[Mesa-dev] Requiring a full author name when contributing to mesa?

[Timur Kristóf]

On Fri, 2019-12-13 at 11:00 +1100, Timothy Arceri wrote:
> On 13/12/19 10:15 am, Alex Deucher wrote:
> > What does the name matter?  The name is the least of your worries.
> > What if their patch uses a patented algorithm?  Does anyone check
> > for
> > that?  The whole Signed-off-by thing just just hazing for newbs.
> > Someone took the time to write and submit a patch.  We trust they
> > did
> > the right thing and didn't do anything illegal. It's on the
> > reviewers
> > to determine if the patch is reasonable and should be applied.  The
> > name is just window dressing.
> 
> Yes exactly the name is just window dressing, where a window dressing
> is 
> "designed to create a favourable impression". In this case to make
> our 
> project look competently and professionally run at a glance. I've
> been 
> lucky enough to be employed to work on this project for around 5
> years 
> now, but don't expect this to last forever. Eventually I'd like to
> be 
> able to point out to future employers the work I've been doing for
> all 
> this time. Personally I'd like the window dressing to look nice when 
> this time comes.
> 
> If other developers don't care which was my original question then
> I'll 
> stop wasting my time requesting people not use such author names.

We review code, not people. I agree that we should prefer a 'real'
name, but we shouldn't require it. Some people may have a good reason
to conceal their identity.

I get what you mean, but why do you feel that allowing people to
contribute using a nickname is unprofessional? You can still tell your
(hypothetical) future employer that you worked on a high-profile free /
open source project where several big companies managed to work
together.

The fact that contributions from amateurs (with or without a 'proper'
name) is accepted I think makes the project look better, not worse.

Just my 20 cents.

Best regards,
Tim