[Mageia-dev] Contributors using real name/working email? or not? or maybe?

Fri Mar 4 05:47:21 CET 2011

On 03.03.2011 16:00, Romain d'Alverny wrote:
+[...]
+> The points to decide here are:
+>  a) should a contributor provide a public email address, to be used in
+> changelogs, commits and everywhere her contribution to the project
+> needs an id or contact id? (for instance changelog, commit, document
+> authoring)
+
+I'm not sure what you mean by "providing" here. Contributors should have
+@mageia.org addresses, and this address must be shown in RPM Changelogs
+and RPM Packager fields (as is done in Mandriva).
+
+>  b) should a contributor provide a real name for the same goals? or is
+> a fake name/alias ok, as long as there are people that do know/meet
+> the person?
+
+I'd prefer everyone provide a real or fake name instead of an alias, but
+I don't feel so strongly about this.
+
+> I won't comment on pros and cons below (not exclusive of others), but
+> those were raised in the discussion before:
+> 
+> The pros (as in "yes one should"):
+>  - that is the common way used in MDV and other major distributions
+>  - (email or name) it identifies the author of a change to the project/code
+>  - (email) it helps identifying & contacting directly someone in the
+> project (peer review or any ad hoc matter)
+>  - (email & name) it helps building confidence among contributors and
+> from the outside
+>  - (name) it encourages people to adopt a consistent behaviour
+>  - (email & name) it builds one's contributions list for
+> future/outside reference
+> 
+> The cons (as in "no, one should be free not to")
+>  - public email addresses get spammed
+
+I don't consider this a big issue, the email addresses are readable from
+mailing lists etc. in any case.
+
+>  - personal preferences to not reveal one's name
+>  - there are situations where anonymity is a requirement or "nice to
+> have" (from a personal or corporate point of view)
+>  - it will encourage people to contact directly contributors instead
+> of using other expected channels
+> 
+> Note that one may use a fake name/identity anyway to stay anonymous
+> (but unless one already has a network of trust within a group, she
+> would not have a past public record to help building her new
+> reputation).
+> 
+> What is at stake is the accountability for each contributor, hence for
+> the whole project. What will matter is what one does and how.
+> 
+> And again, let's have this point discussed in a cool, informative,
+> constructive and efficient way, please.
+> 
+> Cheers,
+> 
+> Romain
+
+
+-- 
+Anssi Hannula
+