> [...] commit messages are for other developers, which news entries are
> ultimately for users.  Some developers want (insist on) the freedom to
> make the two different, with different details.

That's easy enough to accommodate.  I updated "MergeNEWS" with this feature.  Well, a similar feature:

The file you edit at checkin time starts with "Issue #:".  You fill that out and that becomes your Misc/NEWS item, and the top of your checkin comment.

There's also a commented-out line of dashes below there.  Anything you put there is appended to *the checkin comment only*.

So, you get the user summary as per Misc/NEWS at the top, then you can elaborate in all the technical and flowery language you like.  Also, each section is optional (though obviously you have to fill out *one* of them).

It'd be easy to make the two comments completely separate.  I just figured, the Misc/NEWS entry is presumably a nice high-level summary of the solution, why not leave that there and save the developer from having to summarize it twice.