> Git commit messages and changelogs do not have the same target audience. [...] Some people dislike merge commits. [...] If that bothers you, you can always as

> Git commit messages and changelogs do not have the same target audience. [...] Some people dislike merge commits. [...] If that bothers you, you can always ask contributors to rebase before merging. I think that squashing and merging, much like commit messages and changelogs, also have different target audiences. If there are contributors to the project who aren't proficient with git, asking them to rebase would be a huge obstacle for them and create a much worse mess. Squashing simplifies their workflow and allows any mistakes (e.g. checking in the database, accidental merges from the wrong branch, etc.) to be cleaned up and kept out of the permanent history.