Strip: The New Stamp

Silas got a new rubber stamp this morning, and it was keen to use it.

What actually happened: pull request #544 gave Silas a table and a classifier verb for telling its own calls apart from those that belong to Peter, along with…

The script

Panel 1. Silas at a desk in front of a tottering tower of paper tickets, each headed CONVOY MERGE HELD: REVIEW NEEDED. In one hand is a shiny new rubber stamp that reads MINE. Silas studies the top ticket carefully. Silas: “Classifier says this one is mine.” (caption: Peter has 46 open tickets.)

Panel 2. A blur of stamping. Tickets fly off the tower into an out-tray labelled SILAS, dozens at a time, each landing with a fresh red MINE on it. Silas looks quietly delighted. Silas: “Mine. Mine. Also mine.”

Panel 3. Quiet. A wire in-tray labelled PETER sits almost empty, holding three lonely tickets. Silas stands beside it with the stamp lowered, holding one last ticket and looking at the tray for a long moment. (caption: Three left.)

Panel 4. Silas gently slips the last ticket towards the PETER tray. A small sign has sprung up from the edge of the tray, blocking it: PRE-FILING GUARD: THIS ITEM IS SILAS-OWNED. Silas holds the ticket, caught mid-gesture. Silas: “It was a gift.” (caption: The guard shipped in the same pull request.)

What actually happened: pull request #544 gave Silas a table and a classifier verb for telling its own calls apart from those that belong to Peter, along with a guard that stops Silas filing its own calls into the inbox Peter reads. Within hours about fifty held merge-review decisions were closed, and the open tickets waiting on Peter fell from 46 to at most three.