I am inclined to agree with Subbu, but of course there are legal
implications. Zhou said it would be fine to move all these tags to a
centralised CREDITS file and point to that file, and that doing so wouldn't
breach the licence. He is a lawyer and is therefore qualified to make such
determinations.

Whether moving CREDITS to a centralised file actually solves the problem,
rather than just shifting it around, is debatable.

Dan

On 13 June 2017 at 06:11, Subramanya Sastry <[email protected]> wrote:

> I noticed that core files have @author annotations.
>
> My take on this is as follows: Any active codebase (such as mediawiki)
> sees constant change and code is refactored, rewritten, renamed, files
> moved around, split up, etc. that the only meaningful interperation of
> "@author" would be someone who first created that file / function, no
> matter how small that piece of code was. At that level, it is not that
> meaningful, especially in the face of refactoring and restructuring. git
> log --follow might provide a better picture for an individual file. I think
> all @author annotations should be removed. When editing a piece of code, I
> imagine some developers might find it a little annoying ... and confusing
> especially during refactoring ... whether to retain it or not.
>
> I find these annotations misleading and wonder why they exist and what
> purpose they serve. Would appreciate a discussion on this. Alternatively, I
> would appreciate if someone can point me to a wiki page / phab task / essay
> that explains the rationale for why these annotations should exist and be
> preserved.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Subbu.
>
>
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-- 
Dan Garry
Lead Product Manager, Discovery
Wikimedia Foundation
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