Why Some Notifications Show “Former Contributor”

If you’ve ever noticed a notification in STAPLE that includes someone’s name followed by “(former contributor)”, you might have wondered why. Especially if that person is still active in the project — or was re-added later.

This post explains what that label means, and why it’s intentional.

Notifications are a record of what happened, when it happened

In STAPLE, notifications are treated as a historical activity log, not a live view of the current project roster.

That means notifications reflect:

• who performed an action
• at the time the action occurred

They do not update retroactively when project membership changes.

This is similar to how:

• Git commit history works
• Issue comments work on GitHub
• Activity logs work in project management tools

History stays history.

What happens when someone leaves a project

When a contributor is removed from a project:

• Their name is anonymized elsewhere in the app (for example, in current member lists)
• Past notifications remain readable and accurate
• To avoid confusion, STAPLE adds a small note to older notifications:

(former contributor)

This simply means: “This person was part of the project when this action happened, but later left the project.” Nothing more, nothing less.

What if the person is re-added later?

When someone is re-added to a project:

• A new notification is created saying they were added again
• Any new activity going forward appears under their name normally
• Older notifications are not changed

So you might see:

• Older notifications marked “former contributor”
• Newer notifications showing them as an active contributor

This reflects reality: the person had multiple membership periods in the project.

Why we don’t “fix” old notifications

It might seem tempting to clean up older notifications when someone rejoins — but doing so would rewrite history.

STAPLE is designed to support transparency, accountability, and long-running collaborative research projects. Preserving an accurate timeline matters more than making everything look uniform.

The short version

• Notifications show what happened at the time
• “Former contributor” provides context, not judgment
• Re-adding someone creates a new event — it doesn’t erase the past
• This helps keep project history clear, consistent, and trustworthy

If you ever have questions about how STAPLE handles project history, we’re always happy to explain — clarity is part of good collaboration.