Questions about real name policy

[Ben Bonacci]

Hi Josh,

According to the mailing list archives from 2020 [1], "there is no real 
name policy on this mailing list (or any other KDE infrastructure.)" 
However, according to the community wiki page last updated in October 
2022 [2], there is a git hook for authorship that states "A name is 
considered valid if it is a full name –  it should not be a username or 
the first name of the person."

Perhaps a formal vote or the equivalent policy for handling these kinds 
of questions should be held. Then, whatever the final verdict would be, 
can be documented in the Code of Conduct or a similar document to make 
the policy clear.

Regards,

Ben


[1] https://mail.kde.org/pipermail/kdepim-users/2020-June/013299.html

[2] https://community.kde.org/Infrastructure/Git/Hooks#Authorship_metadata

On 1/11/23 12:40, Josh wrote:
> 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
>
>
-- 
Ben Bonacci
https://benbonacci.com
C0A9 E67F 8CDC B1A1 0860 1807 E018 065C C7DF 3976

Quote of the Day: "Dream big and dare to fail." - Norman Vaughan