Questions about real name policy

[Richard Troy]

> Date: Tue, 31 Oct 2023 21:40:48 -0400
> From: Josh <josh at redstrate.com>
> To: kde-community at kde.org
> Subject: Questions about real name policy
> 
> Hello KDE community,
>
> I'm not sure if this is the best ML to post it in, but anyway - what is 
> our current stance on a real name policy? We were recently asked again 
> in a Matrix channel and the consensus seems to be "we don't know?" From 
> what I can tell, you *must* use your real name or else our git commit 
> hooks will reject any pushes. From some precursory web searches, people 
> say to work around this by putting spaces in the git username field. So 
> it's allowed, but unofficially? The git commit hook doesn't mention this 
> work around I think.
>
> I have gotten more than zero complaints/questions about this policy, and 
> I've only been here for a year. When tracking down something "official", 
> all I've found is a few mentions on the Community wiki. If we dismissed 
> the policy, then we should update those commit hooks. These contributors 
> are starting to make non-trivial commits to projects I care about, so it 
> would really great if we can accommodate them.
>
> Whatever decision we make, can we document this somewhere so I can link 
> people to it? Preferably on kde.org, where it it's immutable and 
> official looking like our code of conduct.
>
> (If the reason is "it's because of relicensing", I have a hard time 
> tracking down people even when I know their full names. I would prefer 
> better reasons than that, if possible 😆)
>
> Thanks,
> Josh

Hi Josh - and KDE community,

I'm in this even more recently than you, but I hope this short reply is 
worthwhile:

I'm speaking here as a person who STRONGLY values online anonymity.

That said, context is _everything._ My father was a state assistant 
attorney general and I myself spent an entire year working as an unpaid 
legal aide for the lawyers there. From that experience, and now, as a 
person who's created a small software company, my response is that your 
instincts are good: As you note, the licensing is really important here.

My instincts say that this is clearly and unmistakably a question for a 
lawyer who's both informed on the issues and cares about this project, 
either because their paid or because they're committed in some other way.

Regards,
Richard

--
Richard Troy, Chief Scientist
Science Tools Corporation
510-717-6942
rtroy at ScienceTools.com, http://ScienceTools.com/