Re: Two quick proposals on user names and mail aliases

[Christian Rose <menthos menthos com>]

mån 2003-11-10 klockan 00.08 skrev Owen Taylor:
> > >  - You can only get your first name or last name by itself 
> > >    as an email alias if nobody else in the CVS user database and no
> > >    other foundation member has that first name (resp. last name.)
> > >    Once you get such an alias, you can keep it, however.
> > > 
> > >    Since there are 1100 entries in the CVS user database, that gives a 
> > >    a reasonable definition of "common".
> > 
> > I'm not confident this will always work out in practice. The GNOME
> > community is an active and moving one. Some are only with us for a short
> > period of time, while some others are involved with the project for
> > many, many years. And in almost all cases there's no way to tell for
> > sure when the person joins the project.
> > Sometimes people with the same first or last names or initials may
> > happen to join the project at roughly the same time, and doing
> > judgements on what account names these contributors can use depending on
> > their level of commitment and/or whoever happens to be already listed in
> > the community with the same first or last name (since the start of the
> > project, or even since only a few weeks ago), is probably not more fair
> > or accurate in general than the simple and common "first come, first
> > serve" policy that has been used until now.
> 
> Well, if you think that checking what first names, last names are
> already assigned is too much judgment, I'd believe that we should 
> simply reject request for first-name-only or last-name-only aliases. I
> don't want someone getting, say, anders gnome org 

Ok, then I agree.


[...]
> > We should perhaps more stress that people are careful when choosing
> > their account name though --
> > http://developer.gnome.org/doc/policies/accounts/requesting.html
> > currently mentions nothing about the rules for the account names. Some
> > suggestions for account name rules:
> > 
> > * Use 8 characters at max.
> > 
> > * Use only lowercase ASCII characters 'a' to 'z'.
> > 
> > * Use an account name that you want to get known by in the GNOME
> > community for a very long period of time, even though you may not expect
> > so at this point. Don't just out of habit use an account name that you
> > use elsewhere without thinking it through -- make sure you will be
> > actually satisfied with the account name for a long period of time.
> > 
> > * Use an account name that is in some way related to your full name, so
> > that other contributors will easily know that it is you. This can be any
> > combination of your first and last name, initials, or a nickname related
> > to your full name.
> > Good examples (if your full name is John B. Doe):
> > 	johndoe
> > 	johnbdoe
> > 	johnd
> > 	johnbd
> > 	jdoe
> > 	jbdoe
> > 	john      (*)
> > 	doe       (*)
> > 	jbd
> > 	johnnie
> > 	johnnied
> > Bad account name examples³:
> > 	john42
> > 	john_d
> > 	JohnDoe
> > 	pantsman
> > 	l33tguy
> > 	gnuchick
> > (*) Be careful with using your only your first or last name if you
> > believe it could be a common name.
> 
> This is reasonable; I usually encourage people to follow rules similar
> to this. (johnnie should also get the (*).) 

Ok, so what needs to be done to get these account name guidelines up on
http://developer.gnome.org/doc/policies/accounts/requesting.html ? Does
the board need to approve this?


Christian