Two has_many_through Relationships To Same Model

Question

I have a Contributor Model and a Resource Model. In a simple world I would have the following setup:

class Resource

   has_many :authorships
   has_many :contributors, through: :authorships

end

class Contributor

   has_many :authorships
   has_many :resources, through: :authorships

end

However, my requirements have changed. A contributor can now either be an editor of a resource or an author of a resource. A Contributor can be an Editor of one resource and the Author of another. So it seems I have two ways to handle this requirement:

1. Add some kind of is_editor? attribute to my Authorships join model and effectively annotate each relationship.

2. Create a second join model – Editorship:

    class Resource
      has_many :authorships
      has_many :editorships
      has_many :contributors, through: :authorships
      has_many :contributors, through: :editorships
   
    end
   
    class Contributor
      has_many :authorships
      has_many :editorships
      has_many :resources, through: :authorships
      has_many :resources, through: :editorships
    end
   

Which is the most sensible approach, or is there another approach I'm missing?

Answer 1

Given your clarification, I would use the first approach, but instead of just introducing an is_editor boolean for Authorship, you might want to the generalize the language and the concept and instead use ResourceContributorship with a contributor_type field which could now be either :author or :editor, but could be extended in the future.