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

[Anssi Hannula]

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