Why should I list the contributors in the META file too?

After all they are already listed either in the Changes file or in the POD of the module.

Having the list in the META files will allow someone to extract this automatically, patch Meta CPAN and show the list there.

This will make it easier to find the areas a person has contributed. Even if she never released a module.

How?

I asked David Golden, and he suggested to use the name x_contributors to list the contributors the same way they are in the 'authors' section in the module POD. (Name <email>)

Let's see how can this be achieved by the major packaging systems.

ExtUtils::MakeMaker

The most recent release of Test::Strict already has this in the call of WriteMakefile:

    META_MERGE        => {
       x_contributors => [
        'Foo Bar <foo@bar.com>',
        'Zorg <zorg@cpan.org>',
       ],
    },

Module::Build

I've added the appropriate section to XML::Feed though it has not been released since.

Add this in the Module::Build->new call:

    meta_merge =>
         {
            x_contributors => [
                'Foo Bar <foo@bar.com>',
                'Zorg <zorg@cpan.org>',
             ],
         },

Module::Install

I just added this to the upcoming release of Padre, the Perl IDE.

Meta->add_metadata(
    x_contributors => [
        'Foo Bar <foo@bar.com>',
        'Zorg <zorg@cpan.org>',
    ],
);

Dist::Zilla

When I started this there was no manual way to add an extra field with multiple values, but David Golden quickly released Dist::Zilla::Plugin::Meta::Contributors that allows you to write this:

[Meta::Contributors]
contributor = Foo Bar <foo@bar.com>
contributor = Zorg <zorg@cpan.org>