In message <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Greg Stein writes: >The Project Management Committee (PMC) is responsible for the code. Period. >That is very clear and is quite specific. The entire point of the ASF is to >ensure that that happens, which is also the reason that all active >committers need to be on the PMC. ... >Maybe there are reasons to have author tags, but I would *really* discourage >their use as a mechanism to establish responsibility for any piece of code.
This is why I usually avoid these discussions. You misunderstood me. I was saying something quite different from Henri. First, I was indicating that recognition should not be the motivation for listing contributions (which the email you referenced asserted) because that's equally as vain and unproductive as code ownership. It is certainly a courteous gesture to have a thanks document or whatnot for contributions, but that's a separate matter. Second, I was suggesting that accountability is the proper purpose, but I didn't explain accountability in sufficient detail for you not to confuse it with being the maintainer of or responsible for a piece of code. For example, as you know, a certain commmitter on a certain project had his commit privileges revoked a few months ago. Part of the problem with this committer, as I understand it, was that he was backing out changes made by other committers without any group consultation. He was held _accountable_ for his actions as a committer. You have certain responsibilities as a committer and member of a community built around a project, but that's different from being "responsible for" a piece of code. Anyway, I believe we're in violent agreement as people say, so I'll end my editorializing on this thread. daniel
