Re: Release Note Changes - Mailing list pgsql-hackers

Alvaro Herrera wrote:
> Simon's the guy who (rightfully, IMHO) smacked me for forgetting to
> credit him on a commit message.  Credit is important to some people.
> Let's not get in the business of annoying the people who gives their
> work for free.  For some, credit is the second sole reason for hacking
> Postgres (first one being because it's fun).  If I had had no credit, 
> I wouldn't have a job.
> 
> If anyone explicitly says that credit is not important to him, feel
> free to remove his name from the release notes.  I doubt you're going to
> get many takers.

I don't think people are going to volunteer to remove just their name
but they might agree to remove them all.  As a contributor I personally
would have no problem with that.  I don't think all open source projects
have names next to release note items so naming people isn't something
that is universally followed.

I am actually a little worried that companies who sponsor developers
might some day want their company name on the release note item.  I am
glad we have not had to make that decision yet.  This actually
highlights a danger of having "giving credit" be a more major part of
the release notes in that companies could ask that they the company be
given credit in the release notes --- something we want to avoid.  Right
now the name is mentioned merely to state who did the work, rather than
give credit.

> I don't think 100% fairness is a goal anyway.  Just name the people who
> did the work and that's enough.
> 
> That said, maybe we should additionally have a *separate* section in the
> release notes to name the people who collaborated.  Perhaps not just a
> name list, but also what did they do.

Yes, we could do that, but clearly that section is going to be for
"credit-only".  (I am reminded of banquets where they thank everyone who
helped organize the banquet.)  I actually thought our developer profiles
had that function:
http://www.postgresql.org/developer/bios

but I don't think it has enough people to give "credit" for all 8.3
contributors.

Also, the release notes often just attribute items to just a first name,
so in some way that name has to be related to the developer profiles to
know who "Tom" or "Simon" is.

The bottom line is that the release notes for not for attribution, but
we do attribute if the item appears on the release notes.  This seems
like the best balance, though it is unfair in failing to attribute work
to many contributors.

--  Bruce Momjian  <bruce@momjian.us>        http://momjian.us EnterpriseDB
http://postgres.enterprisedb.com
 + If your life is a hard drive, Christ can be your backup. +