Re: [gentoo-project] [RFC] glep-0076: add clarification about the sign-off requirements

[Ulrich Mueller]

>>>>> On Wed, 28 Jul 2021, Rich Freeman wrote:

> While I completely get the sentiment, and tend to be a proponent of
> real-name at least from Gentoo contributors, we have to keep in mind
> that we're not Linux.

> The Linux Foundation can afford to push people away, because half of
> their contributions are probably corporate at this point, and most
> contributors have a lot of motivation to get their patches included.
> Their customers (who also are their board members and financial
> backers) probably also value a more conservative approach.

> I'm sure a lawyer will tell you that you're taking less risk if you
> require legal names.  I'll go ahead and add my own advice that
> everybody reading this will also be taking less risk if they never get
> in a car or better still don't get out of bed.  Getting legal advice
> isn't a bad idea, but ultimately the organization has to decide
> whether the risks/benefits are worth it.  A lawyer might be able to
> help the organization better understand these tradeoffs, but if you're
> going to wait for somebody else to call the lawyer for you it isn't
> likely to happen.  I suspect that most anonymous contributors don't
> care THAT much - they're just going to stop contributing.

> I think the key is to find the balance.  You can make an argument
> either way, and I'm not sure how essential these anonymous
> contributions are.  If we're better off without them then just be
> aware that is the choice we're making...

So what is the tl;dr of this? We stay with the complete chain of s-o-b
lines, but keep the strict real name requirement only for the final
committer?

Ulrich