[CentOS-docs] Authorship and Attribution
R P Herrold
herrold at centos.org
Fri Apr 17 16:27:37 UTC 2009
On Fri, 17 Apr 2009, Alan Bartlett wrote:
> Coming a little late to this discussion, take the example of the three
> kernel related HowTos. Each article begins with a "Currently
> maintained by: AlanBartlett and AkemiYagi" line.
... later ...
> If the writer of an article wishes to be acknowledged,
> insert a "Author: name" line at the begining of it. One
> example of this technique, that currently comes to my mind,
> is the Java page -- where Russ Herrold states his authorship
> of the "simpler method".
As to coming late to the discussion, I strive to read email
within 8 business hours of its sending ... add a weekend with
a holiday, or an overnight,l and I may well not even see a
piece for four days. Fast decisions are rarely needful, and
in my experience lead to error
A couple of things. I think 'guidelines' or policies are too
often used as a club in parts of FOSS culture, and I am of a
general 'bent' to avoid trying to 'specify' such too much. I
have run my local LUG as an 'anarchy' [and with an iron hand
;) ] for over a decade. It lets the magic smoke out, stops
being fun, and in a 'social voluntary' context, kills
participation
Alan went through some changes I pushed into the java page,
and did a great job of cleanup. My spelling, typing and
proofreading skills are well and widely admired [I don't see
them for some reason until I 'commit' even with ispell, and
the like]. I think I posted [it may have been a direct CC] a
'Thanks' before, and if not, repeat it here publicly
I added my 'authorshp' on the Java page, in part in self
defense, as a transient author wrote, and then another
transient did some partial fixes, in the (always changing as
Sun issues new Java updates) second part
That page goes stale so regularly ;( -- and I am not
interested in the workload of maintaining the latter part. I
was getting lots of direct questions, and needed to
disassociate myself from that last part, as a matter of
preserving my 'writing reputation' as well
I think re-inventing wheels of doco in the wiki, when there is
upstream doco, and when there is no CentOS specific issue in
play, is a waste of time; but then, some think that about
stamp collections, or exercise, or watching television are
wastes of time as well, and there is no explaining taste in
hobbies. If it does not harm others, I live and let live
Most of my content in the wiki does not bear an author mark
by me, although I am findable (as noted in the automated
changelog). When I _want_ to be found, you'll see a note, or
a comment in the top of the file for later authors and editors
:)
-- Russ herrold
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