really, what do you want them to say?

[arkitaip]

Ah, but what if we encouraged programmers to write better commit messages? What if we splashed on a bit of gamification to raise everyone's level of awareness? Maybe a badge on your profile page...?

[drivingmenuts]

How would you objectively determine the usefulness of a commit message, though? While it might contain all the necessary parts, there is no way to determine if the sum of the parts adds up to a useful whole.

Also, badges are done to death. Everyone's got badges these days - so much so they're like ads. Personally, I've developed a blind spot to most of them.

[arkitaip]

Objectivity is irrelevant and impossible in this context of raising awareness and fun. If the mechanism was something as simple as an upvote next to the commit message, you would let the community define usefulness of the commit message.

[andrewflnr]

Upvoting itself might be all you need.

[tomjen3]

Any you will determine that, programmatically, how exactly?

Besides, badges are for kids.