[yt-dev] License switch: remove author tags

Britton Smith brittonsmith at gmail.com
Tue Sep 10 14:00:23 PDT 2013


+1 on removing author names.  This also gets rid of the problem of what to
do if you make lots of changes to a file that you didn't create.  Also, it
makes copy/pasting the header epsilon less annoying.

I am also highly +1 on a page listing all of the developers.  I think this
is also a good start on helping to create an item on a CV that expresses
your involvement in yt.  It's not quite the same as saying that you have
spent a considerable portion of your time on it, but it's a good start.

Britton


On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 9:49 PM, Nathan Goldbaum <nathan12343 at gmail.com>wrote:

> I believe you retain your copyright over your changes regardless of the
> author tags.  IANAL so if someone knows better please correct me.
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 1:43 PM, j s oishi <jsoishi at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> +1 on removing author tags
>>
>> What do we do about the copyright? I mean, can we assign copyright to
>> "the yt collaboration" if the yt collaboration doesn't exist in a legal
>> sense?
>>
>> j
>>
>>
>> On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 4:36 PM, Anthony Scopatz <scopatz at gmail.com>wrote:
>>
>>> Hey Nathan,
>>>
>>> I think that this is generally good move.  Though I would encourage an
>>> authors page on the website which lists everyone who has contributed.
>>>
>>> Be Well
>>> Anthony
>>>
>>>
>>> On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 10:31 PM, Matthew Turk <matthewturk at gmail.com>wrote:
>>>
>>>> On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 4:29 PM, Nathan Goldbaum <nathan12343 at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> > Matt,
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > On Tue, Sep 10, 2013 at 1:23 PM, Matthew Turk <matthewturk at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>> >>
>>>> >>
>>>> >> I am +1 on removing the author tags.  That being said, I consciously
>>>> >> decided *not* to, for basically two reasons which are somewhat
>>>> >> related.  The first is that I think removing the author tags will
>>>> >> disproportionately impact individuals who perhaps have contributed
>>>> >> specific files or analysis modules but have not contributed a large
>>>> >> quantity of code to the overall base of yt.  The second reason is
>>>> >> really my main one: I don't want to be as strongly associated with yt
>>>> >> as I currently am.  Not because I don't have pride in it (I do), but
>>>> >> because I don't want people who aren't deep in the code development
>>>> to
>>>> >> believe that I'm the only person contributing, and I do not think
>>>> that
>>>> >> does favors for *anyone*.  (I still receive many emails off-list,
>>>> >> people say things to me that I have to correct about what yt is, etc
>>>> >> etc.)  It creates an impression of consolidation of responsibility,
>>>> as
>>>> >> well as undermines the credit that others receive for their
>>>> >> contributions.  Having names (that aren't mine) on source files
>>>> >> reduces the apparent consolidation.  I was leery of making such a
>>>> >> change, because removing names felt really wrong to me to do on my
>>>> >> own.
>>>> >>
>>>> >
>>>> > I'd argue that the yt = matt turk misconception is made worse by the
>>>> author
>>>> > tags, since your name is on almost every file.
>>>>
>>>> Then let's get rid of them.
>>>>
>>>> >
>>>> >>
>>>> >> So, I'm fine with removing them if everyone else is too.  But I'd
>>>> also
>>>> >> like to trade this for having some type of mechanism for public
>>>> >> recognition of efforts.  (In addition to another paper, which is
>>>> >> probably still a bit off.)  Perhaps something like a core team, or
>>>> >> list of contributors, on the website?  Something that can be pointed
>>>> >> to, put on a CV, anything.
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> > Very much agreed.  I'd follow what the IPython project does, a list
>>>> of core
>>>> > contributors on the website and list of *all* contributors for each
>>>> release:
>>>> >
>>>> >
>>>> http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/stable/about/license_and_copyright.html
>>>> > http://ipython.org/ipython-doc/stable/whatsnew/github-stats-1.0.html
>>>>
>>>> I like this a lot.
>>>>
>>>> I've mentioned in IRC a few times that I'd like to re-do the homepage.
>>>>  If anyone wants to work on that, I'd be totally game.  I think having
>>>> something based on bootstrap with the "slate" theme might be nice; I
>>>> started sketching out something the other day.  One option would be to
>>>> move the *entire* homepage to Sphinx and just have a nice template for
>>>> the front page, similar to what IPython and others do.
>>>>
>>>> >
>>>> > Cheers,
>>>> >
>>>> > Nathan
>>>> >
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