[CentOS-docs] Authorship and Attribution

Fri Apr 17 15:27:37 UTC 2009
R P Herrold <herrold at centos.org>

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