Re: [gentoo-project] call for agenda items -- council meeting 2019-04-14

[Ulrich Mueller]

>>>>> On Wed, 03 Apr 2019, NP-Hardass  wrote:

> At present time, everyone needs a "Real Name" to contribute. A user,
> with a new email address, can allege to be "Foo Bar" and contribute
> without impediment, but, as recent proposals would have it, developers
> would need to show proof of ID over video call to become part of the
> web of trust for committing. That effectively allows any user to
> remain anonymous by using a false name, obviating a huge portion of
> the alleged benefit to requiring names in the first place.

I don't think that is true. GLEP 76 is very clear on it:

| For commits made using a VCS, the committer shall certify agreement
| to the Certificate of Origin by adding
|
| Signed-off-by: Name <e-mail>
|
| to the commit message as a separate line. The sign-off must contain
| the committer's legal name as a natural person, i.e., the name that
| would appear in a government issued document. 

There is no difference between developers and users there, a real name
is required in either case.

We assume good faith and therefore don't require proof of contributors'
identities (and again, no difference between developers and users
there). That is, unless there is evidence that a name is a pseudonym.
Also I am pretty sure that a commit signed off by "Foo Bar" would be
rejected, because it obviously isn't a real name.

> So, developers can be held to such a high standard that they can
> either no longer contribute, while we trim eligible pool of new
> developers and compare that to the ease with which any "named"
> contributor on github or bugzilla can do as they please.

Do you have any evidence of contributors that are deceiving us about
their real identities?

Ulrich